Nvidia’s AI empire: A have 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 because the introduction of ChatGPT over two years in the past — and the various aggressive generative AI companies which have launched since. Its inventory value has soared, making it a $4.5 trillion market cap firm. 

The world’s main high-performance GPU maker has used its ballooning fortunes to considerably improve investments in startups, significantly in AI. 

Nvidia has participated in 50 enterprise capital offers thus far in 2025, already surpassing the 48 offers the corporate accomplished in all of 2024, in response to PitchBook knowledge. Observe that these investments exclude these made by its formal company VC fund, NVentures, which additionally considerably elevated its funding tempo over that interval. (PitchBook says NVentures engaged in 21 offers this yr, in comparison with only one in 2022.)  

Nvidia has said that the objective of its company investing is to develop the AI ecosystem by backing startups it considers to be “recreation changers and market makers.”  

Beneath is a listing of startups that raised rounds exceeding $100 million since 2023 the place Nvidia is a named participant, organized from the very best to lowest quantity raised within the spherical. 

This checklist exhibits simply how far and huge Nvidia has unfold its tentacles within the tech business, past supplying its merchandise. 

The billion-dollar-round membership

OpenAI: Nvidia backed the ChatGPT maker for the primary time in October 2024, reportedly writing a $100 million verify as a part of 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 response to the New York Occasions invested $1.3 billion. Whereas PitchBook knowledge signifies Nvidia didn’t take part in OpenAI’s $40 billion funding spherical that closed in March, the chipmaker introduced in September that it will make investments as much as $100 billion within the firm over time, structured as a strategic partnership to deploy large AI infrastructure. 

xAI: In 2024, OpenAI tried to influence its buyers to not spend money on any of its rivals. However Nvidia participated within the $6 billion spherical of Elon Musk’s xAI final December anyway. Nvidia can even make investments as much as $2 billion within the fairness portion of xAI’s deliberate $20 billion funding spherical, Bloomberg reported, a deal structured to assist xAI buy extra Nvidia gear. 

Mistral AI: Nvidia invested in Mistral for the third time when the French-based massive language mannequin developer raised €1.7 billion (about $2 billion) Collection C at a €11.7billion ($13.5 billion) post-money valuation in September.   

Reflection AI: In October, Nvidia led a $2 billion funding spherical for Reflection AI, a one-year-old startup, valuing the corporate at $8 billion. Reflection AI is positioning itself as a US-based competitor to Chinese language DeepSeek, whose open-source massive language mannequin presents a less-expensive different to closed-source fashions from firms corresponding to OpenAI and Anthropic. 

Considering Machines Lab: Nvidia was amongst a protracted checklist of buyers who backed former OpenAI Chief Know-how Officer Mira Murati’s Considering Machines Lab’s $2 billion seed spherical. The funding, which was formally introduced in July, valued the brand new AI startup at $12 billion. 

Inflection: One in all Nvidia’s first important AI investments additionally had one of many extra uncommon (however more and more widespread) outcomes. In June 2023, Nvidia was one in every of a number of lead buyers in Inflection’s $1.3 billion spherical, an organization co-founded by Mustafa Suleyman, the famed founding father of DeepMind. Lower than a yr later, Microsoft employed Inflection’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. 

Nscale: After the startup’s $1.1 billion spherical in September, Nvidia participated in Nscale’s $433 million SAFE funding in October. That’s a deal that secures future fairness for buyers. Nscale, which fashioned in 2023 after spinning out of Australian cryptocurrency mining firm Akorn Power, is constructing knowledge facilities within the UK and Norway for OpenAI’s Stargate mission. 

Wayve: In Could 2024, Nvidia participated in a $1.05 billion spherical for the U.Okay.-based startup, which is growing a self-learning system for autonomous driving. Nvidia is predicted to take a position an dditional $500 million in Wayve, the startup instructed TechCrunch in September. Wayve is testing its automobiles within the U.Okay. and the San Francisco Bay Space. 

Determine AI: In September, Nvidia participated within the Determine AI’s Collection C funding spherical of over $1 billion, which valued the humanoid robotics startup at $39 billion. The chipmaker first invested in Determine in February 2024 when the corporate raised a $675 million Collection B spherical at a $2.6 billion valuation. 

