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Watch Nigeria > Blog > Entrepreneurship > Nvidia’s AI empire: A take a look at its high startup investments
Entrepreneurship

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

Last updated: January 2, 2026 6:00 pm
Terfa Ukende
2 hours ago
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Nvidia’s AI empire: A take a look at its high startup investments
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Contents
  • The billion-dollar-round membership
  • The various-hundreds-of-millions-of-dollars membership
  • Offers of over a $100 million

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 three years in the past — and the various aggressive generative AI companies which have launched since. Its inventory worth has soared, making it a $4.6 trillion market cap firm. 

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

Nvidia has participated in almost 67 enterprise capital offers in 2025, surpassing the 54 offers the corporate accomplished in all of 2024, in response to PitchBook knowledge. Word 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 30 offers this yr, in comparison with only one in 2022.)  

Nvidia has stated that the purpose of its company investing is to increase the AI ecosystem by backing startups it considers to be “sport changers and market makers.”  

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

This record reveals simply how far and huge Nvidia has unfold its tentacles within the tech trade, 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 check 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 invested $1.3 billion in response to The New York Instances. Whereas PitchBook knowledge signifies Nvidia didn’t take part in OpenAI’s $40 billion funding spherical that closed in March, the corporate introduced in September that it might make investments as much as $100 billion in OpenAI over time, structured as a strategic partnership to deploy huge AI infrastructure. Nvidia later revealed in its quarterly filings that it might not follow through, stating, “There isn’t any assurance that any funding might be accomplished on anticipated phrases, if in any respect.”

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Anthropic: In November 2025, Nvidia made its first direct funding within the AI lab, committing up to $10 billion as a part of a strategic spherical that included a $5 billion examine from Microsoft. In a “round” 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 methods.

Cursor: In November, Nvidia made its first strategic funding within the AI-powered code assistant taking part in a large $2.3 billion Series D spherical co-led by Accel and Coatue. The deal valued Cursor at $29.3 billion, an almost 15-fold improve because the begin of the yr. Whereas Nvidia has lengthy been an enterprise buyer, the spherical marked its official entry as a shareholder alongside Google.

xAI: In 2024, OpenAI tried to influence its buyers to not invest in any of its rivals. However Nvidia participated within the $6 billion spherical of Elon Musk’s xAI final December anyway. Nvidia may 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 giant language mannequin (LLM) developer raised a €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 was one of the important buyers in Reflection AI, contributing to a $2 billion funding spherical that valued the one-year-old startup at $8 billion. Reflection AI is positioning itself as a U.S.-based competitor to Chinese language DeepSeek, whose open supply LLM affords a less-expensive different to closed supply fashions from corporations comparable to OpenAI and Anthropic. 

Considering Machines Lab: Nvidia was amongst an extended record 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 every of 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 all 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. 

Crusoe: In October, the chipmaker participated in a $1.4 billion Series E spherical that valued the AI knowledge middle developer at $10 billion. Nvidia first backed the corporate in late 2024 throughout its Collection D. Crusoe is a key infrastructure companion for the ‘Stargate’ project, constructing huge knowledge 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 buyers. Nscale, which fashioned in 2023 after spinning out of Australian cryptocurrency mining firm Arkon Power, is constructing knowledge facilities within the U.Ok. and Norway for OpenAI’s Stargate project. 

Wayve: In Might 2024, Nvidia participated in a $1.05 billion round for the U.Ok.-based startup, which is creating a self-learning system for autonomous driving. Nvidia is anticipated to speculate an extra $500 million in Wayve, the startup informed TechCrunch in September. Wayve is testing its autos within the U.Ok. and the San Francisco Bay Space. 

Determine AI: In September, Nvidia participated in 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 Might 2024, Nvidia joined Accel and different tech giants Amazon and Meta to speculate $1 billion in Scale AI, which gives data-labeling companies to corporations for coaching AI fashions. The spherical valued the San Francisco-based firm at almost $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 round in August. The deal, which additionally included buyers like Google and Breakthrough Power Ventures, valued the corporate at $3 billion. 

Cohere: The chipmaker has invested in enterprise LLM supplier Cohere throughout a number of funding rounds, together with 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 many 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. Nonetheless, 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 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 Make investments, and others. A big 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 spherical, which was co-led by Salesforce Ventures and Anjney Midha (AMP) valued the corporate at $3.25 billion.

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 Series B of this firm, which affords 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 Common Catalyst. Nvidia backed the corporate for the first time in 2023.  

Firmus Applied sciences: In September, Firmus Applied sciences, the Singapore-based knowledge middle firm, acquired an AU$330 million (roughly $215 million) in funding at an AU$1.85 billion ($1.2 billion) valuation from buyers, together with Nvidia. Firmus is creating an energy-efficient “AI manufacturing unit” in Tasmania, an island state of Australia. The startup initially offered 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 spherical into this Enterprise AI firm. Uniphore’s multimodal platform helps enterprises automate advanced workflows and deploy “AI brokers” throughout customer support, gross sales, and advertising and marketing.

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 one other $135 million at a $2.65 billion valuation in November, however Nvidia didn’t take part within the spherical.

Nuro: In August, Nvidia participated in a $203 million funding spherical for the self-driving supply startup. 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 creating AI methods that may purpose and code raised a $200 million round 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 Series 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 2024, Nvidia invested within the $155 million round 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. Along with Nvidia, buyers taking part within the funding included FTV Capital, Vistara Progress, and Sweetwater Non-public Fairness. 

Sandbox AQ: In April, Nvidia, alongside Google, BNP Paribas, and others, invested $150 million in Sandbox AQ, a startup creating giant quantitative fashions (LQMs) for dealing with advanced 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 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, Common Catalyst, and others. The corporate claims that its AI options can deal with non-diagnostic patient-facing duties comparable to pre-operating procedures, distant affected person monitoring, and appointment preparation. Hippocratic raised one other $126 million at a valuation of $3.5 billion in November, however Nvidia didn’t take part within the spherical.

Weka: In Might 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 round, which was led by Common Atlantic and valued the startup creating generative AI fashions for media manufacturing at $3.55 billion, in response to PitchBook knowledge. The chipmaker has been an investor in since 2023.  

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

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

Reka AI: In July, 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.    

This publish was first printed in January 2025.



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ByTerfa Ukende
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Terfa Ukende is a seasoned financial writer with over seven years of experience covering topics on finance, investment, and economic development. He began his writing career with NewsWay before joining Watch Nigeria, where he continues to educate readers on wealth building, market trends, and smart money management. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Statistics and Computer Science, which strengthens his analytical approach to financial reporting and investment insights.
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