KARDASHEV Index
The leaderboard

Entity dossier · Nº 002

NVIDIA Corporation

Semiconductors NASDAQ: NVDA Public nvidia.com ↗ Santa Clara, California SEC CIK 1045810 ↗

NVIDIA shows efficiency gains in new silicon; no velocity or policy evidence present. Model synthesis · opinion

Holding Confidence 45% · -0.6 vs N-1
Kardashev-equivalent K 0.208

120 MW average power · 1.05 TWh/yr energy consumed (FY26).

K = (log₁₀P − 6) / 10 with P in watts. Humanity today ≈ K 0.73. Computed in code from the reported figure — source: images.nvidia.com/aem-dam/Solutions/documents/NVIDIA-Sust....

Index composition

65% measured · 35% opinion · method
Energy throughput Measured 30% 2.7 0.0 72%
Compute capacity Measured 20% —   no data
Growth gradient Measured 15% 8.9 0.0 92%
Frontier acceleration Opinion 15% 6.0 -2.0 61%
Builder velocity Opinion 12% —   no data
Permission to build Opinion 8% —   no data

Δ = change vs run N-1 (2026-10-09). Index = weighted mean of the scored categories (weights renormalized over what was scored) · coverage 60% · confidence 45% · measured share 75% of the scored weight (opinion 25%). No “overall” is asked of the model. Scores are AI-assisted (disclosures).

Run history

Every published measurement, newest first. N is the run on the leaderboard now; failed attempts are not shown. Unranked runs show no Index; Δ and the Index trend compare ranked runs only.

Index 5.1
K-equiv 0.208
RunPublishedIndexΔK-equivMethodView
N current 2026-10-09 5.1 -0.6 0.208 pipeline-v2.4 · weights-v1 · rubrics-v1 viewing
N-1 2026-10-09 5.6 +0.6 0.208 pipeline-v2.2 · weights-v1 · rubrics-v1 View run N-1
N-2 2026-10-08 5.0 — 0.208 pipeline-v2.1 · weights-v1 · rubrics-v1 View run N-2
v0 legacy, superseded 2026-10-08 7.6 opinion — — single-prompt opinion · not comparable View legacy v0 scores

Measured — computed in code from reported figures

Joules · weight 30%

Energy throughput

2.7/ 10

Reported energy consumed: 1,053,479 MWh (FY26) = 1.05 TWh/yr → 120 MW average → score 2.7, K = 0.208. Sources disagreed by more than 25% for this period; confidence reduced.

P = annual energy (J) / seconds per year → average watts. Score = clamp(2.5 × (log₁₀P − 7), 0, 10). Kardashev-equivalent K = (log₁₀P − 6) / 10. · confidence 72%

Watts of thought · weight 20%

Compute capacity

—no data

No verified operating data-center capacity was found, so this category is unscored.

Score = clamp(2.5 × log₁₀(MW), 0, 10).

Slope · weight 15%

Growth gradient

8.9/ 10

Compound annual growth: capex +49%/yr over 3y, revenue +100%/yr over 3y, energy +33%/yr over 2y → score 8.9.

  • Verified evidence
  • PaymentsToAcquireProductiveAssets = 1,833,000,000 USD for fiscal year ended 2023-01-29 (10-K, accession 0001045810-25-000023) sec.gov · fetched 2026-10-09 ↗
  • PaymentsToAcquireProductiveAssets = 1,069,000,000 USD for fiscal year ended 2024-01-28 (10-K, accession 0001045810-26-000021) sec.gov · fetched 2026-10-09 ↗
  • PaymentsToAcquireProductiveAssets = 3,236,000,000 USD for fiscal year ended 2025-01-26 (10-K, accession 0001045810-26-000021) sec.gov · fetched 2026-10-09 ↗
  • PaymentsToAcquireProductiveAssets = 6,042,000,000 USD for fiscal year ended 2026-01-25 (10-K, accession 0001045810-26-000021) sec.gov · fetched 2026-10-09 ↗
  • +5 more in Reported figures
Each available sub-metric's compound annual growth rate (up to 3 years) is mapped piecewise-linearly through the anchors, then combined with weights capex 50%, revenue 25%, energy 25% (renormalized over what is available). · confidence 92%

Opinion — model-judged against written rubrics, from verified quotes only

Opinion · Capability · weight 15%

Frontier acceleration

6.0/ 10

10x energy efficiency gain and 30% more GPUs per power envelope over prior gen show material cost-per-capability reductions [E156][E158].

Opinion Rubric · confidence 61%

Opinion · Shipping · weight 12%

Builder velocity

—insufficient

Partnerships noted but no data on own deployment cadence, build times or shipped facilities.

