City Council Candidate Owns Stakes in Companies He Criticizes

Dan Shahin, an Arcata City Council candidate, has come under scrutiny for his investments in companies he has publicly criticized. According to his FPPC form filed earlier this year, Shahin owns between $10,000 and $100,000 in Nvidia, Amazon, Alphabet (Google's parent company), Spotify, Costco, and ARM computer chips.

Shahin was angry about the construction of a data center in Arcata last year, calling it a 'strange, pernicious, dangerous, alien presence.' He claimed that Nvidia, which makes GPUs used for AI processing, is worth more than every pizza ever made in history. However, his FPPC form reveals he has significant investments in the company.

Shahin explained that many of these holdings came from his parents, who had bought them back when they were cheaper. He inherited their investments and now owns a chunk of these companies. When asked about owning Nvidia stock despite criticizing its impact on society, Shahin said he has an 'exit strategy' for 'divesting,' but would not specify when this would happen due to 'tax implications.'