Nvidia’s AI empire: A look at its top startup investments

Nvidia’s AI empire: A look at its top startup investments

No company has capitalized on the AI revolution more dramatically than Nvidia. Its income, profitability, and money reserves have skyrocketed since the introduction of ChatGPT over three years in the past — and the many competitive generative AI companies that have launched since. Its inventory worth has soared, making it a $4.6 trillion market cap company. 

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

Nvidia has participated in practically 67 enterprise capital offers in 2025, surpassing the 54 offers the company accomplished in all of 2024, according to PitchBook data. Note that these investments exclude those made by its formal company VC fund, NVentures, which also considerably elevated its funding tempo over that interval. (PitchBook says NVentures engaged in 30 offers this 12 months, in comparison with just one in 2022.)  

Nvidia has acknowledged that the aim of its company investing is to increase 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 since 2023 the place Nvidia is a named participant, organized from the highest to lowest quantity raised in the round. 

This record exhibits just how far and broad Nvidia has unfold its tentacles in the tech business, past supplying its merchandise.

The billion-dollar-round club

OpenAI: Nvidia backed the ChatGPT maker for the first time in October 2024, reportedly writing a $100 million examine as a part of a colossal $6.6 billion round that valued the company at $157 billion. The chipmaker’s funding was dwarfed by OpenAI’s other backers, notably Thrive, which invested $1.3 billion according to The New York Times. While PitchBook data signifies Nvidia didn’t take part in OpenAI’s $40 billion funding round that closed in March, the company announced in September that it might make investments as much as $100 billion in OpenAI over time, structured as a strategic partnership to deploy large AI infrastructure. Nvidia later revealed in its quarterly filings that it may not observe by, stating, “There is no assurance that any investment will be completed on expected terms, if at all.”

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Anthropic: In November 2025, Nvidia made its first direct funding in the AI lab, committing up to $10 billion as a part of a strategic round that included a $5 billion examine from Microsoft. In a “circular” spending settlement, Anthropic dedicated to spending $30 billion on Microsoft Azure compute capability, in addition to purchase Nvidia’s future Grace Blackwell and Vera Rubin techniques.

Cursor: In November, Nvidia made its first strategic funding in the AI-powered code assistant collaborating in a large $2.3 billion Series D round co-led by Accel and Coatue. The deal valued Cursor at $29.3 billion, an almost 15-fold enhance since the start of the 12 months. While Nvidia has lengthy been an enterprise buyer, the round marked its official entry as a shareholder alongside Google.

xAI: In 2024, OpenAI tried to influence its traders to not spend money on any of its rivals. But Nvidia participated in the $6 billion round of Elon Musk’s xAI last December anyway. Nvidia will also make investments as much as $2 billion in the fairness portion of xAI’s deliberate $20 billion funding round, Bloomberg reported, a deal structured to assist xAI buy more Nvidia gear. 

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

Reflection AI: In October, Nvidia was one in every of the most vital traders in Reflection AI, contributing to a $2 billion funding round that valued the one-year-old startup at $8 billion. Reflection AI is positioning itself as a U.S.-based competitor to Chinese DeepSeek, whose open source LLM provides a less-expensive different to closed source fashions from corporations such as OpenAI and Anthropic. 

Thinking Machines Lab: Nvidia was among a protracted record of traders who backed former OpenAI chief technology officer Mira Murati’s Thinking Machines Lab’s $2 billion seed round. The funding, which was formally announced in July, valued the new AI startup at $12 billion. 

Inflection: One of Nvidia’s first vital AI investments also had one in every of the more uncommon (however more and more frequent) outcomes. In June 2023, Nvidia was one in every of a number of lead traders in Inflection’s $1.3 billion round, a company co-founded by Mustafa Suleyman, the famed founding father of DeepMind. Less than a 12 months later, Microsoft employed Inflection’s founders, paying $620 million for a non-exclusive technology license, leaving the company with a considerably diminished workforce and a less outlined future. 

Crusoe: In October, the chipmaker participated in a $1.4 billion Series E round that valued the AI data middle developer at $10 billion. Nvidia first backed the company in late 2024 during its Series D. Crusoe is a key infrastructure associate for the ‘Stargate’ project, constructing large data middle campuses in Texas and Wyoming to be leased to Oracle particularly to energy OpenAI’s workloads.

Nscale: After the startup’s $1.1 billion round in September, Nvidia participated in Nscale’s $433 million SAFE funding in October. That’s a deal that secures future fairness for traders. Nscale, which fashioned in 2023 after spinning out of Australian cryptocurrency mining company Arkon Energy, is constructing data facilities in the U.Okay. and Norway for OpenAI’s Stargate project. 

