New AI Report Reveals NVIDIA’s Greenwashing Tactics and Hidden Emissions

WASHINGTON — NVIDIA, the world’s most valuable company by market capitalization, has been using greenwashing tricks to misleadingly mask its staggering emissions impacts, finds a new analysis. 

The briefing, written by analyst and lead author Ketan Joshi and a consortium of civil society groups, including Greenpeace International, Beyond Fossil Fuels, Friends of the Earth, Green Screen Coalition, Stand.Earth, Kairos Fellowship, and Climate Action Against Disinformation is the first analysis of greenwashing-style statements commonly used by NVIDIA, one of the world’s biggest beneficiary of the AI boom. 

The briefing finds that NVIDIA’s indirect emissions have risen 725% since 2020, and undisclosed emissions from the use of sold chips could be nearly double that.

“The biggest AI profiteer also has one of the world’s most obscured and opaque climate footprints, ” said Ketan Joshi, research analyst and lead author of the report. “NVIDIA’s claims that AI has a ‘net climate benefit’ are a greenwashing tactic used by the industry to mask ballooning pollution”. 

This briefing compiles Nvidia’s own indirect emissions disclosures back seven years from 2020 to 2026 to show for the first time that these emissions have risen by eight times. It also uses estimated chip power consumption to show emissions from the use of sold chips could be 21 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent in 2025; of a comparable scale to the product-use emissions of state-owned Russian coal in 2024.

NVIDIA distracts from these emissions using three key claims. First, they claim AI’s development will be a ‘net benefit’ for climate. Second, they claim demand response for data centres enables renewable growth. And third, they herald energy efficiency as progress on sustainability. We debunk all three claims as misleading.

NVIDIA recently announced exclusive supply to an Ohio data centre reportedly set to be powered by what would be the world’s biggest gas plant with emissions worse than Nigeria’s entire power grid; an illustration that the company is projected to accelerate the global climate crisis even further through its enablement of the fossil-fuelled AI boom. 

NVIDIA’s business lies primarily in chips manufactured in East Asia and sold across the world. The supply of raw materials for these chips and the manufacturing process are both incredibly energy-intensive. Once these chips are sold, they are used in similarly energy-intensive data centre buildings, now primarily for the purpose of operating generative AI. Both of these ‘ends’ are growing in their climate impacts.

“On this trajectory, the numbers shown in this briefing will look minuscule compared to the situation in 2030, or 2035,” said Joshi. “But NVIDIA can choose to take responsibility for what it buys and what it sells, and use its overwhelming power, influence and money to clean up the industry’s growing fossil-fuelled mess.”

Michael Khoo, Climate Disinformation Program Director at Friends of the Earth, policy Co-chair at Climate Action Against Disinformation dicho: “AI companies must stop lying about saving the planet, while they are actually burning it down. It is a dangerous sign of the lawlessness of Big Tech, who seems to think they do not have to answer for their violations of our planet and our people.  The solution to this danger is simple: regulate Big Tech. Like any other American industry from airplanes to pharmaceuticals, the public deserves regulations on AI so that Big Tech companies show proof of safety, and transparency on what is under the hood. Until the public gets to see and evaluate these risks and hold AI company CEOs accountable, Congress should stop any and all development by the most dangerous AI hyperscalers.”

Avex Li, AI Supply Chain Project Lead at Greenpeace, said: “NVIDIA wants the world to believe that AI will solve the climate crisis, while ignoring the rapidly growing emissions behind its own products and billion-dollar supply chain networks. As a key player in the AI frenzy, with immense market power, cash flow and influence, NVIDIA cannot distance itself from the real-world environmental impacts of its business. It must publish a measurable supply chain decarbonization roadmap and directly invest in new renewable energy where its impacts happen. Anything less is greenwashing.” 

Rachel Kitchin, Senior Campaign Manager at Stand.earth, said: “Far from being a climate solution, AI’s unimaginable infrastructure growth is driving a drastic increase in new gas power projects across North America, including some of the biggest new emissions sources in the world. NVIDIA feeds and enables that growth, all while spreading a desperate and misleading narrative about imaginary future benefits and doing nothing to reduce either its upstream or downstream impacts. It’s time for NVIDIA to stop passing the buck, and invest in real renewables throughout its value chain.” 

Jill McArdle, International Corporate Campaigner, Beyond Fossil Fuels, said: “Europe is being sold a fantasy of ‘green’ AI while Big Tech drives a massive build-out of emission-pumping data centres and fossil-fuel infrastructure. Tech billionaires like NVIDIA’s Jenson Huang hype up overblown climate claims while urging our governments to build gas for their data centres. Calling this a climate-friendly technology revolution doesn’t make it one – it’s greenwashing designed to secure Big Tech’s profits while locking Europe into more gas and energy dependence. Decision-makers must listen to people and deprioritise dirty data centres controlled by Big Tech.” 

Contacto: Ketan Joshi, [email protected]