No company has leveraged the AI revolution more dramatically than Nvidia. Since the introduction of ChatGPT over two years ago and the many competitive generative AI services launched since then, the company’s revenue, profitability, and cash reserves have skyrocketed. Its stock price soared, making it a company with a market capitalization of $4.5 trillion.
The world’s leading high-performance GPU maker has used its ballooning wealth to significantly increase investments in startups, particularly in AI.
NVIDIA is participating in 50 venture capital deals through 2025, already surpassing the 48 deals the company completed in all of 2024, according to PitchBook data. Note that these investments do not include investments by NVentures, the company’s official corporate VC fund. NVentures also significantly increased its investment pace during this period. (NVentures has made 21 deals this year, but only one in 2022, according to PitchBook.)
Nvidia says its goal with the corporate investment is to expand the AI ecosystem by supporting startups that the company considers “game changers and market makers.”
Below is a list of startups that have raised rounds of $100 million or more since 2023 in which Nvidia is a named participant, sorted from highest to lowest round amount.
This list shows how far NVIDIA has spread its tentacles into the technology industry, beyond supplying its own products.
billion dollar club
OpenAI: Nvidia first backed the ChatGPT maker in October 2024, reportedly writing a $100 million check as part of a massive $6.6 billion round that valued the company at $157 billion. The chipmaker’s investment dwarfed OpenAI’s other backers, particularly Thrive, which invested $1.3 billion, according to the New York Times. Although NVIDIA did not participate in OpenAI’s $40 billion funding round that closed in March, the chipmaker announced in September that it would invest up to $100 billion in the company over the long term, structured as a strategic partnership to deploy large-scale AI infrastructure, according to PitchBook data.
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xAI: In 2024, OpenAI tried to convince investors not to invest in a competitor. But anyway, NVIDIA participated in Elon Musk’s xAI’s $6 billion round last December. According to Bloomberg, NVIDIA will invest up to $2 billion in the equity portion of xAI’s planned $20 billion funding round, a deal structured to allow xAI to buy more Nvidia equipment.
Mistral AI: Nvidia made its third investment in Mistral when the France-based large-scale language model developer raised a Series C in September at a post-money valuation of €11.7 billion (approximately $13.5 billion).
Reflection AI: In October, Nvidia led a $2 billion funding round for one-year-old startup Reflection AI, valuing the company at $8 billion. Reflection AI is positioning itself as a US-based competitor to China’s DeepSeek. DeepSeek’s open-source, large-scale language models offer a cheaper alternative to closed-source models from companies like OpenAI and Anthropic.
Thinking Machines Lab: Nvidia was one of a long list of investors that backed former OpenAI chief technology officer Mira Murati’s Thinking Machines Lab’s $2 billion seed round. The funding officially announced in July valued the new AI startup at $12 billion.
Change: One of Nvidia’s first significant AI investments also had a more unusual (but increasingly common) result. In June 2023, Nvidia was one of several lead investors in a $1.3 billion round for Inflection, a company co-founded by DeepMind’s famous founder Mustafa Suleyman. Less than a year later, Microsoft hired Inflection’s founders and paid them $620 million for a non-exclusive technology license, leaving the company with a significantly reduced workforce and an uncertain future.
Nscale: After the startup’s $1.1 billion funding in September, Nvidia participated in Nscale’s $433 million SAFE funding in October. This is a transaction that secures future assets for investors. Nscale, founded in 2023 as a spinout from Australian crypto mining company Acorn Energy, is building data centers in the UK and Norway for OpenAI’s Stargate project.
Wave: In May 2024, NVIDIA participated in a $1.05 billion round in a UK-based startup developing a self-learning system for autonomous driving. Nvidia plans to invest an additional $500 million in Wayve, the startup told TechCrunch in September. Wayve is testing vehicles in the UK and the San Francisco Bay Area.
Figure AI: In September, Nvidia participated in Figure AI’s more than $1 billion Series C funding round, valuing 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 valuation of $2.6 billion.
Scale AI: In May 2024, Nvidia partnered with Accel and other tech giants Amazon and Meta to invest $1 billion in Scale AI, which provides data labeling services for enterprises to train AI models. The round valued the San Francisco-based company at nearly $14 billion. In June, Meta invested $14.3 billion in a 49% stake in Scale and hired co-founder and CEO Alexander Wang and several other key Scale employees.
multi-billion dollar club
Commonwealth Fusion: The chipmaker participated in the fusion energy startup’s $863 million funding round in August 2025. The deal, which also included participation from investors including Google and Breakthrough Energy Ventures, valued the company at $3 billion.
Crusoe: A startup building data centers that will reportedly be leased to Oracle, Microsoft and OpenAI raised $686 million in November 2024, according to an SEC filing. The investment was led by Founders Fund, with a long list of other investors including Nvidia.
