A Grothendieck universe is known in set theory as the set Vκ for a (strongly) inaccessible cardinal κ. They are exactly the same thing. Thus, the existence of a Grothendieck universe is exactly equivalent to the existence of one inaccessible cardinal. These cardinals and the corresponding universes have been studied in set theory for over a century.
The Grothendieck Universe axiom (AU) is the assertion that every set is an element of a universe in this sense. Thus, it is equivalent to the assertion that the inaccessible cardinals are unbounded in the cardinals. In other words, that there is a proper class of inaccessible cardinals. This is the axiom you sought, which is exactly equivalent to AU. In this sense, the axiom AU is a statement in set theory, having nothing necessarily to do with category theory.
The large cardinal axioms are fruitfully measured in strength not just by direct implication, but also by their consistency strength. One large cardinal property LC1 is stronger than another LC2 in consistency strength if the consistency of ZFC with an LC1 large cardinal implies the consistency of ZFC with an LC2 large cardinal.
Measured in this way, the AU axiom has a stronger consistency strength than the existence of any finite or accessible number of inaccessible cardinals, and so one might think it rather strong. But actually, it is much weaker than the existence of a single Mahlo cardinal, the traditional next-step-up in the large cardinal hierarchy. The reason is that if κ is Mahlo, then κ is a limit of inaccessible cardinals, and so Vκ will satisfy ZFC plus the AU axiom. The difference between AU and Mahloness has to do with the thickness of the class of inaccessible cardinals. For example, strictly stronger than AU and weaker than a Mahlo cardinal is the assertion that the inaccessible cardinals form a stationary proper class, an assertion known as the Levy Scheme (which is provably equivconsistent with some other interesting axioms of set theory, such as the boldface Maximality Principle, which I have studied a lot). Even Mahlo cardinals are regarded as rather low in the large cardinal hierarchy, far below the weakly compact cardinals, Ramsey cardinals, measurable cardinals, strong cardinals and supercompact cardinals. In particular, if δ is any of these large cardinals, then δ is a limit of Mahlo cardinals, and certainly a limit of strongly inaccessible cardinals. So in particular, Vδ will be a model of the AU axiom.
Rather few of the large cardinal axioms imnply AU directly, since most of them remain true if one were to cut off the universe at a given inaccessible cardinal, a process that kills AU. Nevertheless, implicit beteween levels of the large caridnal hiearchy are the axioms of the same form as AU, which assert an unbounded class of the given cardinal. For example, one might want to have unboundedly many Mahlo cardinals, or unboundedly many measurable cardinals, and so on. And the consistency strength of these axioms is still below the consistency strength of a single supercompact cardinal. The hierarchy is extremely fine and intensely studied. For example, the assertion that there are unboundedly many strong cardinals is equiconsistent with the impossiblity to affect projective truth by forcing. The existence of a proper class of Woodin cardinals is particularly robust set-theoretically, and all of these axioms are far stronger than AU.
There are natural weakenings of AU that still allow for almost all if not all of what category theorists do with these universes. Namely, with the universes, it would seem to suffice for almost all category-theoretic purposes, if a given universe U were merely a model of ZFC, rather than Vκ for an inaccessible cardinal κ. The difference is that U is merely a model of the Power set axiom, rather than actually being closed under the true power sets (and similarly using Replacement in place of regularity). The weakening of AU I have in mind is the axiom that asserts that every set is an element of a transitive model of ZFC. This assertion is strictly weaker in consistency strength thatn even a single inaccessible cardinal. One can get much lower, if one weakens the concept of universe to just a fragment of ZFC. Then one could arrive at a version of AU that was actually provable in ZFC, but which could be used for most all of the applications in cateogory theory to my knowledge. In this sense, ZFC itself is a kind of large cardinal axiom relative to the weaker fragments of ZFC.
This probably isn't the kind of thing anyone just knows off hand, so anyone who's going to answer the question is just going to look at a list of large cardinal axioms and their definitions, and try to see which ones are satisfied by $\aleph _0$ and which aren't. You could've probably done this just as well as I could have, but I decided I'd do it just for the heck of it.
First of all, this doesn't cover all large cardinal axioms. Second, many large cardinal axioms have different formulations which end up being equivalent for uncountable cardinals, or perhaps inaccessible cardinals, but may end up inequivalent in the context of $\aleph _0$. So even for the large cardinals that I'll look at, I might not look at all possible formulations.
- weakly inaccessible - yes, obviously
- inaccessible - yes, obviously
- Mahlo - no, since the only finite "inaccessibles" are 0, 1, and 2 as noted by Michael Hardy in the comments, and the only stationary subsets of $\omega$ are the cofinite ones
- weakly compact:
- in the sense of the Weak Compactness Theorem - yes, by the Compactness Theorem
- in the sense of being inaccessible and having the tree property - yes, by Konig's Lemma
- in the sense of $\Pi ^1 _1$-indescribability - no, it's not even $\Pi ^0 _2$-indescribable as witnessed by the sentence $\forall x \exists y (x \in y)$
- indescribable - no, since it's not even $\Pi ^0 _2$-indescribable
- Jonsson - no, the algebra $(\omega, n \mapsto n \dot{-} 1)$ has no proper infinite subalgebra
- Ramsey - no, the function $F : [\omega ]^{< \omega} \to \omega$ defined by $F(x) = 1$ if $|x| \in x$ and $0$ otherwise has no infinite homogeneous set
- measurable:
- in the sense of ultrafilters - yes, by Zorn's Lemma, and because filters are $\omega$-complete by definition, i.e. closed under finite intersections
- in the sense of elementary embeddings - no, obviously
- strong - no, obviously (taking the elementary embedding definition)
- Woodin - ditto
- strongly compact:
- in the sense of the Compactness Theorem - yes, by the Compactness Theorem
- in the sense of complete ultrafilters - yes, as in the case of measurables
- in the sense of fine measures - yes, by Zorn's Lemma, and because filters are $\omega$-complete by definition
- supercompact:
- in the sense of normal measures - no, if $x \subset \lambda$ is finite and $X$ is the collection of all finite subsets of $\lambda$ which contain $x$, then the function $f : X \to \lambda$ defined by $f(y) = \max (y)$ is regressive, but for any $Y \subset X$, if $f$ is constant on $Y$ with value $\alpha$, then Y avoids the collection of finite subsets of $\lambda$ which contain $\{ \alpha + 1\}$ and hence Y cannot belong to any normal measure on $P_{\omega }(\lambda)$
- in the sense of elementary embeddings - no, obviously
- Vopenka - no, take models of the empty language of different (finite) sizes
- huge - no, obviously (taking the elementary embedding definition)
Best Answer
The line of reasoning you mention at the end of your post, firmly in support of large cardinals, was first argued forcefully in
and the ideas are further discussed, explained and basically supported in
Penelope Maddy, Believing the axioms. I, J. Symbolic Logic 53 (1988), no. 2, 481--511.
Penelope Maddy, Believing the axioms. II, J. Symbolic Logic 53 (1988), no. 3, 736--764.
These articles have now a rather large literature of discussion and criticism in the philosophy of set theory. To get started, you might find further resources on the reading list of my recent course NYU Philosophy of Set Theory. One can now find numerous articles arguing on any given side of each issue.