Prospecting for profits: ‘Trumpette’ Gina Rinehart’s big tech spending spree

2 weeks ago 4

Opinion

November 19, 2025 — 3.44pm

Gina Rinehart has bared her FAANGs. The mega-wealthy and ultra-conservative Australian billionaire who made her fortune digging iron ore in the Pilbara is embracing the future - at least in an investment sense, with a recent amped-up foray into the big US technology stocks.

More specifically, Rinehart has been on a US shopping spree. Technically, she isn’t a true FAANG investor because she hasn’t put any Netflix (which is the N in FAANG) or Apple (the second A) shares in her investment trolley, but she has jumped on the Nvidia bandwagon and does own shares in Meta (whose social network Facebook is the F), Amazon, and Google’s owner Alphabet (the G).

So strictly speaking, she is baring her FANGs.

Gina Rinehart has spent big on US tech stocks, prospecting for chips instead of minerals for a change of pace.

Her father, Lang Hancock, was a mining pioneer, having discovering massive iron ore deposits out in the West in the 1950s, but Gina arrived at the AI chip prospecting party somewhat later than most.

Her Hancock Prospecting has covered off on all tech bases with a near $1.2 billion spend in an exchange-traded fund that tracks the Nasdaq 100 index in addition to her direct investments in shares in the index’s heavyweight stocks.

This new ardour for tech has been a financial winner for Hancock, bumping up Rinehart’s fortune in the September quarter, though in recent weeks these stocks haven’t run as hard as investors have wobbled amid fears these stocks might be in share price bubble territory.

Australia’s richest person will be among the millions around the world waiting to hear about Nvidia’s earnings, which will be released Thursday morning Eastern Australia time.

Rinehart’s investment push was revealed in Hancock’s US Securities and Exchange Commission filing for the three months to September, which shows the extent to which she has fallen in love with technology and those companies most closely associated with the artificial intelligence revolution.

Of course, Rinehart’s passion for mining was also on display. Her love (shared with the Trump administration) of rare earths hot stock MP Materials has increased in size and value with a stake now worth around $US1 billion or $1.5 billion.

The US Department of War (previously the Department of Defence) has said it would take a 15 per cent stake in the Las Vegas-based company. And, as part of that deal, the US agreed MP Materials will receive a minimum of $US110 per kg for its neodymium and praseodymium (NdPr) for a decade. Solid prospects, indeed.

Gina Rinehart has tipped billions into US shares since President Donald Trump’s election victory.

Furthering her metaphorical love affair with Donald Trump, Rinehart has almost doubled the size of her investment in Trump Media & Technology Group (owner of his social media loudspeaker, Truth Social), which is worth around $10 million.

But unlike some of her more profitable investments, Trump Media’s shares have fallen 68 per cent this year and flat-lined during the September quarter.

The MAGA disciple Rinehart, who famously (but separately from these investments) bought a house in Florida’s West Palm Beach, has been something of a feature in Trump’s orbit, popping up most recently at his Mar-a-Lago Halloween party.

The billionaire, who is a long-standing member of Trump support group The Trumpettes, this year declared his election victory the “greatest comeback since 1892”.

Similarly, Hancock’s punt on the Murdoch family’s Fox Corporation has increased in size and value, sitting at $US42 million ($66 million).

Elon Musk hasn’t missed out, with Hancock maintaining its stake in Tesla now worth a lazy $14.2 million.

But the filings show lithium investments became a casualty of her portfolio revamp as she dropped her investment in New York-listed Albemarle, Lithium Americas and Lithium Argentina, and sold down her stake in Sociedad Quimica y Minera (SQM).

Of course, the US investment portfolio makes up a relatively small part of Rinehart’s wealth, estimated to be north of $38 billion.

That said, prospecting for chips rather than minerals makes for a change of pace.

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