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.
While none of the companies build data centers, each provides key components needed to operate the facilities, including power processing chips and cooling components that keep artificial intelligence chips, servers and other hardware components from overheating. As the data center industry has boomed, so have the stock values of each company.
Kean spokesperson Harrison Neely did not respond directly when asked to comment specifically on the AI-related trades.
The recent expansion of data centers has become a thorny issue in New Jersey and around the country. An analysis earlier this year by the think tank New Jersey Policy Perspective blamed the rise of the industry for a sharp spike in electricity costs for consumers. The state has seen bills rise as much as 22% in the last year, one of the highest increases in the country. Residents of communities where data centers are located have also expressed concern about water usage and noise levels.
Kean, a Republican, is facing off against Democrat Rebecca Bennett in New Jersey’s most competitive and closely watched midterm race. New Jersey’s 7th Congressional District, which spans a diverse and sprawling section of North Jersey, is the state’s one true swing district.
Political watchdogs have Kean and Bennett neck-and-neck. And while Kean and his party enjoy an advantage of roughly 20,000 registered Republican voters in the 7th District, Bennett has surged ahead of Kean in fundraising — outpacing him by more than $1 million last quarter.
In late June, Kean revealed that he had been hospitalized for depression. He had been absent from Congress and the campaign trail for nearly four months.
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 spokesperson Harrison Neely said it was “misleading” to suggest that Kean was trading stocks himself.
“This is very simple: Congressman Kean does not trade stocks and he does not believe members of Congress should trade stocks,” he said. “His assets have been placed in a blind structure and he has no input on or prior knowledge of any of these transactions.”
Neely said Kean has supported legislation to ban members of Congress from trading stocks and as recently as last week voted for the Stop Insider Trading Act.
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.”
According to his House periodic transaction reports, Kean acquired between $1,001 and $15,000 of Texas Instruments stock in November 2025 and April 2026. The company produces systems that help manage power that’s fed into data centers from the electric grid so chips don’t overheat. Financial disclosure forms filed by members of Congress only require them to report a range of stock purchases and if the capital gains were over $200, not exact amounts.
In March 2025, Kean purchased between $1,001 and $15,000 of stock in another company called NVent, which has partnered with data center firms to provide liquid cooling systems inside the facilities. And in April 2024 and April 2025, he purchased up to $15,000 worth of stock in Analog Devices, according to an annual financial disclosure filed in August 2025. Like Texas Instruments, the company’s technology focuses on power delivery to data centers.
“These things are doing lots of computations, so there's a lot of heat emanating from them. And if it gets too hot, then the chips will fail,” said Marc Conte, an economics professor at Fordham University. “So they don't want the chips to fail, so they're thinking of ways, 'How can we get that environment cool?'”
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.
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%.
New Jersey is home to dozens of data centers. Democratic Gov. Mikie Sherrill recently introduced a legislative plan aimed at finding an equitable way for data centers to continue to be built and operate while not overburdening local communities, driving up energy costs for residents and damaging the environment. More than 25 towns in the state have passed or proposed ordinances banning data centers from their municipalities.
One of those towns, Andover Township, sits just outside Kean’s district in North Jersey. Last fall, local officials passed zoning changes to permit data centers in one of Andover's redevelopment zones. But after intense outcry from residents and local activists, the township reversed course.
In May, the township committee voted unanimously to ban data centers and repealed its prior zoning rule. The company National Land Developers LLC, which was in the early stages of bringing a data center to Andover, is now suing the township over its ordinance banning the facilities.
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.”
“This is a nonpartisan issue. This impacts all of us,” said Green, who lives just outside Kean’s district.
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.
