Nvidia’s AI empire: A take a look at its prime startup investments

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Nvidia’s AI empire: A take a look at its prime startup investments


No firm has capitalized on the AI revolution extra dramatically than Nvidia. Its income, profitability, and money reserves have skyrocketed for the reason that introduction of ChatGPT over two years in the past — and the various aggressive generative AI providers which have launched since. And its inventory worth soared. 

During that interval, the world’s main high-performance GPU maker has used its ballooning fortunes to considerably improve investments in all kinds of startups however significantly in AI startups.

The chip large ramped up its enterprise capital exercise in 2024, collaborating in 49 funding rounds for AI firms, a pointy improve from 34 in 2023, in accordance with PitchBook knowledge. It’s a dramatic surge in funding in comparison with the earlier 4 years mixed, throughout which Nvidia funded solely 38 AI offers. Note that these investments exclude these made by its formal company VC fund, NVentures, which additionally considerably ramped up its investing within the final two years. (PitchBook says NVentures engaged in 24 offers in 2024, in comparison with simply 2 in 2022.) 

In 2025, Nvidia has already participated in seven rounds.

Nvidia has acknowledged that the aim of its company investing is to broaden the AI ecosystem by backing startups it considers to be “game changers and market makers.” 

Below is an inventory of startups that raised rounds exceeding $100 million the place Nvidia is a named participant since 2023, together with new ones it has backed up to now in 2025,  organized from the very best quantity to lowest raised within the spherical.

The billion-dollar-round membership

OpenAI: Nvidia backed the ChatGPT maker for the primary time in October, reportedly writing a $100 million examine towards a colossal $6.6 billion spherical that valued the corporate at $157 billion. The chipmaker’s funding was dwarfed by OpenAI’s different backers, notably Thrive, which in accordance with the New York Times invested $1.3 billion.

xAI:  Nvidia participated within the $6 billion spherical of Elon Musk’s xAI. The deal revealed that not all of OpenAI’s buyers adopted its request to chorus from backing any of its direct rivals. After investing within the ChatGPT maker in October, Nvidia joined xAI’s cap desk just a few months later.

Inflection:  One of Nvidia’s first important AI investments additionally had one of the uncommon outcomes. In June 2023, Nvidia was one among a number of lead buyers in Inflection’s $1.3 billion spherical, an organization based by Mustafa Suleyman, who earlier based DeepMind. Less than a 12 months later, Microsoft employed Inflection AI’s founders, paying $620 million for a non-exclusive know-how license, leaving the corporate with a considerably diminished workforce and a much less outlined future.

Wayve: In May, Nvidia participated in a $1.05 billion spherical for the U.Okay.-based startup, which is creating a self-learning system for autonomous driving. The firm is testing its autos within the U.Okay. and the San Francisco Bay Area.

Scale AI: In May 2024, Nvidia joined Accel and different tech giants Amazon and Meta to speculate $1 billion in Scale AI, which supplies data-labeling providers to firms for coaching AI fashions. The spherical valued the San Francisco-based firm at almost $14 billion.

The many-hundreds-of-millions-of-dollars membership

Crusoe: A startup constructing knowledge facilities reportedly to be leased to Oracle, Microsoft, and OpenAI raised $686 million in late November, in accordance with an SEC submitting. The funding was led by Founders Fund, and the lengthy listing of different buyers included Nvidia.

Figure AI: In February 2024, AI robotics startup Figure raised a $675 million Series B from Nvidia, OpenAI Startup Fund, Microsoft, and others. The spherical valued the corporate at $2.6 billion.

Mistral AI: Nvidia invested in Mistral for the second time when the French-based giant language mannequin developer raised a $640 million Series B at a $6 billion valuation in June.  

Lambda: AI cloud supplier Lambda, which supplies providers for mannequin coaching, raised a $480 million Series D at a reported $2.5 billion valuation in February. The spherical was co-led by SGW and Andra Capital Lambda, and joined by Nvidia, ARK Invest and others. A big a part of Lambda’s enterprise includes renting servers powered by Nvidia’s GPUs.

