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

Nvidia's AI Empire: A Look at Its Top Startup Investments

In the world of artificial intelligence (AI), few companies have capitalized on the revolution as dramatically as Nvidia. Since the introduction of ChatGPT over three years ago, the company's revenue, profitability, and cash reserves have skyrocketed. Its stock price has soared, making it a $4.6 trillion market cap company. The world's leading high-performance GPU maker has used its ballooning fortunes to significantly increase investments in startups, particularly in AI.

A Surge in Venture Capital Deals

Nvidia has participated in nearly 67 venture capital deals in 2025, surpassing the 54 deals the company completed in all of 2024, according to PitchBook data. Note that these investments exclude those made by its formal corporate VC fund, NVentures, which also significantly increased its investment pace over that period. (PitchBook says NVentures engaged in 30 deals this year, compared to just one in 2022.)

Nvidia's Corporate Investing Strategy

Nvidia has stated that the goal of its corporate investing is to expand the AI ecosystem by backing startups it considers to be "game changers and market makers." This strategy is evident in the company's investments in various AI startups, which are transforming industries and creating new opportunities.

Top Startup Investments

Here are some of the top startup investments made by Nvidia, showcased in a list of startups that raised rounds exceeding $100 million since 2023 where Nvidia is a named participant, organized from the highest to lowest amount raised in the round:

The Billion-Dollar-Round Club

OpenAI: Nvidia backed the ChatGPT maker for the first time in October 2024, reportedly writing a $100 million check as part of a colossal $6.6 billion round that valued the company at $157 billion.
Anthropic: In November 2025, Nvidia made its first direct investment in the AI lab, committing up to $10 billion as part of a strategic round that included a $5 billion check from Microsoft.
Cursor: In November, Nvidia made its first strategic investment in the AI-powered code assistant participating in a massive $2.3 billion Series D round co-led by Accel and Coatue.
xAI: In 2024, OpenAI tried to persuade its investors not to invest in any of its rivals. But Nvidia participated in the $6 billion round of Elon Musk's xAI last December anyway.
Mistral AI: Nvidia invested in Mistral for the third time when the French-based large language model (LLM) developer raised a €1.7 billion (about $2 billion) Series C at a €11.7 billion ($13.5 billion) post-money valuation in September.
Reflection AI: In October, Nvidia was one of the most significant investors in Reflection AI, contributing to a $2 billion funding round that valued the one-year-old startup at $8 billion.
Thinking Machines Lab: Nvidia was among a long list of investors who backed former OpenAI chief technology officer Mira Murati's Thinking Machines Lab's $2 billion seed round.
Inflection: One of Nvidia's first significant AI investments also had one of the more unusual (but increasingly common) outcomes. In June 2023, Nvidia was one of several lead investors in Inflection's $1.3 billion round, a company co-founded by Mustafa Suleyman, the famed founder of DeepMind.
Crusoe: In October, the chipmaker participated in a $1.4 billion Series E round that valued the AI data center developer at $10 billion.
Nscale: After the startup's $1.1 billion round in September, Nvidia participated in Nscale's $433 million SAFE funding in October.
Wayve: In May 2024, Nvidia participated in a $1.05 billion round for the U.K.-based startup, which is developing a self-learning system for autonomous driving.
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.
Scale AI: In May 2024, Nvidia joined Accel and other tech giants Amazon and Meta to invest $1 billion in Scale AI, which provides data-labeling services to companies for training AI models.

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.
Cohere: The chipmaker has invested in enterprise LLM provider Cohere across multiple funding rounds, including the $500 million Series D, which closed in August, valuing Cohere at $6.8 billion.
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.
Poolside: In October 2024, the AI coding assistant startup Poolside announced it raised $500 million led by Bain Capital Ventures.
Lambda: 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.
Black Forest Labs: Nvidia participated in a $300 million Series B for the German startup behind the "Flux" image generation models in December.
CoreWeave: Although CoreWeave is no longer a startup, but a public company, Nvidia invested in GPU-cloud provider when it was still one, back in April 2023.
Together AI: In February, Nvidia participated in the $305 million Series B of this company, which offers cloud-based infrastructure for building AI models.
Firmus Technologies: In September, Firmus Technologies, the Singapore-based data center company, received an AU$330 million (approximately $215 million) in funding at an AU$1.85 billion ($1.2 billion) valuation from investors, including Nvidia.
Uniphore: In October, Nvidia joined fellow tech giants AMD, Snowflake, and Databricks to lead a $260 million Series F round into this Business AI company.
Sakana AI: In September 2024, Nvidia invested in the Japan-based startup, which trains low-cost generative AI models using small datasets.
Nuro: In August, Nvidia participated in a $203 million funding round for the self-driving delivery startup.
Imbue: The AI research lab that claims to be developing AI systems that can reason and code raised a $200 million round in September 2023 from investors, including Nvidia.
Waabi: In June 2024, the autonomous trucking startup raised a $200 million Series B round co-led by existing investors Uber and Khosla Ventures.

Implications and Forward-Looking Thoughts

Nvidia's investments in AI startups are transforming industries and creating new opportunities. The company's strategy of backing "game changers and market makers" is evident in its investments in various AI startups, which are pushing the boundaries of what is possible with AI. As the AI ecosystem continues to evolve, it will be interesting to see how Nvidia's investments shape the future of AI and how the company continues to expand its presence in the AI landscape.

Conclusion

Nvidia's AI empire is a testament to the company's commitment to expanding the AI ecosystem and pushing the boundaries of what is possible with AI. The company's investments in AI startups are transforming industries and creating new opportunities, and its strategy of backing "game changers and market makers" is evident in its investments in various AI startups. As the AI ecosystem continues to evolve, it will be interesting to see how Nvidia's investments shape the future of AI and how the company continues to expand its presence in the AI landscape.

Source: https://techcrunch.com/2026/01/02/nvidias-ai-empire-a-look-at-its-top-startup-investments/