Republican Rob Bresnahan invested thousands in company with ties to Chinese military

Rob Bresnahan, the Republican candidate for congress in Pennsylvania’s eighth district, has up to $150,000 invested in a company that skirted U.S. law to do business in China. This revelation threatens to undercut Bresnahan’s tough-on-China talk.

Bresnahan is challenging incumbent Democratic Rep. Matt Cartwright. It is expected to be a competitive race.

According to financial disclosures, Bresnahan has between $65,000 and $150,000 invested in Nvidia, an American manufacturer of semiconductor chips. The holdings are through two J.P. Morgan brokerage accounts.

In 2022, the U.S. government banned Nvidia from exporting advanced chips to China over fears that the technology could be used to advance Chinese military capabilities. Nvida responded to these restrictions by developing lower-grade semiconductor chips that could be exported to China without violating the new rules.

The U.S. government, however, raised concerns that the lower-grade chips were still a national security risk. A New York Times investigation from August found that Nvida sold these chips to a firm with ties to the Chinese military, prompting some to accuse the company of creating a loophole to keep doing business with a geopolitical adversary.

The Chinese military has reportedly used American-made semiconductor chips to develop hypersonic missiles. 

Bresnahan’s net worth is estimated to be up to $69 million. He earned his fortune primarily as a venture capitalist. He also inherited a construction company from his grandfather.

In Bresnahan’s campaign launch video, he took direct aim at U.S. companies who do business with China.

“Here in northeastern Pennsylvania, there used to be hundreds of businesses like ours that made things until DC politicians turned off the lights on American manufacturing and sent those jobs to China,” Bresnahan said.

A Bresnahan campaign spokesperson did not immediately respond to questions for this story.