Cohere: In June, Nvidia invested in Cohere’s $500 million spherical, a big language mannequin supplier serving enterprises. The chipmaker first backed the Toronto-based startup in 2023.

Perplexity: Nvidia first invested in Perplexity in November of 2023 and has participated in each subsequent spherical of the AI search engine startup, together with the $500 million spherical in December, which values the corporate at $9 billion, in accordance with PitchBook knowledge.

Poolside: In October, the AI coding assistant startup Poolside introduced it raised $500 million led by Bain Capital Ventures. Nvidia participated within the spherical, which valued the AI startup at $3 billion.

CoreWeave: Nvidia invested within the AI cloud computing supplier in April 2023, when CoreWeave raised $221 million in funding. Since then, CoreWeave’s valuation has jumped from about $2 billion to $19 billion, and the corporate has filed for an IPO. CoreWeave permits its prospects to lease Nvidia GPUs on an hourly foundation.

Together AI: In February, Nvidia participated within the $305 million Series B of this firm, which affords cloud-based infrastructure for constructing AI fashions. The spherical valued TogetherAi at $3.3 billion, and was co-led by Prosperity7, a Saudi Arabian enterprise agency, and General Catalyst. Nvidia backed the corporate for the primary time in 2023. 

Sakana AI: In September, Nvidia invested in the Japan-based startup, which trains low-cost generative AI fashions utilizing small datasets. The startup raised a large Series A spherical of about $214 million at a valuation of $1.5 billion.

Imbue: The AI analysis lab that claims to be creating AI techniques that may cause and code raised a $200 million spherical in September 2023 from buyers, together with Nvidia, Astera Institute, and former Cruise CEO Kyle Vogt.

Waabi: In June, the autonomous trucking startup raised a $200 million Series B spherical co-led by present buyers Uber and Khosla Ventures. Other buyers included Nvidia, Volvo Group Venture Capital, and Porsche Automobil Holding SE.

Deals of over a $100 million

Ayar Labs: In December, Nvidia invested within the $155 million spherical of Ayar Labs, a firm creating optical interconnects to enhance AI compute and energy effectivity. This was the third time Nvidia backed the startup.

Kore.ai: The startup creating enterprise-focused AI chatbots raised $150 million in December of 2023. In addition to Nvidia, buyers collaborating within the funding included FTV Capital, Vistara Growth, and Sweetwater Private Equity.

Hippocratic AI: This startup, which is creating giant language fashions for healthcare, introduced in January that it raised a $141 million Series B at a valuation of $1.64 billion led by Kleiner Perkins. Nvidia participated within the spherical, together with returning buyers Andreessen Horowitz, General Catalyst and others. The firm claims that its AI options can deal with non-diagnostic patient-facing duties reminiscent of pre-operating procedures, distant affected person monitoring, and appointment preparation.

Weka: In May, Nvidia invested in a $140 million spherical for AI-native knowledge administration platform Weka. The spherical valued the Silicon Valley firm at $1.6 billion.

Runway:  In June of 2023, Runway, a startup constructing generative AI instruments for multimedia content material creators, raised a $141 million Series C extension from buyers, together with Nvidia, Google, and Salesforce.

Bright Machines: In June 2024, Nvidia participated in a $126 million Series C of Bright Machines, a wise robotics and AI-driven software program startup.

Enfabrica: In September 2023, Nvidia invested in networking chips designer Enfabrica’s $125 million Series B. Although the startup raised one other $115 million in November, Nvidia didn’t take part within the spherical.

Editor’s be aware: Previous model of this story incorrectly acknowledged that Nvidia is a backer of Safe Superintelligence and an investor in Vast Data’s Series E spherical. Nvidia hasn’t invested in Vast Data for the reason that firm’s Series D.  

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