A college student who made almost $30,000 off GameStop stock in the frenzy of the last few weeks has found a fitting way to share his good fortune with children in need.
Hunter Kahn, 20, a Minnesota native who attends Cornell University, announced on Instagram that he donated six Nintendo Switch game consoles as well as some video games to Children's Minnesota hospital with some of his GameStop earnings.
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"As a beneficiary of the recent events on Wall Street I think it is important that myself and others pay forward our good fortune," Kahn wrote. "These events have highlighted a lot of corruption and with this transfer of power it is important that we don’t become men in suits ourselves. I am proud to announce my humble donation of 6 Nintendo Switches and games to go with them to the Children’s Minnesota Hospital. Cant Stop. Won’t Stop. #GameStop #HTL #eattherich @childrensmn"
CNN reported the donation amounted to more than $2,000, and Kahn told NBC News the gifts have already brightened the days of children in the hospital.
"I was told by Children's that some of the Switches are already in use by the patients, which is amazing to hear," he said. "And of course my Instagram has been blowing up with DMs from parents of children in that situation, or people who have grown up and were in that situation, and hearing those stories is the most gratifying thing in the world."
Children's Minnesota thanked Kahn on Instagram, saying it is "so grateful" for his donation while relaying a quote he gave them.
“I wanted my donations to be GameStop purchases since that is how this all started and there is no better group of people to receive a bunch of Switches than a bunch of kids going through a hard time," he told the hospital.
Kahn then responded to the hospital's Instagram post.
"I’m so glad I had the opportunity to bring a smile to some kids faces 💙" he wrote.
Kahn earned nearly $30,000 when GameStop stock skyrocketed more than 1,600% in the last month. He is a dedicated member of the Reddit group r/WallStreetBets, which has exploded to more than 8 million members after driving much of the interest and investment in GameStop that helped send the stock price soaring.
He framed the whole phenomenon as a battle between small retail traders and large Wall Street institutions. Some notable hedge funds incurred huge losses from shorting the GameStop stock — essentially betting on it to fail — while the hedge fund Senvest Management LLC made $700 million on the stock surge, The Wall Street Journal reported.
"I just wanted to do my part in making sure showing that us retail traders are the good guys in this battle," Kahn said about his donation.
He has followed r/WallStreetBets since 2019 when he first started investing.
"I feel more inclined to brag that I was a part of WallStreetBets before it got (very popular) and then the GME (GameStop) gains," he told NBC News. "I think that it really is eye-opening showing the power of the retail traders in all this, and I think that this is gonna represent a shift in the market for sure."
After sharing some of his lucrative gains, he remains on the lookout for his next investment.
"Of course, this GameStop opportunity was pretty few and far between, but if there's other opportunities like this, I'll definitely hop in on it," he said.
Kahn is one of many individual investors who made a tidy profit during the GameStop surge, including a 10-year-old fifth-grader in San Antonio who made more than $3,000 after his mother bought $60 of stock for him in 2019.