Nvidia

Nvidia has entered a partnership with the AI Pathways Program to expose students from underserved and underrepresented communities to education in artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics. The company also has several one-off programmes to support digital inclusion for women and girls. Additionally, the company demonstrates best practice by reporting the number of people with disabilities it employs.

Nvidia’s Techsplorers programme introduces youth to AI and encourages them to explore careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). The company also has an Emerging Chapters programme that trains local developers and technology communities in emerging markets to build and scale their AI, machine learning, data science and graphics projects.

Nvidia has a dedicated committee for cybersecurity and engages with governments on cybersecurity initiatives. The company demonstrates good practice by disclosing its information security management certificate as well as its approach to dealing with security incidents and provides information on data breaches.

Nvidia supports the tech innovation ecosystem by investing in start-ups as well as supporting them through the NVIDIA Inception accelerator. The company also reports the number of women it employs in tech roles and discloses where its research and development (R&D) facilities are located.

Nvidia has a diversity group for employees with disabilities. However, it can still enhance transparency by reporting the actions it has taken to create an inclusive workplace for its employees with disabilities. The company should also disclose how the economic value it generates is distributed among its stakeholders, as well as the income taxes it pays and its employment in its main markets.

Nvidia can strengthen its contribution to advancing digital skills and school connectivity. The company has an opportunity to report its financial and in-kind contributions as well as the number of participants for its skills development programmes. It can also commission a third-party impact assessment for its programmes.

Nvidia has the opportunity to make a high-level commitment to cybersecurity. While the company has a Kids Privacy Policy, given that there is a significant market among young people for Nvidia’s gaming products, the company should also make a high-level commitment to child online safety.

Nvidia has an opportunity to introduce specific start-up support for entrepreneurs from underrepresented groups.

Nvidia commits to respecting human rights and all the labour fundamentals outlined in the ILO core labour rights. The company has included human rights issues in its materiality assessment. However, it does not disclose a process to identify, assess and act on the salient human rights risks in its own operations and in its business relationships. Moreover, Nvidia describes the stakeholders it engages with in general, but it does not report whether it engages with specific stakeholders whose human rights could be impacted by its activities. The company has a grievance mechanism accessible to both workers and external stakeholders to raise human rights concerns and complaints.

Nvidia publicly commits to respecting worker health and safety, and it places health and safety expectations on its business relationships and monitors their performance. However, the company does not specify that it does not require workers to work more than the regular and overtime hours, and it does not place this requirement on its business relationships either. Nvidia discloses information on the percentage of its employees that are unionised in various countries, but it does not disclose the percentage of its global workforce covered by collective bargaining agreements. Further, Nvidia provides a breakdown of employees in different employee categories by gender. Nevertheless, it has an opportunity to disclose employee breakdowns for more indicators of diversity, such as age group. Nvidia can also make a public commitment to promote gender equality and women’s empowerment.

Nvidia has a grievance mechanism for stakeholders to raise concerns and complaints related to bribery and corruption. However, it does not have a policy on bribery and corruption and does not include anti-bribery and anti-corruption clauses in its business relationship contracts. The company discloses a UK-specific tax strategy, but not a global tax strategy. Additionally, the company discloses the income taxes it pays in three categories: US federal, US state and foreign. However, it does not disclose its income tax payments for all its individual tax jurisdictions. Nvidia discloses its approach to lobbying and political engagement in a publicly available policy statement and specifies that it does not make political contributions. Nevertheless, it does not disclose its lobbying expenditures.