Nvidia’s Aggressive AI Investment Strategy
No company has ridden the AI wave as successfully as Nvidia. Its revenue, profits, and cash reserves have exploded since the rise of generative AI, particularly since ChatGPT’s debut over two years ago. Consequently, the world’s leading high-performance GPU maker has significantly ramped up its investments in various startups, with a distinct emphasis on AI companies.
Nvidia’s venture capital activity surged in 2024, participating in 49 funding rounds for AI companies, a substantial increase from 34 in 2023, according to PitchBook data. This investment reflects a dramatic acceleration compared to the preceding four years combined, during which Nvidia funded only 38 AI deals. These figures exclude investments made by NVentures, Nvidia’s corporate VC fund, which also significantly increased its investment activity in the last two years. (PitchBook reports NVentures engaged in 24 deals in 2024, compared to only two in 2022.) As of 2025, Nvidia has already been involved in seven investment rounds.
Nvidia has stated that its corporate investing strategy aims to expand the AI ecosystem by supporting startups it considers to be “game changers and market makers.”
The Billion-Dollar-Round Club
Here’s a look at some of the notable startups that have received significant funding with Nvidia’s backing, organized from highest to lowest amount raised:
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OpenAI: Nvidia made its first investment in the ChatGPT maker in October, reportedly contributing $100 million to a colossal $6.6 billion round that valued the company at $157 billion. However, Nvidia’s investment was dwarfed by other backers, like Thrive, which invested $1.3 billion, according to the New York Times.
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xAI: Nvidia participated in Elon Musk’s xAI’s $6 billion round. This deal highlighted that not all of OpenAI’s investors followed the reported request to refrain from backing its direct competitors. Nvidia joined xAI’s cap table a few months after investing in OpenAI.
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Inflection AI: One of Nvidia’s earlier significant AI investments had a somewhat unusual outcome. In June 2023, Nvidia was a lead investor in Inflection’s $1.3 billion round. The company was founded by Mustafa Suleyman, a co-founder of DeepMind. However, less than a year later, Microsoft hired Inflection AI’s founders and paid around $620 million for a non-exclusive technology license, which left Inflection AI with a significantly reduced workforce and an uncertain future.
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Wayve: In May, Nvidia participated in a $1.05 billion round for Wayve, a U.K.-based startup developing a self-learning system for autonomous driving. Wayve is testing its vehicles in the U.K. and the San Francisco Bay Area.
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Scale AI: In May 2024, Nvidia, along with Accel and other major tech companies such as Amazon and Meta, invested $1 billion in Scale AI, which provides data-labeling services for training AI models. This round valued the San Francisco-based company at almost $14 billion.
The Many-Hundreds-of-Millions-of-Dollars Club
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Crusoe: This startup builds data centers, reportedly leased to companies like Oracle, Microsoft, and OpenAI, which raised $686 million in late November, according to an SEC filing. The investment was led by Founders Fund and included Nvidia among its investors.
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Figure AI: In February 2024, AI robotics startup Figure raised a $675 million Series B round from investors including Nvidia, the OpenAI Startup Fund, and Microsoft. The round valued the company at $2.6 billion.
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Mistral AI: Nvidia invested in Mistral for the second time when the French-based large language model developer raised a $640 million Series B at a $6 billion valuation in June.
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Lambda: The AI cloud provider Lambda, which provides services for model training, raised a $480 million Series D at a reported $2.5 billion valuation in February. This round involved SGW and Andra Capital Lambda, and was joined by Nvidia, ARK Invest, and others. Lambda’s business includes renting servers powered by Nvidia’s GPUs.
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Cohere: In June, Nvidia invested in Cohere’s $500 million round. Cohere is a large language model provider that serves enterprises. The chipmaker first backed the Toronto-based startup in 2023.
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Perplexity: Nvidia invested in Perplexity in November 2023 and has participated in every subsequent round of the AI search engine startup, including a $500 million round in December, which values the company at $9 billion, according to PitchBook data.
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Poolside: In October, the AI coding assistant startup Poolside announced it raised $500 million led by Bain Capital Ventures. Nvidia was among the investors in the round, which valued the AI startup at $3 billion.
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CoreWeave: Nvidia invested in the AI cloud computing provider in April 2023, during which CoreWeave raised $221 million in funding. Since then, CoreWeave’s valuation has jumped from about $2 billion to $19 billion, and the company has filed for an IPO. CoreWeave allows its customers to rent Nvidia GPUs on an hourly basis.
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Together AI: In February, Nvidia participated in the $305 million Series B of this company, which offers cloud-based infrastructure for building AI models. The round valued Together AI at $3.3 billion and was co-led by Prosperity7 and General Catalyst. Nvidia initially backed the company in 2023.
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Sakana AI: In September, Nvidia invested in this Japan-based startup that develops low-cost generative AI models using small datasets. The startup raised a significant Series A round of about $214 million at a valuation of $1.5 billion.
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Imbue: The AI research lab that is developing AI systems that can reason and code raised a $200 million round in September 2023 from investors, including Nvidia, Astera Institute, and former Cruise CEO Kyle Vogt.
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Waabi: In June, the autonomous trucking startup Waabi raised a $200 million Series B round co-led by existing investors Uber and Khosla Ventures. Other investors included Nvidia, Volvo Group Venture Capital, and Porsche Automobil Holding SE.
Deals exceeding $100 million
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Ayar Labs: In December, Nvidia invested in Ayar Labs’ $155 million round. Ayar Labs is developing optical interconnects to improve AI compute and power efficiency. This was the third time Nvidia has backed the startup.
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Kore.ai: This startup, which develops enterprise-focused AI chatbots, raised $150 million in December 2023. Nvidia’s funding was joined by other investors including FTV Capital, Vistara Growth, and Sweetwater Private Equity.
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Hippocratic AI: This startup developing large language models for healthcare announced in January that it raised a $141 million Series B at a $1.64 billion valuation led by Kleiner Perkins. Nvidia participated in the round, along with returning investors Andreessen Horowitz, General Catalyst, and others. The company asserts that its AI solutions can effectively handle non-diagnostic patient-facing tasks like pre-operating procedures, remote patient monitoring, and appointment preparation.
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Weka: In May, Nvidia invested in a $140 million round for Weka, an AI-native data management platform. The round valued the Silicon Valley company at $1.6 billion.
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Runway: In June 2023, Runway raised a $141 million Series C extension, from investors including Nvidia, Google, and Salesforce. Runway builds generative AI tools for multimedia content creators.
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Bright Machines: In June 2024, Nvidia participated in a $126 million Series C for Bright Machines, a smart robotics and AI-driven software startup.
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Enfabrica: In September 2023, Nvidia invested in networking chips designer Enfabrica’s $125 million Series B. Although the startup raised another $115 million in November, Nvidia didn’t participate in the round.
Editor’s note: A previous version of this story incorrectly stated that Nvidia is a backer of Safe Superintelligence and an investor in Vast Data’s Series E round. Nvidia hasn’t invested in Vast Data since the company’s Series D.
