NVDA · 10-K · 2026A · Full report

R&D Investment in AI

NVIDIA CORP · 2026-02-25 · Importance 72 · Surprise 74

NVIDIA's R&D expense was $18.5 billion in fiscal 2026, up $5.6 billion (43%) year-over-year, reflecting a 29% increase in compensation and benefits and a 79% increase in compute and infrastructure costs. The company continues one-year product cadence launches (Blackwell, Rubin) and invested heavily in compute/infrastructure to support AI model and platform development in FY2026. R&D spending represents 8.6% of revenue in FY2026 compared with 9.9% in FY2025, reflecting faster revenue growth relative to R&D dollars. Management indicates continued investments to support its technology roadmap and the broader AI ecosystem.

Key facts

• Compute and infrastructure costs for R&D increased 79% driving part of the R&D expense increase for fiscal year 2026.
• Research and development expense increased by $5,583 million from fiscal year 2025 to fiscal year 2026 (from $12,914 million to $18,497 million).
• Research and development expense for fiscal year 2026 was $18,497 million.

Impact estimates