John E. Sununu’s stock portfolio is betting on data centers, the warehouse-sized buildings full of computers that have become a flashpoint in American politics ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.
The Republican US Senate nominee holds between $183,015 and $645,000 in stock in seven companies that build, run, or supply them, according to his according to the candidate financial disclosure he filed in February.
That counts stock he owns individually or jointly with his wife.
And while Republicans like Gov. Kelly Ayotte are making sharp retreats on their public positions on data centers, on the campaign trail, Sununu is making the case to keep data centers around, arguing against a nationwide ban. Now, his investments are raising the question of whether his financial interests are shaping that position.
What did Sununu say about data centers?
At an Aug. 8 event hosted by a Republican blog in Bedford, NH, Sununu was asked about calls to stop building data centers.
“Any investment, whether a new energy plant, a new pipeline, a data center, even a new manufacturing plant, needs to survive on its own merits,” Sununu said. He said New Hampshire’s high electric rates mean “there aren’t a lot of people scrambling to build large […] data centers here.”
“But that doesn’t mean you should just ban data centers nationwide,” he said.
In an Aug. 24 interview, Sununu said he wants “our governor, our legislature, and our cities and towns to be the ones that decide” on projects like data centers and factories, a position seemingly at odds with recent bipartisan calls for a moratorium on data centers in the state.
As the Granite Post has reported, Sununu also told WMUR in March that federal AI regulation “should be light touch.”
What stocks does Sununu own?
His holdings include Microsoft, which plans to more than triple its data center capacity by 2032, and Google parent Alphabet, which is spending $1.5 billion to expand a data center campus in Alabama.
He also owns shares in chipmakers Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices, plus GE Vernova, whose gas turbine orders doubled in the second quarter as data centers drive up demand for power.
Iron Mountain and Equinix, two more of his holdings, run data centers, including sites in the Boston area.
As of Sept. 16, GE Vernova shares were up nearly 42% for the year, according to Yahoo Finance. As of Sept. 11, Iron Mountain’s were up nearly 39% and Equinix’s about 36%.
How does Trump’s tax law fit in?
Sununu told Hampton Republicans in February that the Senate race was “important to President Trump’s agenda” and praised “the big bill that kept taxes low.” That 2025 law lets companies deduct the full cost of data center equipment, like cooling systems and AI hardware, from their taxable income in the year they start using it.
What’s happening with data centers in New Hampshire?
Ayotte, who said in August that “we don’t have the energy for it,” has since called for a multiyear ban on new data centers.
State Senate Republicans changed course, too. In January, every one of them voted to strip noise limits and power checks from a data center bill. A home builders’ political action committee has since given $24,700 to 12 of them.
Weeks after Sununu’s Bedford remarks, news broke that Eversource was studying a power hookup of up to 350 megawatts at the former coal plant in Bow for its owner, Granite Shore Power. A proposal in Nottingham was withdrawn in May after public pushback.
