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Did Nvidia Steal YouTube Videos to Train AI? What the Reporting and Lawsuits Say

By Freedom251 Team · · 4 min read

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Proof News reported in August 2024 that Nvidia employees built a large video-data pipeline focused on YouTube for AI development. The newsroom said internal messages described a capacity of 80 years of video runtime per day. That figure is not a verified count of distinct videos downloaded or proof that every item was used to train a released product. “Stealing” is a characterization, not a court finding established by the sources discussed here.

What Proof News reported Nvidia was doing

In an investigation published August 9, 2024, journalists Annie Gilbertson and Rina Palta said Nvidia leadership directed staff to pursue a video model similar to OpenAI’s Sora after Sora was announced. According to the report, staff quickly focused on YouTube, drawing on previously scraped datasets as well as their own video-scraping efforts. Proof News said its account was based on internal Slack messages and documents shared with the newsroom.

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The communications described datasets ranging in size from hundreds of clips to hundreds of millions. Proof News did not disclose the exact number of messages and documents it reviewed, saying it was protecting its source. The newsroom also said it could not establish whether Nvidia obtained video from sources beyond YouTube and the handful of datasets mentioned in the communications.

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What “80 years of video per day” means

By May 2024, the pipeline was reportedly capable of obtaining 80 years of video runtime each day. Nvidia vice president of research Ming-Yu Liu described it internally as a “video data factory” that produced a “human lifetime” of training content per day. This is a reported measure of runtime capacity—not a verified tally of unique videos, a count of completed downloads, or evidence that every item entered a particular model’s training data.

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What the report did—and did not—establish about other services

Proof News reported that Nvidia communications discussed obtaining video from Netflix and Discovery, and clips from IMDb. But the newsroom explicitly said the documents it reviewed did not indicate that videos from Netflix or Discovery were taken. Discussion of a possible source is not evidence that its content was downloaded. The report did not establish whether Nvidia used other sources beyond YouTube and the datasets named in the communications.

What Nvidia and YouTube said

Nvidia spokesperson Stephanie Matthew told Proof News: “We respect the rights of all content creators and are confident that our models and our research efforts are in full compliance with the letter and the spirit of copyright law.” She also said: “Fair use also protects the ability to use a work for a transformative purpose, such as model training.” Those statements describe Nvidia’s position; they are not a court’s ruling. Proof News said its questions about commercial use did not receive a direct response.

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The investigation also reported that employees raised concerns internally about copyright, authorization, and legal review. It quoted Liu as saying, “This is an executive decision,” and, “We have an umbrella approval for all of the data.” Those reported messages show that the issue was discussed inside the company; they do not determine whether the conduct was lawful.

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Proof News reported that YouTube’s terms prohibit scraping creators’ videos. Futurism quoted YouTube CEO Neal Mohan saying that YouTube’s terms “do not allow for things like transcripts or video bits to be downloaded, and that is a clear violation of our terms of service.” A platform’s terms of service and a court’s decision about copyright or the DMCA are separate questions.

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What the lawsuits allege—and what courts have decided

A complaint filed January 29, 2026, in Youngblood v. NVIDIA alleges that Nvidia obtained YouTube videos for its Cosmos model and circumvented technological protection measures. It says researchers’ datasets contain pointers to YouTube clips and that users must retrieve the underlying files. These are plaintiffs’ allegations, not established findings that Nvidia did those things or acted unlawfully.

The complaint describes the HD-VG-130M dataset as containing pointers to more than 130 million clips drawn from 1,549,408 YouTube videos, and alleges Nvidia used the dataset in a commercial Cosmos training pipeline. Those figures are descriptions in the complaint, not independently verified counts of videos Nvidia downloaded.

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Separate cases and the latest reported hearing

A separate suit brought by creators David Millette and Ruslana Petryazhna was voluntarily dismissed without prejudice in March 2025, according to Bloomberg Law. That dismissal did not decide the merits of the claims.

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Bloomberg Law reported on July 23, 2026, that Nvidia was seeking to end a later YouTubers’ suit over alleged Cosmos training data. At a hearing, Nvidia’s counsel argued that YouTube’s safeguards were not DMCA access controls because the videos were viewable by anyone. That is Nvidia’s litigation argument, not a judicial holding. The July report does not establish the case’s later disposition.

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How to read the “caught stealing” claim

The available evidence supports a specific, qualified account: Proof News reported a substantial internal video-data effort with a strong YouTube focus, and later plaintiffs alleged that Nvidia used YouTube-linked data in training Cosmos and defeated access controls. Nvidia has maintained that its work complied with copyright law and has disputed legal claims in court. The cited reporting and case developments do not establish a court finding that Nvidia “stole” videos.

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  • Reported internal communications: what Proof News said it found in Slack messages and documents.
  • Company statements and court arguments: Nvidia’s positions, not neutral findings.
  • Complaint allegations: claims that plaintiffs still have to prove.
  • Court rulings: the sources described here do not report a ruling establishing that the alleged video use was unlawful.

Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on Amazon at the time of purchase will apply.

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