Author: Protos Staff
Compiled by: Shenchao TechFlow
Shenchao Introduction: This week, Nasdaq tech stocks suffered a single-day sharp decline, and peripheral markets even triggered circuit breakers. However, regulatory filings disclosed by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission show that months before the crash began, the executive teams of Silicon Valley's core hardware and cloud computing giants had already launched an epic wave of share reductions. Based on 282 authentic SEC Form 4 filing documents, this article breaks down the true interest map of billions of dollars in capital making a precise exit at the peak.
A Precise Mass Retreat on the Eve of the Crash
During the six months from May to October this year, core insiders at 9 top U.S.-listed AI companies cashed out a cumulative personal total of as much as $7.4 billion while share prices were near historical peaks.
Since entering November, the AI core index closely watched by Wall Street has fallen a cumulative 16%, and in Thursday's intense sell-off, the market value of the U.S. tech sector shrank by more than $3.2 trillion in a single day. Overseas peripheral markets were hit indiscriminately even harder, with South Korea's KOSPI plunging 8.5% and triggering a limit-down circuit breaker mechanism.
Yet before this round of liquidity stampede occurred, the operators and executives of the AI tech empire had already safely locked in enormous profits.
Chart: Details of insider cash-out amounts and distribution at nine U.S.-listed AI companies from May to October
The Sell-Off List Behind the Regulatory Filings
Regulatory statistics show that among the 282 SEC Form 4 insider transaction reports filed from May to October, the total insider cash-out at the 9 companies reached $7.39 billion (excluding $179 million in mandatory sales used to pay option taxes).
This wave of intensive share reductions covered the top decision-making levels of NVIDIA, Oracle, Micron Technology, Broadcom, AMD, the parent company of SanDisk, CoreWeave, Arista Networks, and Astera Labs.
Among them, NVIDIA senior director Mark Stevens reduced his holdings by $407 million in June alone and notified the SEC of an application for further subsequent selling. Since the beginning of this year, Stevens has sold more than 6 million shares of NVIDIA common stock through 5 regulatory filings, with personal cash-out exceeding the $1.3 billion mark.
At the same time, four other senior insiders at NVIDIA additionally sold $24.5 million in stock. In Thursday's crash, NVIDIA closed down 3.7%, with a cumulative pullback of 11.2% from its previous high.
Full-Scale Peak Monetization at Silicon Valley's Star Unicorns
At communications chip leader Broadcom, co-founder Henry Samueli sold a cumulative $750 million worth of stock during 2026, and three other senior vice presidents also reduced holdings by a combined $14 million.
In the AMD camp, 7 internal executives cashed out a cumulative $262 million through 19 filings. In Thursday's crash, AMD shares plunged 17.3% to close at $404.40, a cumulative plunge of 38.6% from its previous historical high. Among them, AMD Chief Executive Officer Lisa Su personally sold 360,000 shares and cashed out $169 million, while executive Forrest Norrod also took in $45 million.
SanDisk Chief Executive Officer David Goeckeler filed sales at high levels in two transactions in September, cashing out $105 million, and five other insiders also cashed out a combined $41 million.
As the leading cloud computing power company, CoreWeave, after being included in the Nasdaq 100 index, saw its internal executives carry out cumulative share reductions of as much as $740 million. As of Thursday's close, CoreWeave's share price had deeply plunged 68% from its 2026 peak.
At memory chip giant Micron Technology, insiders cashed out a total of $279 million through 18 filing applications, of which Chief Executive Officer Sanjay Mehrotra personally contributed $182 million. At Oracle, Vice Chairman Jeffrey Henley led reductions of $63.7 million.
These objective data from underlying regulatory filings in the capital markets show that while retail investors and quantitative funds blindly bet on the unlimited growth of AI computing power, the industry insiders who truly understand the hardware supply chain cycle and delivery bottlenecks had already completed billions of dollars in certain monetization at high levels.
