Big Insider Sales at NVDA, DELL, TMUS Raise Questions—Or Do They?

Key Points

• NVIDIA, Dell, and T-Mobile are three high-profile stocks that are seeing high levels of insider selling.
• Sellers include a CEO, a controlling shareholder, and a private equity investor.
• However, how concerning are these sales in reality? Should they affect how investors view these three stocks.

Several companies across tech and telecom are seeing millions of dollars in insider selling. However, to what extent should these sales actually worry investors?

Below, we’ll break down these three names and provide key insights regarding their recent insider selling.

NVIDIA CEO’s Sales Something to Fret?

As by far the most valuable publicly traded company in the world, chip giant NVIDIA NASDAQ: NVDA warrants discussion first. So far in October, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Jensen Huang has sold just under $100 million worth of NVIDIA shares.

This would understandably elicit concern among investors watching NVIDIA and the broader market. The top leader at arguably the world’s most important company selling shares of his firm looks concerning.

However, simply put, Hwang’s sales are a non-issue. All have come under a predetermined stock sale plan called a 10b5-1 plan. Under these plans, insiders determine the timing of trades well before their actual execution. This means that recent market events do not influence trading decisions made under 10b5-1 plans.

This allows insiders to sell shares, which are a large part of their compensation, while avoiding accusations of illegal insider trading. Overall, investors should not take 10b5-1 sales as near-term bearish signals for a stock. Still, an uptick in 10b5-1 sales over an extended period can be a bearish indicator for a stock long-term.

Private Equity Investor Is Selling Millions' Worth of Dell Shares

On the other hand, Dell Technologies NYSE: DELL has seen some insider selling that looks a bit more worrying. Private equity investor Silver Lake Technology Associates (STLA) has been selling a lot of Dell shares recently. Overall, the firm has sold more than $600 million worth of shares since the beginning of September. Notably, Silver Lake made none of these sales under a predetermined plan.

Additionally, the company has already sold around $230 million more in 2025 than in all of 2024. The uptick in sales appears to come at a curious time, with Dell having recently more than doubled its long-term revenue growth guidance.

This raises questions about whether Silver Lake lacks confidence in Dell’s outlook and is looking to get out of this stock. However, a key mechanism of private equity funds puts the firm's sales into context. These funds typically look to liquidate their assets and return capital to investors within 10 to 12 years.

According to Silver Lake’s website, the company first invested in Dell in 2013. Conducting big-time sales in 2025 lines up almost perfectly with that 10-to-12-year timeline. Thus, it is likely that Silver Lake is simply looking to liquidate a fund under a regular cadence. Considering this, Silver Lake’s sales do not look overly concerning.

T-Mobile's Top Investor Dumps Shares

Lastly, the most valuable telecom stock in the United States, T-Mobile US NASDAQ: TMUS, has also seen big-time insider selling recently. Deutsche Telekom ETR: DTE has sold more than $250 million worth of T-Mobile shares since the beginning of September. However, these sales are not much of a concern.

First off, they all came under a 10b5-1 plan. Additionally, although Deutsche Telekom is the parent company of T-Mobile US, it has said it wants to keep its stake in the company above 50%. With its stake standing at 52% last quarter, the firm had the flexibility to sell some shares. It still wants to own a massive percentage of the company, indicating that it is not bearish on T-Mobile shares long-term.

Also, Deutsche Telekom is on track to sell significantly fewer shares of T-Mobile in 2025 than it did in 2024. Through eight months, its T-Mobile sales have been around $850 million. Meanwhile, it sold over $2 billion worth of shares in 2024. Deutsche Telekom’s decreasing sales prove that it is not growing bearish on T-Mobile US.

Recent Insider Selling at NVDA, DELL, TMUS Looks Benign

This analysis shows that each insider sale needs to be closely studied.

They are not all created equal and may or may not provide bearish indicators to investors. Despite detailing around $1 billion worth of insider sales for these three stocks over the last one to two months, none appear particularly bearish.

Investors can rest easy knowing that these sales should not affect the outlook for these names.