Cohere: The chipmaker has invested in Cohere, a large-scale language model provider for enterprises, in multiple funding rounds, including a $500 million Series D that 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 participated in most of the AI search engine startup’s subsequent funding rounds, including a $500 million round that closed in December 2024. The chipmaker participated in the company’s July funding round, which valued Perplexity at $18 billion. However, NVIDIA did not participate in the company’s $200 million financing in September, increasing the company’s valuation to $20 billion, according to PitchBook data.
Poolside: In October 2024, AI coding assistant startup Poolside announced it had raised $500 million led by Bain Capital Ventures. Nvidia participated in the round, valuing the AI startup at $3 billion.
Lambda: Lambda, an AI cloud provider offering model training services, raised $480 million in Series D at a valuation of $2.5 billion in February. The round was co-led by SGW and Andra Capital Lambda, with participation from Nvidia, ARK Invest and others. A key part of Lambda’s business involves renting servers powered by Nvidia’s GPUs.
CoreWeave: CoreWeave is no longer a startup and is a public company, but Nvidia invested in it in April 2023 when it was still a GPU cloud provider. At that time, CoreWeave raised $221 million in funding. Nvidia remains a significant shareholder.
Together AI: In February, Nvidia participated in a $305 million Series B for the company, which provides cloud-based infrastructure for building AI models. The round values Together AI at $3.3 billion and was co-led by Saudi venture firm Prosperity7 and General Catalyst. Nvidia first backed the company in 2023.
Firmus Technologies: Singapore-based data center company Firmus Technologies raised A$330 million (approximately $215 million) in September from investors including NVIDIA at a valuation of A$1.85 billion ($1.2 billion). Farmus is developing a highly energy-efficient “AI factory” in the Australian island nation of Tasmania. The startup originally offered cooling technology for Bitcoin mining.
Sakana AI: In September 2024, Nvidia invested in a Japan-based startup that uses small datasets to train low-cost generative AI models. The startup has raised a large Series A round of approximately $214 million at a valuation of $1.5 billion.
Nuro: In August, Nvidia participated in a $203 million funding round for the delivery-focused self-driving startup. The deal values Nuro at $6 billion, a significant 30% decrease from its peak valuation of $8.6 billion in 2021.
Inview: The AI Institute, which claims to be developing AI systems capable of reasoning and coding, raised $200 million in September 2023 from investors including Nvidia, Astera Institute, and former Cruise CEO Kyle Vogt.
Waabi: In June 2024, the self-driving trucking startup raised $200 million in a Series B round co-led by existing investors Uber and Khosla Ventures. Other investors include Nvidia, Volvo Group Venture Capital and Porsche Automobile Holding SE.
Transactions over $100 million
Ayar Labs: In December, Nvidia invested in a $155 million round in Ayar Labs. Ayar Labs is a company developing optical interconnects to improve AI computation and power efficiency. This is the third time Nvidia has backed the startup.
Kore.ai: Startup that develops AI chatbots for enterprises raised $150 million in December 2023. In addition to Nvidia, investors who participated in the financing included FTV Capital, Vistara Growth, and Sweetwater Private Equity.
Sandbox AQ: In April, Nvidia, along with Google, BNP Paribas and others, invested $150 million in Sandbox AQ, a startup that develops large-scale quantitative models (LQM) to handle complex numerical analysis and statistical calculations. This investment increases Sandbox AQ’s Series E round to $450 million and increases the company’s valuation to $5.75 billion.
Hippocratic AI: The startup, which develops large-scale language models for healthcare, announced in January that it had raised $141 million in Series B led by Kleiner Perkins at a valuation of $1.64 billion. Nvidia participated in the round along with returning investors Andreessen Horowitz, General Catalyst and others. The company claims its AI solution can handle non-diagnostic patient-facing tasks, such as pre-surgical treatment, remote patient monitoring, and appointment preparation.
Weka: In May 2024, Nvidia invested in a $140 million round in AI-native data management platform Weka. The round valued the Silicon Valley company at $1.6 billion.
Runway: In April, Nvidia participated in Runway’s $308 million round led by General Atlantic, valuing the startup, which develops generative AI models for media production, at $3.55 billion, according to PitchBook data. Chipmakers are investing starting in 2023.
Bright Machines: In June 2024, Nvidia participated in a $126 million Series C in Bright Machines, a smart robotics and AI-driven software startup.
Enfabrica: In September 2023, Nvidia invested in a $125 million Series B in network chip designer Enfabrica. The startup raised another $115 million in November, but Nvidia did not participate in the round.
Reka AI: AI research institute Reka raised $110 million in a round that included Snowflake and Nvidia in July. The deal triples the startup’s valuation to more than $1 billion, according to Bloomberg.
This post was first published in January 2025.
