Documentary research studio
The stories
behind scale.
Research grounded in primary documents, court records, and rigorously sourced reporting. Every claim tiered by certainty. Every gap we could not close, published.
- Primary documents
- 7
- Sources cited
- 10
- Claims tiered
- 14
- Research cutoff
- 6 August 2026
Episode 003 · Power
They Already Decided Who Pays for AI Data Centers
11:33 · Published 7 August 2026
How a film gets built · Episode 001
It starts with one line in one document.
Revenue up 85%. A trillion dollars of market value gone. Both are true — because the bottleneck moved somewhere Nvidia doesn't own.
Quarter ended April 26, 2026 · ($ in millions)
Accrued liabilities and other current liabilities
(1) Related to the Groq, Inc. non-exclusive license agreement.
Source: NVIDIA Form 10-Q, filed May 2026. Read the filing
What the line means
In December 2025, Nvidia paid $20 billion for the technology and the team of its closest inference rival. The filing does not record an acquisition. It records a licence.
Two US senators have since asked the DOJ and the FTC to examine whether that structure was chosen to avoid merger review. Nvidia maintains it is a licence. No regulator has ruled — so the film files the question as disputed and says which side holds which position.
Documents reviewed
6 primary sources. Read, not summarised.
Not an article that read the filing. The filing.
- SEC filingForm 10-Q, quarter ended 26 April 2026NVIDIA Corporation · May 2026Supply commitments · Groq accrual · customer concentration · revenue by geography(opens on the issuer’s site)
- SEC filingForm 8-K — Q1 FY2027 resultsNVIDIA Corporation · 20 May 2026Revenue, gross margin, segment detail, forward guidance(opens on the issuer’s site)
- Annual reportFY2026 Annual ReportNVIDIA Corporation · 2026China licensing · H20 revenue · the uncodified 15% expectation
- Congressional recordLetter to Jensen Huang on the Groq transactionSen. Warren & Sen. Blumenthal · US Senate · 20 March 2026Deal size and structure · request for DOJ and FTC review(opens on the issuer’s site)
- Regulatory statementPreliminary finding under the Anti-Monopoly LawSAMR · State Administration for Market Regulation, PRC · 15 September 2025The Mellanox conditions · continuing investigation
- Government researchUS Export Controls and China: Advanced Semiconductors (R48642)Congressional Research Service · 19 September 2025Export-control chronology · H20 and B30A context
How we handle a claim
Five tiers. Never blurred.
Shown: Episode 001
Most coverage collapses certainty into one confident voice — a modelled estimate arrives sounding exactly like an audited figure. ScaleLore files every material claim into a tier, and says the tier out loud. On camera, not in a footnote.
VerifiedA primary document states it.
ReportedA credible outlet states it.
EstimatedA named firm modelled it.
DisputedTwo sides say different things.
GapWe could not verify it.
- VerifiedRevenue for the quarter ended 26 April 2026 was $81.6bn — up 85% year over year.NVIDIA Form 8-K · SEC EDGAR · 20 May 2026
- VerifiedData-centre networking revenue grew 199% year over year, to $14.8bn — outpacing compute.NVIDIA Form 8-K · SEC EDGAR · 20 May 2026
- VerifiedSupply commitments stand at $119bn, of which $95bn falls due within this fiscal year.NVIDIA Form 10-Q · Note 10 · Q/E 26 Apr 2026
- VerifiedTotal revenue earned under the August 2025 China H20 licences: approximately $60m.Against a $215.9bn year.NVIDIA FY2026 Annual Report · SEC
- ReportedChina plans to permit limited H200 purchases by a small number of domestic AI firms.Unconfirmed by either government at the research cutoff.The Information · 8 July 2026
- EstimatedNvidia's share of the Chinese AI-chip market fell from roughly 40% to roughly 8%.One firm’s model. Not a fact, and not charted against other estimators.Bernstein Research
- DisputedWhether the $20bn Groq licence structure avoids merger review.Senators asked regulators to examine it. Nvidia maintains it is a licence. No regulator has ruled.US Senate letter, 20 Mar 2026 · NVIDIA response
- GapHow much of Nvidia's reported demand is funded by Nvidia's own investments.Nvidia discloses investment totals, not a customer-by-customer map.Not calculable from public disclosure
The last row is the one that matters. Nvidia discloses investment totals, not a customer-by-customer map, so the figure cannot be derived from public disclosure. The film says that on camera instead of estimating it.
The method
Eight steps. Most topics die at the first.
The pipeline is the product. It is what makes a ScaleLore film different from a summary of the news about the filing.
Greenlight gate
Scored on novelty, evidence strength, longevity and visual potential. Most candidates fail here and are never scripted.
Source excavation
Primary documents first — the filing, not the article that read it. Where no primary record exists, the strongest available reporting, named as reporting.
Claim ledger
Every material assertion is filed into a tier. Verified, reported, estimated, disputed — never blurred.
Gap identification
What cannot be verified is recorded as a gap. It is never quietly filled with a confident guess.
Right of reply
Where the film carries an allegation, the accused party’s response is carried beside it — and their silence is recorded as silence.
Script
Thesis first. Numbers illustrate the argument; they never drive it.
Retention review
Does the ending deliver the promise the first thirty seconds made? If not, the script goes back.
Source ledger published
Shipped with the film. Publicly. Every claim links to the document behind it.
The library
3 films published. The next is in the documents.
Field notes
One argument, ninety seconds.
Findings from the research that did not need eight minutes to land.
The Question Nvidia's Filings Cannot Answer
Record Revenue. And a Trillion Dollars Gone.
255 Years, Same Trick
Using People Is Not the Crime
The 2019 Warning Everyone Walked Past
Order AI chips in weeks. Memory takes 18 months.
Nvidia isn't a moat. It's a toll booth.
Nvidia is funding its own customers.
Nvidia didn't lose $1 trillion. Investors did.
Nvidia lost $1 trillion. But that's not the real story.
The memo
The research goes out before the film does.
Every film starts as a memo: the thesis, the claim ledger, the source ledger, and the questions we could not answer. Subscribers get the memo first — with every document linked.
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