Scale AI: In Could 2024, Nvidia joined Accel and different tech giants Amazon and Meta to take a position $1 billion in Scale AI, which gives data-labeling companies to firms for coaching AI fashions. The spherical valued the San Francisco-based firm at practically $14 billion. In June, Meta invested $14.3 billion for a 49% stake of Scale, and employed away the corporate’s co-founder and CEO Alexandr Wang, in addition to a number of different key Scale staff. 

The various-hundreds-of-millions-of-dollars membership

Commonwealth Fusion: The chipmaker participated within the nuclear fusion-energy startup’s  $863 million funding spherical in August 2025. The deal, which additionally included buyers like Google and Breakthrough Power Ventures, valued the corporate at $3 billion. 

Crusoe: A startup constructing knowledge facilities reportedly to be leased to Oracle, Microsoft, and OpenAI raised $686 million in November 2024, in response to an SEC submitting. The funding was led by Founders Fund, and the lengthy checklist of different buyers included Nvidia. 

Cohere: The chipmaker has invested in enterprise massive language mannequin supplier Cohere throughout a number of funding rounds, together with the $500 million Collection D, which closed in August, valuing Cohere at $6.8 billion. Nvidia first backed the Toronto-based startup in 2023. 

Perplexity: Nvidia first invested in Perplexity in November 2023 and has participated in a lot of the subsequent funding rounds of the AI search engine startup, together with the $500 million spherical closed in December 2024. The chipmaker participated within the firm’s July funding spherical, which valued Perplexity at $18 billion. Nevertheless, Nvidia didn’t be part of the startup’s subsequent $200 million fundraise in September, which boosted the corporate’s valuation to $20 billion, in response to PitchBook knowledge. 

Poolside: In October 2024, 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. 

Lambda: AI cloud supplier Lambda, which gives companies for mannequin coaching, raised a $480 million Collection 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 Make investments, and others. A major a part of Lambda’s enterprise includes renting servers powered by Nvidia’s GPUs. 

CoreWeave: Though CoreWeave is now not a startup, however a public firm, Nvidia invested in GPU-cloud supplier when it was nonetheless one, again in April 2023. That’s when CoreWeave raised $221 million in funding. Nvidia stays a major shareholder. 

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

Firmus Applied sciences: In September, Firmus Applied sciences, the Singapore-based knowledge heart firm, obtained A$330 million (roughly $215 million USD) in funding at a A$1.85 billion ($1.2 billion USD) valuation from buyers, together with Nvidia. Firmus is growing an energy-efficient ‘AI manufacturing facility’ in Tasmania, an island state of Australia. The startup initially offered cooling applied sciences for Bitcoin mining. 

Sakana AI: In September 2024, Nvidia invested in the Japan-based startup, which trains low-cost generative AI fashions utilizing small datasets. The startup raised an enormous Collection A spherical of about $214 million at a valuation of $1.5 billion. 

Nuro: In August, Nvidia participated within the $203 million funding spherical for the self-driving startup targeted on supply. The deal valued Nuro at $6 billion, a major 30% drop from its peak at $8.6 billion valuation in 2021. 

Imbue: The AI analysis lab that claims to be growing AI methods 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 2024, the autonomous trucking startup raised a $200 million Collection B spherical co-led by present buyers Uber and Khosla Ventures. Different buyers included Nvidia, Volvo Group Enterprise Capital, and Porsche Automobil Holding SE. 

Offers of over a $100 million

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

Kore.ai: The startup growing enterprise-focused AI chatbots raised $150 million in December of 2023. Along with Nvidia, buyers collaborating within the funding included FTV Capital, Vistara Development, and Sweetwater Personal Fairness. 

Sandbox AQ: In April, Nvidia, alongside Google, BNP Paribas, and others, invested $150 million in Sandbox AQ, a startup growing massive quantitative fashions (LQMs) for dealing with complicated numerical evaluation and statistical calculations. The funding elevated Sandbox AQ’s Collection E spherical to $450 million and the corporate’s valuation to $5.75 billion. 

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

Weka: In Could 2024, 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 April, Nvidia participated in Runway’s $308 million spherical, which was led by Basic Atlantic and valued the startup growing generative AI fashions for media manufacturing at $3.55 billion, in response to PitchBook knowledge. The chipmaker has been an investor in since 2023.  

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

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

Reka AI: In July, an AI analysis lab Reka, raised $110 million in a spherical that included Snowflake and Nvidia. The deal tripled the startup’s valuation to over $1 billion, in response to Bloomberg.