No company has harnessed the AI revolution more dramatically than Nvidia. Revenue, profits, and cash reserves have grown since ChatGPT’s introduction more than two years ago – and many competitive generative AI services have launched. And the share price has increased by more than eightfold. During this period, the world’s high-performance GPU manufacturers have used their ballooning fortunes to significantly increase their investments in all types of startups, but especially in AI startups. The chip giant increased its venture capital activity in 2024, participating in 49 funding rounds for AI companies, a sharp increase from 34 in 2023, according to PitchBook data. That’s a dramatic jump in investment compared to the previous four years combined, when Nvidia funded just 38 AI deals. Note that these investments do not include those made by the company’s official VC fund, NVentures, which has also increased its investments in the past two years. (PitchBook says NVentures will participate in 24 deals in 2024, compared to just 2 in 2022.) Nvidia says the company’s investment goal is to expand the AI ecosystem by supporting startups it considers “game changers and market makers.” Of course, Nvidia isn’t the only big tech company writing checks to AI startups. But in the last two years, it has been the most active. Compared to Nvidia’s 83 bids in two years (2023 and 2024), Alphabet participated in 73, while Microsoft has completed 40 rounds, shows PitchBook data. Below is a list of startups that have raised rounds exceeding $100 million in the past two years where Nvidia is a named participant, arranged from the highest to the lowest amount of the round. OpenAI’s billion-dollar round club: Nvidia backed ChatGPT maker for the first time in October, reportedly writing a $100 million check to a colossal $6.6 billion round that valued the company at $157 billion. The chipmaker’s investment was dwarfed by other OpenAI backers, notably Thrive, which according to the New York Times invested $1.3 billion. xAI: Nvidia participated in a $6 billion round from Elon Musk’s xAI. The agreement states that not all OpenAI investors followed through on their request not to support direct competitors. After investing in maker ChatGPT in October, Nvidia joined the xAI cap table a few months later. Inflection: One of Nvidia’s first significant AI investments also had one of the most unusual results. In June 2023, Nvidia was one of the main investors in the $1.3 billion Inflection round, a company founded by Mustafa Suleyman, who previously founded DeepMind. Less than a year later, Microsoft hired the founders of Inflection AI, paying $620 million for a non-exclusive technology license, leaving the company with a shrinking workforce and an unclear future. Wayve: In May, Nvidia participated in a $1.05 billion round for the UK-based startup, which is developing self-learning systems for autonomous driving. The company is testing the vehicle in England and the San Francisco Bay Area. Secure Superintelligence: In September, Nvidia became a backer of a new startup founded by former OpenAI chief scientist Ilya Sutskever. The $1 billion round reportedly valued the new 10-person AI lab at $5 billion. AI Scale: In May 2024, Nvidia joined Accel and other tech giants Amazon and Meta to invest $1 billion in AI Scale, which provides data labeling services for companies to train AI models. The round valued the San Francisco-based company at nearly $14 billion. The multi-hundred-million-dollar Crusoe Club: The startup building data centers to be leased to Oracle, Microsoft, and OpenAI raised $686 million in late November, according to an SEC filing. The investment was led by Founder Fund, and a long list of other investors included Nvidia. Figure AI: In February, AI robotics startup Figure raised a $675 million Series B round from Nvidia, OpenAI Startup Fund, Microsoft, and others. The company is valued at $2.6 billion. Mistral AI: Nvidia invested in Mistral for the second time when the France-based developer of large language models raised a $640 million Series B at a $6 billion valuation in June. Cohere: In June, Nvidia invested in a $500 million round in Cohere, a provider of large language models serving enterprises. The chipmaker first backed the Toronto-based startup a year earlier. Perplexity: Nvidia first invested in Perplexity in November 2023 and has participated in every subsequent round of the AI search engine startup, including a $500 million round in December, which valued the company at $9 billion, according to PitchBook data. Poolside: In October, AI coding assistant startup Poolside announced it had raised $500 million led by Bain Capital Ventures. Nvidia participated in the round, which valued the AI startup at $3 billion. CoreWeave: Nvidia invested in AI cloud computing provider in April 2023, when CoreWeave raised $221 million in funding. Since then, CoreWeave’s valuation has grown from $2 billion to $19 billion, and the company is reportedly targeting a $35 billion IPO this year. CoreWeave allows customers to rent Nvidia GPUs by the hour. Sakana AI: In September, Nvidia invested in a Japan-based startup that trains low-cost generative AI models using small data sets. The startup raised a massive Series A round of $214 million at a valuation of $1.5 billion. Imbue: An AI research lab that claims to be developing AI systems that can reason and code is raising a $200 million round in September 2023 from investors, including Nvidia, the Astera Institute, and former Cruise CEO Kyle Vogt. Waabi: In June, the autonomous truck startup raised a $200 million Series B round led by existing investors Uber and Khosla Ventures. Other investors include Nvidia, Volvo Group Venture Capital, and Porsche Automobil Holding SE. Ayar Labs offers more than $100 million: In December, Nvidia invested in a round of $155 million in Ayar Labs, a company developing optical interconnections to improve AI computing and power efficiency. This is the third time Nvidia has supported the startup. Kore.ai: A startup developing AI chatbots focused on companies to raise $150 million by December 2023. In addition to Nvidia, investors participating in the financing include FTV Capital, Vistara Growth, and Sweetwater Private Equity. Weka: In May, Nvidia invested in a $140 million round for AI native data management platform Weka. The round valued the Silicon Valley company at $1.6 billion. Runway: In June 2023, Runway, a generative AI tool startup for creating multimedia content, raised a $141 million Series C extension from investors, including Nvidia, Google, and Salesforce. Bright Machine: In June 2024, Nvidia participated in the $126 million Series C of Bright Machine, an intelligent robotics and AI-driven software startup. Vast Data: The startup that provides storage solutions for AI and data analytics raised a $118 million Series E with a valuation of $9.3 billion in December 2023. This is the third time Nvidia has invested in Vast Data. Enfabrica: In September 2023, Nvidia invested in network chip designer Enfabrica $ 125 million Series B. Although the startup raised another $ 115 million in November, Nvidia did not participate in the round.
