Nvidia’s AI empire: A look at its initial investment

No company has taken the AI ​​revolution more dramatically than Nvidia. Its revenues, profits, and savings have skyrocketed since ChatGPT’s launch two years ago — and many competing AI projects have launched since then. And its stock price rose eightfold.

During that time, the world’s leading GPU maker used its additional resources to increase its investment in all kinds of startups but especially in AI startups.

The giant increased its capital projects in 2024, participating in 49 investments in AI companies, a significant increase from 34 in 2023, according to PitchBook data. That’s a huge increase in funding compared to the previous four years, when Nvidia only spent 38% on AI. Note that this investment excludes the investment made by its VC fund, NVentures, which has also raised its investment in the past two years. (PitchBook says NVentures participated in 24 deals in 2024, compared to just 2 in 2022.)

Nvidia he said that the purpose of his business is to expand the AI ​​ecosystem by supporting startups that see themselves as “game changers and market makers.”

Of course, Nvidia isn’t the only company documenting AI technologies. But in the last two years, it was very active. Compared to Nvidia’s 83 actions in two years (2023 and 2024), Alphabet participated in 73, while Microsoft has done around 40, PitchBook data shows.

Below is a list of startups that have raised rounds of more than $100 million over the past two years where Nvidia has been identified as a participant, ordered from the highest to the lowest round price.

A multi-billion dollar club

OpenAI: Nvidia supported developer ChatGPT for the first time in October, reportedly writing a check for $100 million for a total of $6.6 billion that makes the company worth $157 billion. The chipmaker’s investment was dwarfed by other OpenAI sponsors, notably Thrive, which according to the New York Times invested $1.3 billion.

xAI: Nvidia took part in the $6 billion Elon Musk’s xAI. The agreement revealed that not everyone is invested in OpenAI he followed his request avoid supporting any of the competitors directly. After investing in the development of ChatGPT in October, Nvidia joined the xAI table after a few months.

Inflection: One of Nvidia’s most important achievements in AI also had one of the strangest consequences. In June 2023, Nvidia was one of several leaders in Inflection’s $1.3 billion 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 due to a non-exclusive technology license, leaving the company with fewer employees and an uncertain future.

Listen: In May, Nvidia participated in a $1.05 billion round a UK start-up, which is developing a self-learning driving system. The company is currently testing its vehicles in the UK and the San Francisco Bay Area.

Safe Superintelligence: In September, Nvidia was a sponsor of a new startup founded by OpenAI chief scientist Ilya Sutskever. The $1 billion round he says he appreciated new things 10-man AI lab at $5 billion.

AI scales: In May 2024, Nvidia joined Accel and other tech giants Amazon and Meta to invest $1 billion in Scale AI, which provides data entry services to companies for training AI models. The round gave the San Francisco-based company about $14 billion.

The million-hundred-dollar club

Crusoe: Introduction to building data centers he says to borrow from Oracle, Microsoft, and OpenAI earned $686 million in late November, according to an SEC filing. The investment was led by Founders Fund, and a long list of other investors included Nvidia.

Image AI: In February, Introduction to AI robotics Image uploaded $675 million Series B from Nvidia, OpenAI Startup Fund, Microsoft, and others. The round valued the company at $2.6 billion.

Mistral AI: Nvidia has invested in Mistral for the second time as the French gaming giant raised a $640 million Series B round. The cost of $ 6 billion in June.

Where: In June, Nvidia invested in Cohere’s $500 million rounda leading language provider that supports businesses. The chip maker first backed the Toronto launch last year.

Perplexed: Nvidia invested in Perplexity in November 2023 and has participated in every subsequent AI search engine startup, including $500 million round in December, which puts the company at $9 billion, according to PitchBook data.

pool side: In October, the AI at the beginning of the poolside assistant announced that it has been promoted $500 million led by Bain Capital Ventures. Nvidia participated in the round, which made the AI ​​startup worth $3 billion.

CoreWeave: Nvidia invested in AI cloud computing provider in April 2023, while CoreWeave raised. $221 million in money. Since then, CoreWeave’s valuation has risen from nearly $2 billion to $19 billionand it is said that the company is interested in a $35 billion IPO this year. CoreWeave allows its customers to rent Nvidia GPUs on an hourly basis.

AI part: In September, Nvidia invested and A Japanese startup, which trains low-cost AI models using small datasets. The beginning caused a big problem Series A round for $214 million at a cost of $1.5 billion.

sing: AI research lab that claims to be developing AI systems that can reason and code for $200 million round in September 2023 from investors, including Nvidia, the Astera Institute, and former Cruise CEO Kyle Vogt.

References: In June, the introduction of autonomous vehicles raised a $200 million Series B round led by existing investors Uber and Khosla Ventures. Other investors included Nvidia, Volvo Group Venture Capital, and Porsche Automobil Holding SE.

Sales over $100 million

Setting up Labs: In December, Nvidia invested $155 million round and Ayar Labs, a The company is developing optical interfaces to advance AI computing and energy efficiency. This is the third time that Nvidia has contributed to the launch.

Kore.ai: AI chatbots for business startups have been promoted $150 million in December of 2023. In addition to Nvidia, investors who participated in the investment included FTV Capital, Vistara Growth, and Sweetwater Private Equity.

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

How to run: In June 2023, Runway, the first AI-powered tool for multimedia creators, upgraded $141 million Series C More from investors, including Nvidia, Google, and Salesforce.

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

More Information: The startup that provides storage solutions for AI and data analysis raised $118 million Series E at a price of $9.3 billion in December 2023. This is the third time Nvidia has invested in Vast Data.

Enfactory: In September 2023, Nvidia invested in Enfabrica’s chip production $125 million Series B. Although the startup also raised $115 million in November, Nvidia did not participate in the round.