Do we like Nvidia?
Designs the GPUs and software that power most AI and gaming computers; based in Santa Clara, California.
Our score: 5 out of 10. Mixed: Nvidia's tech is essential and its own operations are clean. But it faces serious open questions over China chips, AI copyright and its market power.
Nvidia started as a graphics-card maker and Jensen Huang, its co-founder and CEO, turned it into the AI chip giant. Reports describe it as the most publicly traded company in the world. It outsources chip manufacturing to partners such as TSMC, and its CUDA software lets developers program its chips for all kinds of work.
The big drama right now is China. Per CNBC, Huang lobbied hard against export controls. Trump let H200 chip sales to China resume in December 2025, on condition that the US got a 25% cut. This week, the New York Times reported that US intelligence surveilled a Singapore-linked executive close to Huang over spy fears. Nvidia says its dealings were routine and the diversion claims were debunked.
Then there's the copyright fight. Authors say Nvidia trained AI models on pirated books, and they allege it approached the shadow library Anna's Archive. Nvidia denies wrongdoing, and says fair use applies and the claims are speculative. A federal judge has let the main copyright claims go ahead. It's early days, but it's not a good look.
On the planet, it's a split picture. Nvidia's own report says its offices and data centres ran on 100% renewable electricity in FY26. But Greenpeace East Asia says its supply-chain (Scope 3) emissions have nearly tripled since 2024, and that its East Asian foundry suppliers lean heavily on fossil fuels.
We land on a middle score. The products are brilliant and the company is investing in things like European AI start-ups. But the China chip politics, the pending copyright case, regulators circling its dominance and the growing supply-chain emissions mean we'd want to watch how these play out before giving it a high score.