The number underneath the story
Nvidia's cost of revenue, the direct cost of producing what it sells, was $16.621 billion in fiscal 2024, $32.639 billion in fiscal 2025 and $62.475 billion in fiscal 2026.1 By our arithmetic, that is nearly four times the cost base in two years. These figures come from SEC filings and are fidelity-checked.1 The company is paying far more to make far more.
One caution matters for ordinary investors. Our verified set contains Nvidia's costs, cash and earnings per share, but not its revenue. We therefore cannot calculate a profit margin here, and we won't guess one. Rising costs are consistent with surging demand. On their own they do not show how profitable that demand is.
Cash did not pile up
Many readers assume a company at the centre of the AI boom is hoarding cash. The filed numbers say something more mixed. Year-end cash was $7.28 billion in fiscal 2024, $8.589 billion in fiscal 2025 and $10.605 billion in fiscal 2026.1 That is steady growth, but small beside the cost figures above.
The quarterly path is uneven. Cash was $15.234 billion in Q1 2026, then $11.639 billion in Q2 2026 and $11.486 billion in Q3 2026.1 It stood at $13.237 billion in Q1 2027.1 So the Q1 2027 balance is below the Q1 2026 peak, even though quarterly cost of revenue climbed from $17.394 billion to $20.458 billion over the same pair of periods.1 The dossier does not say where the cash went, whether into buybacks, investment or working capital. We can see the balance move but not the reason.
A caution on earnings per share
Reported earnings per share were $11.93 in fiscal 2024, $2.94 in fiscal 2025 and $4.90 in fiscal 2026.1 Read naively, that looks like profit per share collapsing while costs quadrupled. We would not read it that way. The dossier does not tell us whether these figures are measured on the same share count, and a change in share count, such as a stock split, would make the series incomparable. Until that is checked against the filings, treat the year-to-year EPS line as unreliable for trend-spotting. This is the kind of seam we would rather show than smooth over.
The buildout is widening
Nvidia's costs are one layer of a stack being built at several levels at once. At the OCP Global Summit on October 12, 2026, Cisco introduced silicon, systems and optics for open AI infrastructure. These included the first G300-powered systems shipping to customers and new 1.6T G302 silicon.2 Cisco and NVIDIA also plan an open specification for next-generation 400G-per-lane pluggable optics.2 Cisco's Kevin Wollenweber framed the shift this way: "AI is redefining what it means to scale infrastructure. It's no longer just about individual data centers or clusters, but how we connect compute at massive scale without compromising performance or resilience."2 For investors, the point is that spending is moving beyond the chip itself to the links between chips.
The next layer is data. On October 14, Hesai launched Kosmo, a 3D world data engine that combines the Kosmo One AI spatial camera with the Kosmo World cloud platform. It is aimed at robot training, world-model development and content creation.3 Hesai also announced partnerships with embodied-AI companies Galbot and Dexmal.3 Hesai's Shaoqing Xiang put the business case this way: "Physical AI needs real-world data that is accurate, affordable and available at scale. Meeting all three requirements has been a persistent problem."3 That is a company's own claim about its product, not independent evidence of demand.
The top layer is software. TELUS Digital announced a partnership with Parloa, becoming an implementation partner that brings Parloa's AI agent platform to enterprise clients.4 Zeta introduced AthenaOS, which CEO David A. Steinberg described as an expansion of Zeta's AI infrastructure "beyond marketing".5 A Snipp survey of 1,000 U.S. adults who regularly use AI for search and shopping found that 61.8% had purchased after an AI recommendation.6 Because it surveys only regular AI users, that figure says nothing about shoppers in general.
How deals are being paid for
Capital structure shows up in the smaller deals too. On September 30, Grindr agreed to acquire PurposeMed, the parent of telehealth provider Freddie, for $250 million in cash and stock, with up to $70 million more in possible cash consideration.7 On October 14, SKYX closed its merger with Deako, issuing 25,000,000 shares that are subject to a 21-month lock-up and leak-out. Post-merger, SKYX shareholders own 84.4% of the combined company.8 SKYX also paid Deako's senior lender $2 million at closing and issued an $8.5 million secured promissory note, with $2.25 million due in Q1 2027 and $6.25 million in Q4 2027.9 Neither deal is an AI-infrastructure story. Both show that stock, cash and deferred notes are being mixed to fund growth.
The governance seam
The commercial momentum sits beside unresolved safety questions at OpenAI. Our topic summary also mentions a safety-lead resignation and leadership pledges on monitoring and open-source timelines, but the verified dossier holds no sourced detail on them, so we make no claims about them. What we do have is a quote from OpenAI's chief research officer, Mark Chen: "I do kind of reject the premise that OpenAI is a company with visible impacts in the world and therefore OpenAI is not training safe and aligned models."10 Treat the sourcing with care. The MIT Technology Review items in our set have a measured reliability of 0% of 11 checked claims holding up, and the quote is undated.10
How much to trust the sources
The press-release sources behind the Cisco, Hesai, TELUS, Snipp and Grindr items carry a measured reliability of 56% of 4,960 checked claims holding up.2 That is a coin flip leaning slightly one way. The SEC-derived Nvidia numbers are the firmest ground in this piece, and the announcements are claims by the companies making them.
What to watch
- Nvidia's next filing: does cost of revenue keep climbing, and does cash follow? We'll want revenue alongside it to judge profitability.
- Whether EPS is restated onto a consistent share basis, which would resolve the trend question above.
- Whether Cisco's G300 systems, shipping now, show up in customer orders.
- The SKYX note payments due in Q1 and Q4 2027.
