Greenpeace Protester Interrupts Nvidia Keynote Over Missile Chip, Supply-Chain Emissions

A protester at a Greenpeace Germany demonstration interrupted Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang’s Thursday, Oct. 22, keynote in Berlin, pressing the chipmaker over Russian military use and AI’s supply-chain emissions.

About 20 minutes into the speech, the protester climbed onto a chair and unfurled a banner as an anti-Nvidia message appeared on the stage screen. When security moved to escort the person out, Huang gestured for them to ease up and let the protester finish. He called the issues important while asking to complete his keynote.

The protest focused in part on Jetson Orin, a compact computer designed for civilian uses such as robotics and machine vision. Unlike expensive GPUs used to train large AI models, it can recognize and process images locally. Ukraine’s Defense Intelligence identified a Jetson Orin module in a Russian S-71 cruise missile in August.

Nvidia says Jetson modules are not sold in Russia and were not designed for military use. The company says repeated resale through secondary markets makes it difficult to track where individual units end up.

Greenpeace’s September analysis said Nvidia’s disclosed indirect supply-chain emissions had risen 725% since 2020. The group also said Nvidia matches the electricity used in its own operations with renewable energy, while some East Asian suppliers that manufacture its products do not use clean power.

Greenpeace called on Nvidia to extend its renewable-energy target across its manufacturing supply chain by 2030 and to arrange independent audits of distributors worldwide to reduce the risk of chips reaching military equipment.