Wayve: In May 2024, Nvidia participated in a $1.05 billion round for the U.Okay.-based startup, which is creating a self-learning system for autonomous driving. Nvidia is predicted to take a position a further $500 million in Wayve, the startup told TechCrunch in September. Wayve is testing its autos in the U.Okay. and the San Francisco Bay Area. 

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

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

The many-hundreds-of-millions-of-dollars club

Commonwealth Fusion: The chipmaker participated in the nuclear fusion-energy startup’s $863 million funding round in August. The deal, which also included traders like Google and Breakthrough Energy Ventures, valued the company at $3 billion. 

Cohere: The chipmaker has invested in enterprise LLM supplier Cohere across a number of funding rounds, including the $500 million Series 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 most of the subsequent funding rounds of the AI search engine startup, including the $500 million round closed in December 2024. The chipmaker participated in the company’s July funding round, which valued Perplexity at $18 billion. However, Nvidia didn’t be part of the startup’s subsequent $200 million fundraise in September, which boosted the company’s valuation to $20 billion, according to PitchBook data. 

Poolside: In October 2024, the AI coding assistant startup Poolside announced it raised $500 million led by Bain Capital Ventures. Nvidia participated in the round, which valued the AI startup at $3 billion. 

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

Black Forest Labs: Nvidia participated in a $300 million Series B for the German startup behind the “Flux” picture era fashions in December. The round, which was co-led by Salesforce Ventures and Anjney Midha (AMP) valued the company at $3.25 billion.

CoreWeave: Although CoreWeave is not a startup, however a public company, Nvidia invested in GPU-cloud supplier when it was still one, again in April 2023. That’s when CoreWeave raised $221 million in funding. Nvidia stays a big shareholder. 

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

Firmus Technologies: In September, Firmus Technologies, the Singapore-based data middle company, acquired an AU$330 million (roughly $215 million) in funding at an AU$1.85 billion ($1.2 billion) valuation from traders, including Nvidia. Firmus is creating an energy-efficient “AI factory” in Tasmania, an island state of Australia. The startup initially supplied cooling applied sciences for Bitcoin mining. 

Uniphore: In October, Nvidia joined fellow tech giants AMD, Snowflake, and Databricks to steer a $260 million Series F round into this Business AI company. Uniphore’s multimodal platform helps enterprises automate complicated workflows and deploy “AI agents” across customer support, sales, and advertising.

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 a large Series A round of about $214 million at a valuation of $1.5 billion. Sakana raised another $135 million at a $2.65 billion valuation in November, however Nvidia didn’t take part in the round.

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

Imbue: The AI research lab that claims to be creating AI techniques that can cause and code raised a $200 million round in September 2023 from traders, including Nvidia, Astera Institute, and former Cruise CEO Kyle Vogt. 

Waabi: In June 2024, the autonomous trucking startup raised a $200 million Series B round co-led by present traders Uber and Khosla Ventures. Other traders included Nvidia, Volvo Group Venture Capital, and Porsche Automobil Holding SE. 

Deals of over a $100 million

Ayar Labs: In December 2024, Nvidia invested in the $155 million round of Ayar Labs, a company 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, traders collaborating in the funding included FTV Capital, Vistara Growth, and Sweetwater Private Equity. 

Sandbox AQ: In April, Nvidia, alongside Google, BNP Paribas, and others, invested $150 million in Sandbox AQ, a startup creating large quantitative fashions (LQMs) for dealing with complicated numerical analysis and statistical calculations. The funding elevated Sandbox AQ’s Series E round to $450 million and the company’s valuation to $5.75 billion. 

Hippocratic AI: This startup, which is creating large language fashions for healthcare, announced in January that it raised a $141 million Series B at a valuation of $1.64 billion led by Kleiner Perkins. Nvidia participated in the round, together with returning traders Andreessen Horowitz, General Catalyst, and others. The company claims that its AI options can deal with non-diagnostic patient-facing duties such as pre-operating procedures, distant affected person monitoring, and appointment preparation. Hippocratic raised another $126 million at a valuation of $3.5 billion in November, however Nvidia didn’t take part in the round.

Weka: In May 2024, Nvidia invested in a $140 million round for AI-native data administration platform Weka. The round valued the Silicon Valley company at $1.6 billion. 

Runway: In April, Nvidia participated in Runway’s $308 million round, which was led by General Atlantic and valued the startup creating generative AI fashions for media manufacturing at $3.55 billion, according to PitchBook data. The chipmaker has been an investor in since 2023.  

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

Enfabrica: In September 2023, Nvidia invested in networking chips designer Enfabrica’s $125 million Series B. The startup raised another $115 million in November 2024, however Nvidia didn’t take part in the round. In September, Nvidia reportedly spent over $900 million to rent Enfabrica’s CEO and workers while licensing its technology, in a deal structured as an “acquihire.”

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

This put up was first revealed in January 2025.

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