AI insiders cashed out $4.6 billion — and bought almost nothing back
Retail investors keep pouring money into AI stocks, but the executives running the biggest AI companies have been quietly heading for the exit. Over the 12 months ending April 28, 2026, insiders at Nvidia, Palantir, and Broadcom collectively sold $4.6 billion in shares, according to Motley Fool (May 4, 2026) citing aggregated SEC Form 4 filings. The three companies sit at the heart of the AI boom — and their leaders are locking in gains at historic highs.
The numbers
The breakdown across the three firms is stark. Nvidia insiders sold roughly $2.4 billion in shares as the company became the first in history to cross a $5 trillion market cap. Broadcom insiders cleared about $1.14 billion. Palantir insiders sold over $1 billion — not surprising given the stock has climbed more than 2,100% since the end of 2022.
CEO Jensen Huang alone has executed roughly $2.9 billion in systematic sales since mid-2024, per TECHi (April 2026). Form 4 filings show the selling isn't confined to one or two executives — board members and officers across all three firms have participated.
The missing buys
Insider selling on its own isn't a red flag. Executives routinely receive stock-based compensation and sell shares to diversify or cover tax bills. The more telling signal is what isn't happening: nobody is buying.
Nvidia insiders recorded zero open-market purchases over the trailing 12 months — a 15:0 sell-to-buy ratio that is rare even among richly valued S&P; 500 stocks. Palantir insiders bought a combined $3.32 million against over a billion in sales. Broadcom insiders bought $1.55 million against $1.14 billion in sales. In markets, a sale can have a hundred explanations. An open-market buy has one: the buyer thinks the price is going higher.
The valuation problem
Classic price-to-sales ratios add context. As of late April, Nvidia traded at 24x sales, Broadcom at 28x. Palantir sits at 81x — a level that has historically been difficult to justify with real financial results over any sustained period. Analysts who track long-run tech valuations treat a P/S above 30 as a bubble-risk signal, based on 30 years of market history.
That doesn't mean the AI infrastructure buildout is fiction. Demand for compute and data center capacity remains strong. But these insider patterns — massive, broad-based sales and a near-total absence of purchases — suggest the people with the deepest knowledge of these businesses see current prices as a better time to sell than to buy. For passive investors holding Nvidia, Broadcom, or Palantir through index funds or ETFs, that asymmetry is worth watching.
