{"rid":"compute/nvidia-inception","card":{"rid":"compute/nvidia-inception","eid":"nvidia","topic":"compute","slug":"nvidia-inception","provider":"NVIDIA Inception","url":"https://programs.nvidia.com/phoenix/application","domain":"nvidia.com","category":"cloud VM","tier":null,"verdict":"fails-identity","vorder":4,"grp":"rejected","confidence":"documented","binding":"write-gated","identity_kind":"institution","identity_basis":"stated","needs_card":0,"needs_phone":0,"needs_id":0,"needs_institution":1,"country":null,"crypto":null,"interfaces":null,"egress_metered":null,"per_object_bytes":null,"retention_days":null,"verified_at":"2026-10-22T00:00:00.000Z","verified_basis":"live","checked_on":"2026-10-22","stale_on":"2026-11-21","n_evidence":3,"usd_month":null,"usd_per_tb_month":null,"summary":"A free program with no application fees, deadlines or cohorts. Members get developer tools and training, preferred pricing on NVIDIA hardware and software, a...","duplicate_of":null,"n_unknown":9},"record":{"topic":"compute","slug":"nvidia-inception","provider":"NVIDIA Inception","url":"https://programs.nvidia.com/phoenix/application","category":"cloud VM","free_tier":{"stated":"A free program with no application fees, deadlines or cohorts. Members get developer tools and training, preferred pricing on NVIDIA hardware and software, and 'access to free cloud credits from NVIDIA and partners'. Minimum requirements state the company must be officially incorporated and less than 10 years old. Solo founders with no other employees may apply.","unit":"none","metered_on":"wall-clock","source_url":"https://programs.nvidia.com/phoenix/application","read_on":"2026-10-22","notes":"membership-perks"},"per_object_cap":{"stated":"not applicable","bytes":null,"source_url":"https://programs.nvidia.com/phoenix/application","notes":null},"retention":{"stated":"not applicable","days":null,"source_url":"https://programs.nvidia.com/phoenix/application","notes":null},"egress":{"terms":"not stated","metered":false,"free_allowance":null,"price_per_tb":null,"source_url":"https://programs.nvidia.com/phoenix/application"},"interface":["unknown"],"interface_detail":"inferred from the tooling the provider documents; not probed","tooling":"not stated","chaining":"Inception is the front door to the partner credit offers rather than a credit in itself, and the published partner credit found here, Lambda, is USD 1,000 and also demands incorporation. The chain is short and every link needs a company.","limits":[{"kind":"write-gated","value":"The incorporation requirement fails first, so the member-only cloud credits and preferred hardware pricing are unreachable without a legal entity; the credit amount itself is not published.","source":"https://programs.nvidia.com/phoenix/application"}],"limits_note":"The incorporation requirement fails first, so the member-only cloud credits and preferred hardware pricing are unreachable without a legal entity; the credit amount itself is not published.","binding":"write-gated","binding_note":"The incorporation requirement fails first, so the member-only cloud credits and preferred hardware pricing are unreachable without a legal entity; the credit amount itself is not published.","identity_cost":{"kind":"institution","detail":"Explicitly requires the company to be 'officially incorporated', a working website, a business email on a non-generic domain (gmail.com and info@ aliases refused), and two named contacts, with a carve-out that solo founders may apply. The incorporation requirement is the binding term and is not waived for solo founders.","country":null},"reliability_note":"no reliability event recorded","confidence":"documented","evidence":[{"url":"https://programs.nvidia.com/phoenix/application","date":"2026-10-22","proved":"qualification requires the company to be 'officially incorporated', less than 10 years old, with a working website and a non-generic business email, quoted"},{"url":"https://programs.nvidia.com/phoenix/application","date":"2026-10-22","proved":"'Solo founders with no other employees may also apply' alongside the incorporation requirement, quoted"},{"url":"https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/startups/","date":"2026-10-22","proved":"benefits include 'Access free cloud credits from NVIDIA and partners', with no amount, tier or expiry published, quoted"}],"verdict":"fails-identity","verified_at":"2026-10-22T00:00:00.000Z","notes":"Membership is free and the partner credits are the actual value, but no dollar figure is published for the NVIDIA-side cloud credits at all, so the amount is null rather than guessed. This is the refutation of the GPU-vendor startup path: the program that gates every partner credit requires a legal entity.","extras":{"wave2":{"class":"startup-credit","free_tier_kind":"membership-perks","shape":null}}},"claims":[{"path":"$.free_tier.stated","kind":"free-quota","num":null,"unit":null,"per":null,"currency":null,"usd":null,"fx_date":null,"parse":"unparsed"},{"path":"$.limits[0].value","kind":"limit:write-gated","num":null,"unit":null,"per":null,"currency":null,"usd":null,"fx_date":null,"parse":"unparsed"}],"unknown":[["$.egress.metered","egress-unknown"],["$.egress.terms","not-stated"],["$.interface","interface-unknown"],["$.per_object_cap.notes","process"],["$.per_object_cap.stated","not-applicable"],["$.reliability_note","none-observed"],["$.retention.notes","process"],["$.retention.stated","not-applicable"],["$.tooling","not-stated"]],"history":[],"drift":[]}