The Investment That Sparked Questions

So here's a timing question that's making some people uncomfortable: Rep. Lisa McClain (R-Mich.) recently bought between $100,000 and $250,000 worth of Elon Musk's privately held AI company xAI, according to congressional disclosure records. The purchase came through her husband as part of xAI's latest funding round, which drew investments from major tech players like NVIDIA Corporation (NVDA) and Cisco (CSCO).

The eyebrow-raising part? Just days after the investment, the Pentagon announced it would deploy xAI's Grok chatbot for military use. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth doubled down on the partnership this week, saying "very soon we will have the world's leading AI models on every unclassified and classified network throughout our department," as reported by NBC News.

That timing naturally led to questions about whether McClain had advance knowledge of the Pentagon deal.

The Defense: We Would've Bought More

In a NewsNation interview, McClain addressed the insider trading concerns head-on, and her response was remarkably blunt. She insisted that neither she nor her husband had any knowledge of the Pentagon deal before making the investment.

Her evidence? "Because if it was, we wouldn't have bought 100,000 shares, we would've bought a heck of a lot more," McClain said, laughing as she answered the question.

The congresswoman added: "I can 100% assure you that we didn't have the insider information." She emphasized that xAI is a private company and that her investment was relatively small compared to the massive capital raise the AI startup completed.

Interestingly, McClain acknowledged that insider trading is a real problem in Congress, saying "I think that's a very fair question to ask especially with all of the insider trading that happens up here." She didn't provide specific examples of her colleagues engaging in such behavior.

One small note: McClain's reference to "100,000 shares" likely meant her $100,000 investment, since 100,000 actual shares of the privately traded company would be worth considerably more than her disclosed purchase range.

A Pattern of Profitable Trades

McClain's xAI investment is just the latest chapter in what's been a remarkably successful trading story. A report from Quiver Quantitative ranked her as the third-best performing congressional investor in 2025, with portfolio gains of 37% compared to the S&P 500's 16.6% return over the same period.

Her trading history has drawn scrutiny before. Last August, McClain filed hundreds of stock transactions late, including purchases of Palantir Technologies, which subsequently soared in value. Given Palantir's extensive government contracts, those trades raised questions about potential information advantages.

In 2025 alone, McClain made hundreds of stock purchases, including multiple buys of Tesla stock. Her wealth has grown by millions of dollars in recent years according to available data, and the xAI investment could boost that trajectory further if Musk's AI venture succeeds.

The Bigger Picture

Members of Congress are currently allowed to invest in private companies as long as they properly disclose those investments, similar to public stock trades. Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), for instance, has disclosed investments in private companies including Databricks.

The rules exist, but the questions persist. Elon Musk himself has questioned how members of Congress have dramatically increased their wealth while in office. In February 2025, he quote-tweeted a post highlighting several Democratic members whose net worth has grown substantially since taking office.

Now one of those wealthy congressional investors owns a piece of his company, purchased right before a major government contract became public. MarketDash reached out to McClain's office for additional comment.