Opinion Rubric

Opinion · Policy · weight 8%

Permission to build

—insufficient

No public positions or actions on permitting, energy or regulation in evidence.

Opinion Rubric

Reported figures

MetricValuePeriodSource
Capital expenditure 6,042,000,000 USD FY2026 sec.gov ↗ SEC XBRL
Capital expenditure 3,236,000,000 USD FY2025 sec.gov ↗ SEC XBRL
Capital expenditure 1,069,000,000 USD FY2024 sec.gov ↗ SEC XBRL
Capital expenditure 1,833,000,000 USD FY2023 sec.gov ↗ SEC XBRL
Revenue 215,938,000,000 USD FY2026 sec.gov ↗ SEC XBRL
Revenue 130,497,000,000 USD FY2025 sec.gov ↗ SEC XBRL
Revenue 60,922,000,000 USD FY2024 sec.gov ↗ SEC XBRL
Revenue 26,974,000,000 USD FY2023 sec.gov ↗ SEC XBRL
Energy consumed 1,053,479 MWh FY26 images.nvidia.com ↗
Energy consumed 815,864 MWh FY25 images.nvidia.com ↗
Energy consumed 593,953 MWh FY24 images.nvidia.com ↗
Electricity consumed 1,004,842 MWh FY26 images.nvidia.com ↗
Energy generated (own plants) 622 MWh FY26 images.nvidia.com ↗
Energy consumed 46,258 MWh FY26 images.nvidia.com ↗

Sources we fetched and verified

  1. SEC XBRL company facts — NVIDIA CORP data.sec.gov/api/xbrl/companyfacts/CIK0001045810.json · fetched 2026-10-09 · primary
  2. NVIDIA Sustainability Report Fiscal Year 2026 images.nvidia.com/aem-dam/Solutions/documents/NVIDIA-Sust... · fetched 2026-10-09 · sha256 7a318d8a8f19 · primary
  3. Report of Independent Accountants images.nvidia.com/aem-dam/Solutions/documents/FY26-PwC-As... · fetched 2026-10-09 · sha256 238f33a5d606 · primary
  4. 2025 NVIDIA VCMDA Disclosure nvidia.com/content/dam/en-zz/Solutions/csr/2025_NVIDIA_VC... · fetched 2026-10-09 · sha256 95c775911496 · primary
  5. NVIDIA Sustainability Report Fiscal Year 2025 images.nvidia.com/aem-dam/Solutions/documents/NVIDIA-Sust... · fetched 2026-10-09 · sha256 bd9f8693c530 · primary
  6. Corporate Sustainability | NVIDIA nvidia.com/en-us/sustainability · fetched 2026-10-09 · sha256 8f7e24b3380d · primary
  7. NVIDIA Guarantees SB Energy’s PORTS-Pike Technology Campus in Ohio to Exclusively Host NVIDIA AI Compute |... nvidianews.nvidia.com/news/nvidia-guarantees-sb-energy-s-... · fetched 2026-10-09 · sha256 8074fec3bf72 · primary
  8. NVIDIA Details AI’s Key Role in Energy Efficiency | NVIDIA Blog blogs.nvidia.com/blog/ai-energy-innovation-climate-research · fetched 2026-10-09 · sha256 748f8573536f · primary
  9. NVIDIA CDP Climate Change Questionnaire 2023 nvidia.com/content/dam/en-zz/Solutions/csr/NVIDIA_Corpora... · fetched 2026-10-09 · sha256 c2e4b9928aad · primary
  10. NVIDIA 800 VDC Architecture Will Power the Next Generation of AI Factories | NVIDIA Technical Blog developer.nvidia.com/blog/nvidia-800-v-hvdc-architecture-... · fetched 2026-10-09 · sha256 8384a3949041 · primary
  11. EDGAR Search Results sec.gov/cgi-bin/browse-edgar?CIK=0001045810&type=10-K · fetched 2026-10-09 · sha256 0bb05757e61b · primary

2 other candidate links were rejected (dead, soft-404, blocked or unreadable) and are not shown.

Run N · 2026-10-09 11:06 PDT · 1m 11s · 8 stages · grok-4.3
StageStatusTimeWeb searches
resolvesucceeded0.2 s—
researchsucceeded27 s6
edgarsucceeded0.4 s—
fetchsucceeded20 s—
extractsucceeded12 s—
computesucceeded0.0 s—
judgesucceeded11 s—
aggregatesucceeded0.1 s—

pipeline-v2.4 · prompts-v2.3 · rubrics-v1 · weights-v1 · bundle 24911655c12e · code ce1fc2f

Last updated 2026-10-09 How the Index is computed