U.S. Rep. Tom Kean of New Jersey accrued lucrative financial gains from stock purchases of key companies in the AI data center industry, according to a review of his recent public disclosures. The purchases were made even as backlash against the industry and its effect on electricity bills has become a hot-button issue ahead of this fall's midterm elections.
Since at least 2025, Kean has purchased shares in three companies, Texas Instruments, NVent and Analog Devices, worth at least $90,000 since April 2025. The reports show he reaped up to $30,000 from sales of some of the shares this past April.
As the data center industry has boomed, so have the stock values of each company.
[Kean Jr.’s spokesperson] did not respond directly when asked to comment specifically on the AI-related trades.
Since March, Kean and his campaign staff kept the public — as well as his colleagues on Capitol Hill — in the dark over the details of his absence, except to explain that he was dealing with an illness. Kean missed over 100 votes in Congress. His financial disclosures show he also made thousands in profit from a wide range of stock sales during this time, including companies in the AI data industry.
Kean also sits on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, and its Communications and Technology Subcommittee, which oversees issues related to AI.
“This is the type of behavior that we’ve come to expect from Tom Kean Jr., and it’s exactly what New Jerseyans are sick of. While Tom Kean Jr. continues to use his position to enrich himself, I’m running to root out corruption from Washington and tackle our cost-of-living crisis,” Bennett said in a written statement to Gothamist. “I’ve already divested all of my individual stocks because I want everyone to know I’m running to represent them.”
The companies' roles in the data center boom have sent their share prices soaring in recent years. Texas Instruments' stock rose roughly 82% from November 2025 — when Kean acquired the stock — to July 2026.The companies' roles in the data center boom have sent their share prices soaring in recent years.
Kean profited from the sale of some portion of his NVent stock in April, the disclosure forms show. During the roughly one year he held the stock, NVent’s stock rose about 190%.
Birdie Green, an organizer with the Sussex Visibility Brigade who helped organize the resistance in Andover, said it was “not a good look” that Kean made money from AI stocks, noting that “A lot of people that belong to the Republican Party don't want data centers either.”
Tom Walsh, the Republican mayor of Andover, declined to comment on Kean’s stock activity specifically but said all members of Congress need to be “restricted” from purchasing stocks in office. “Every one of them. No matter what party they’re in. It just appears very bad,” he said.
