Emissions from the use of Nvidia’s chips could be on par with those from burning coal sold by Russian state-owned company Russian Coal, according to a new report.
The report estimates that operating Nvidia chips sold since 2022 could have generated the equivalent of between four and 21 million tonnes of carbon dioxide in 2025, depending on the electricity used to power them.
It also says the US chipmaker’s supply chain emissions have risen by 725% since 2020, an increase of around 9.4 million tonnes.
According to Greenpeace East Asia, one of the groups behind the report, “the increase was primarily driven by upstream emissions from producing the components, materials, and manufacturing services required for its GPUs and AI systems”.
Nvidia reports these emissions under Scope 3, which covers indirect emissions beyond its own operations. According to figures compiled from Nvidia’s sustainability reports, they rose from about 1.3 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent in 2020 to 10.7 million tonnes in 2026.
“The biggest AI profiteer also has one of the world’s most obscured and opaque climate footprints,” said Ketan Joshi, lead author of the report and an Oslo-based climate and energy analyst.
“NVIDIA’s claims that AI has a ‘net climate benefit’ are a greenwashing tactic used by the industry to mask ballooning pollution”.
The report was published by eight climate, corporate accountability and digital campaigning groups, including Greenpeace International, Friends of the Earth, Beyond Fossil Fuels and Stand.earth.
Nvidia does not currently disclose emissions from the use of its sold products. The report’s estimate is based on cumulative chip sales, assumed utilisation and different grid emissions factors, researchers said.
Nvidia designs processors that have become central to the generative AI boom, while much of their manufacturing takes place through suppliers in East Asia.
The report says Nvidia’s supply chain emissions largely come from the raw materials and manufacturing involved in producing its chips.
Producing advanced semiconductors requires significant amounts of energy, while the chips continue consuming electricity once installed in data centres running AI models.
Data centres vs the climate
Nvidia has publicly argued that AI is likely to reduce emissions overall.
“The very rapidly growing consensus is that AI is most likely to lead to net emissions reductions, especially if it’s deployed broadly,” Josh Parker, Nvidia’s head of sustainability, told US climate news outlet Heatmap in May.
Parker cited organisations including the International Energy Agency, World Economic Forum, Boston Consulting Group and Grantham Institute, saying AI could cut emissions in other sectors through measures such as greater energy efficiency.
But the report argues that efficiency gains may not reduce the overall impact when demand for computing power is rising rapidly, calling Nvidia’s climate messaging “greenwashing”.
“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,” Jill McArdle, an international corporate campaigner at Beyond Fossil Fuels, wrote in a statement.
“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,” Mcardle added, calling for decision-makers to “deprioritise dirty data centres controlled by Big Tech.”
The report also challenges Nvidia’s promotion of “demand response” where data centres temporarily reduce or shift their electricity use during periods of peak demand to ease pressure on the grid. Nvidia has presented this flexibility as a way for data centres to support the energy transition.
The authors argue, however, that these short periods of flexibility may do little to offset the much larger, year-round increase in electricity demand as more data centres come online.
Citing research from Princeton University, they said demand response may cover less than 1% of the year in scenarios with high data centre growth.
Researchers behind the report call for greater transparency from Nvidia, including disclosure of emissions from the use of its chips and stronger evidence for its claims that AI can deliver a net climate benefit.
They also want the company to account for the wider emissions impact of data centre growth and set clearer targets to cut supply chain emissions, including through additional renewable energy investment.