ProPublica reported on 6 November that 380 of President Donald Trump’s political appointees or their spouses hold stocks or have other financial connections to Nvidia, according to an analysis of its Trump Team Financials database. It reported that more than 320 have ties to Alphabet and more than 240 to Meta Platforms.
The same ProPublica report said Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, the administration’s point person on AI infrastructure, holds much of his wealth in Arthur Ventures, an investment firm he co-founded, according to his 2026 financial disclosure form. Between $18.1 million and $64.4 million of those investments are in AI companies, according to an analysis shared with ProPublica by the public lands advocacy group Save Our Parks. An Interior Department spokesperson said: “Secretary Burgum has met his federal ethics and financial disclosure obligations.”
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The key insight: By ProPublica’s count, 380 Trump appointees or their spouses have financial ties to Nvidia, and the official leading the push for data centers on federal land holds $18.1 million to $64.4 million in AI companies by Save Our Parks’ analysis, a range whose top is about 3.6 times its bottom by our arithmetic. Interior says Burgum has met his federal ethics and financial disclosure obligations.
ProPublica said Burgum’s 2026 disclosure form had not been previously reported. Government disclosure forms let filers report wide ranges rather than exact values, which is why the AI figure is a range. By our arithmetic, the top of the range is about 3.6 times the bottom.
Save Our Parks’ analysis, as reported by ProPublica, found Burgum made between $2.1 million and $11 million in capital gains from AI-related investments in the year before he joined the administration, when he was North Dakota’s governor. ProPublica reported that in 2025 he sold millions of dollars of stocks and equity in AI companies, bringing in capital gains of between $2.5 million and $15.1 million.
Under the ethics agreement he signed for his Senate confirmation, ProPublica reported, Burgum agreed to resign from his positions at Arthur but not to give up his financial interests there.
Trump political appointees or their spouses with stocks or other financial ties to Nvidia, Alphabet and Meta Platforms, from ProPublica’s analysis of its Trump Team Financials database as reported on 6 November 2026. Alphabet and Meta are ‘more than’ figures.
What Interior Says
The Interior Department spokesperson told ProPublica: “Any suggestion that his office decisions are driven by personal investments are false and completely unsupported.” The spokesperson also said Burgum “is responsible for helping unleash American energy production and ensuring our nation has the resources and infrastructure necessary to lead the future”.
ProPublica reported that multiple ethics professors and lawyers said Burgum’s investments appear to be acceptable under the criminal conflict-of-interest statute. Cynthia Brown, senior ethics counsel at Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, told ProPublica that non-criminal ethics rules “instruct officials not to work on anything that would create the appearance of a conflict of interest”. Richard Painter, President George W. Bush’s chief ethics lawyer, told ProPublica: “I, as the ethics lawyer, would insist he stay away from it.”
The Public-Land Pipeline
According to ProPublica, the Bureau of Land Management is reviewing permit applications for about 15 data centers and 17 associated infrastructure projects, including nuclear power plants and transmission wires, in Arizona, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Wyoming and Idaho. By our arithmetic, that is about 32 projects across six states.
ProPublica cited a U.S. Geological Survey report released earlier this year that found at least 91.3 million acres of Interior-managed public land could potentially host data centers. The department said it is relying on the 1976 federal land management law to permit them, and a spokesperson said the main charge appears set to be an “annual fair-market-value rent”.
ProPublica also reported, citing schedules compiled by Public Citizen, that Burgum met representatives of companies such as Amazon, Microsoft and Alphabet more than 20 times from January through November 2025. The first data center planned on BLM land, near Boulder City, Nevada, has been paused by an Interior Department appeals board and sent back for further review, it reported.
Other Officials Named
ProPublica reported that BLM Director Steve Pearce owned stock in Nvidia, Meta Platforms, Microsoft, Apple, Alphabet and other AI-focused companies, according to his October 2025 disclosure, and is invested in Titan Development, a real estate company that has managed land acquisitions for data centers. A BLM spokesperson said Pearce “complies with all applicable federal ethics requirements and financial disclosure obligations”.
It reported that Michael Boren, now Agriculture Department undersecretary overseeing the Forest Service, reported between about $1.5 million and $6.1 million of financial interests in xAI, which has since been acquired by SpaceX. An Agriculture Department spokesperson said Boren “has fully complied with all federal ethics laws and requirements”.
As we read ProPublica’s report, the disclosure ranges are wide by design, so the figure tells you the scale of the exposure, not its exact value.
As we read it, the report sets two tracks side by side: about 15 data centers and 17 related projects under BLM review across six states, and state processes where, ProPublica says, public concerns have slowed or halted projects.
Richard Painter, President George W. Bush’s chief ethics lawyer, to ProPublica
“I, as the ethics lawyer, would insist he stay away from it.”
Three Implications
FOR DATA CENTER DEVELOPERS ProPublica reports the BLM is reviewing permit applications for about 15 data centers in Arizona, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Wyoming and Idaho, and an Interior spokesperson said the main charge appears set to be an annual fair-market-value rent.
FOR THE INTERIOR DEPARTMENT It says Burgum has met his ethics and disclosure obligations and that suggestions his decisions are driven by his investments are false.
FOR INVESTORS IN AI INFRASTRUCTURE ProPublica counts 380 appointees or spouses tied to Nvidia, more than 320 to Alphabet and more than 240 to Meta.
The analysis says the seven-layer AI stack “is now governed from the bottom”, starting with energy.
As we read it, land is part of that bottom layer, and ProPublica’s report shows the federal government offering it, at what Interior says appears set to be an annual fair-market-value rent, while officials overseeing it disclose AI holdings.
What Is Not Established
The $18.1 million to $64.4 million figure is Save Our Parks’ classification of Burgum’s disclosed holdings, not a figure on the form itself. ProPublica does not report that any permit decision has favoured a company in which Burgum holds an interest, and Interior denies that his decisions are driven by his investments. We did not contact Interior or Save Our Parks.
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ProPublica’s database analysis counts 380 Trump appointees or spouses with financial ties to Nvidia. Burgum, who leads the push for data centers on federal land, holds $18.1 million to $64.4 million in AI companies by Save Our Parks’ analysis of his 2026 disclosure, while the BLM reviews about 15 data centers and 17 related projects across six states, ProPublica reported. Interior says he has met his ethics obligations.
A note on sourcing. Every figure and quotation here is from ProPublica’s 6 November 2026 report by Mark Olalde, which credits the AI-holdings range to an analysis by Save Our Parks, the meeting count to schedules compiled by Public Citizen, and the appointee counts to its own Trump Team Financials database. The 3.6 times and 32-project figures are our arithmetic. We did not contact the Interior Department or Save Our Parks.
Gennaro Cuofano is a CRO and tech executive who has worked in AI since late 2015, starting with bringing NLP, natural-language generation, voice and chatbot products to the marketing industry. His background is in law and finance: he holds a Master's degree in Law and an International MBA with an emphasis on corporate finance (LUISS Business School and the University of San Diego, 2012), and worked as a financial analyst at a real-estate investment firm in San Diego and as an assistant controller. His work focuses on business model strategy, business engineering and, more broadly, structural analysis: how companies make money, read from their own filings. He created FourWeekMBA and leads research there and at The Business Engineer, his newsletter on AI and business strategy, with over 95,000 subscribers and more than 1,000 published analyses. His writing has also appeared on Entrepreneur (for example, How to Digitize a Family Business in Europe) and HackerNoon. Find him on LinkedIn and Substack. See how we source.
