Greenpeace urges Nvidia to address climate impact after Huang exit

The campaign comes after Jensen Huang’s resignation as CEO amid a sex-and-espionage scandal. Greenpeace East Asia project lead Avex Li said Huang had failed to put climate responsibility at the center of Nvidia’s growth, curb data-center expansion or prevent its chips from being used in applications such as automated warfare. Nvidia did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Verge.

Huang has argued that AI could help expand renewable energy. In a September appearance on The Ezra Klein Show, he said AI was “the best opportunity we have” to build a sustainable future, pointing to companies’ purchases of cleaner energy. He also acknowledged that data centers would depend on more fossil fuels in the near term and that building AI infrastructure could bring “an enormous amount of pain and suffering.”

The analysis by Joshi and environmental organizations estimated that Nvidia’s supply-chain emissions increased by about 9.4 million metric tons of pollution since 2020. The company reported around 10.7 million metric tons of supply-chain CO2 emissions for fiscal year 2026. The researchers also estimated emissions from the use of Nvidia’s chips—excluded from its sustainability reports—at as much as 21 million metric tons in 2025. By comparison, direct emissions from Nvidia’s own facilities and vehicles were 9,822 metric tons in fiscal year 2026. The company said it matched all electricity used at its facilities with clean-energy purchases in 2025.

Greenpeace wants Nvidia to extend that clean-energy commitment across its manufacturing supply chain. The group says it has sought talks with the company for two years without success. It also criticizes Nvidia’s investments in data centers and energy-related ventures, arguing that measures such as on-site power generation and flexible operations could help data centers expand without shielding nearby communities from higher utility bills or pollution. Nvidia’s environmental impact will depend in part on the company’s choices under Kress, as data-center projects face growing local opposition.