No company has taken advantage of the AI revolution more than Nvidia. Its revenue, profitability, and cash reserves have soared since the launch of ChatGPT two years ago — and since then, a slew of competing generative AI services have been launched. And its stock price has soared.
During that time, the world’s leading maker of high-performance GPUs has used its wealth to significantly increase its investment in all types of startups, especially AI startups.
According to PitchBook, the chip giant has ramped up its venture capital activity, participating in 49 funding rounds for AI companies in 2024, up sharply from 34 in 2023. That’s a sharp increase in investment compared to the previous four years, when Nvidia funded just 38 AI deals. Note that these investments do not include funding from its official corporate VC fund NVentures, which has also significantly increased its investments over the past two years. (According to PitchBook, NVentures closed 24 deals in 2024, compared to just two in 2022.)
In 2025, Nvidia has already participated in seven rounds.
Nvidia has said that the goal of its corporate investments is to expand the AI ecosystem by backing startups it sees as “game changers and market makers.”
Below is a list of startups that have raised more than $100 million in rounds in which Nvidia has been a named participant since 2023, including new ones it has backed through 2025, organized from highest to lowest amount raised in the round.
Billion-Dollar Club
OpenAI: Nvidia backed ChatGPT maker for the first time in October, reportedly writing a $100 million check at a whopping $6.6 billion valuation that valued the company at $157 billion. The chipmaker’s investment was dwarfed by other OpenAI backers, including Thrive, which invested $1.3 billion, according to the New York Times.
xAI: Nvidia participated in Elon Musk’s $6 billion round of funding for xAI. The deal showed that not all OpenAI investors heeded his plea not to back direct rivals. After investing in ChatGPT maker in October, Nvidia joined xAI’s board a few months later.
Inflection: One of Nvidia’s first major AI investments also had one of its most unusual outcomes. The company was founded by Mustafa Sulayman, who previously co-founded DeepMind, who was one of several lead investors in Nvidia’s $1.3 billion round in June 2023. Less than a year later, Microsoft hired the founders of Inflection AI and paid $620 million for a non-exclusive technology license, leaving the company with a significantly reduced workforce and a less certain future.
Wayve: In May, Nvidia participated in a $1.05 billion round for a UK-based startup that is developing a self-learning system for autonomous driving. The company is testing its cars in the UK and the San Francisco Bay Area.
Scale AI: In May 2024, Nvidia joined Accel and other tech giants Amazon and Meta in investing $1 billion in Scale AI, which provides data labeling services to companies to train AI models. The round valued the San Francisco-based company at nearly $14 billion.
The Hundred Million Dollar Club
Crusoe: Building data centers that will be leased to Oracle, Microsoft, and OpenAI raised $686 million in late November, according to an SEC filing. The investment was led by Founders Fund, and Nvidia was among the long list of other investors.
Figure AI: In February 2024, AI robotics startup Figure raised a $675 million Series B from Nvidia, OpenAI Startup Fund, Microsoft, and others. The round valued the company at $2.6 billion.
Mistral AI: Nvidia is investing in Mistral for the second time, after the French-based language model maker raised a $640 million Series B in June, which was valued at $6 billion.
Lambda: AI cloud provider Lambda, which provides model training services, raised a $2.5 billion Series D in February, valued at $480 million. The round was led by SGW and Andra Capital Lambda, and was joined by Nvidia, ARK Invest, and others. A significant part of Lambda’s business involves leasing servers powered by Nvidia GPUs.
Cohere: In June, Nvidia invested in Cohere, a large language model provider serving enterprises, in a $500 million round. The chipmaker first backed the Toronto-based startup in 2023.
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 that valued the company at $9 billion, according to PitchBook.
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 CoreWeave in April 2023, when it raised $221 million. Since then, CoreWeave’s valuation has risen from about $2 billion to $19 billion, and the company has filed for an IPO. CoreWeave lets its customers rent Nvidia GPUs by the hour.
Together AI: In February, Nvidia participated in the $305 million Series B round of this company, which offers cloud-based infrastructure for building AI models. The round valued TogetherAi at $3.3 billion and was led by Saudi venture capital firm Prosperity7 and General Catalyst. Nvidia first backed the company in 2023.
Sakana AI: In September, Nvidia invested in a Japan-based startup that trains low-cost generative AI models using small datasets. The startup raised a massive $214 million Series A at a valuation of $1.5 billion.
Imbue: An AI research lab that claims to develop AI systems and can code, raised $200 million in September 2023 from investors including Nvidia, the Astera Institute, and former Cruise CEO Kyle Vogt.
Waabi: In June, the autonomous trucking startup 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.
Over $100 million in deals
Ayar Labs: In December, Nvidia invested in a $155 million round in Ayar Labs, a company developing optical interconnects for AI computing and power efficiency. This is the third time Nvidia has backed the startup.
Kore.ai: The startup that develops enterprise-focused AI chatbots raised $150 million in December 2023. In addition to Nvidia, investors who participated in the funding included FTV Capital, Vistara Growth, and Sweetwater Private Equity.
Hippocrates AI: This startup that develops large language models for healthcare announced in January that it had raised a $141 million Series B at a $1.64 billion valuation led by Kleiner Perkins. Nvidia participated in the round along with returning investors Andreessen Horowitz, General Catalyst, and others. The company says its AI solutions can perform non-diagnostic patient tasks such as pre-operative procedures, remote patient monitoring and appointment preparation.
Weka: In May, Nvidia invested $140 million in AI-native data management platform Weka. The round valued the Silicon Valley company at $1.6 billion.
Runway: In June 2023, Runway, a startup that builds generative AI tools for multimedia content creators, raised a $141 million Series C round from investors including Nvidia, Google and Salesforce.
Bright Machines: In June 2024, Nvidia participated in the $126 million Series C round of Bright Machines, a startup focused on intelligent robotics and AI-powered software.
Enfabrica: In September 2023, Nvidia invested in the $125 million Series B round of network chip designer Enfabrica. The startup raised another $115 million in November, but Nvidia did not participate in the round.
Editor’s note: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that Nvidia was a backer of Safe Superintelligence and an investor in Vast Data’s Series E round. Nvidia has not invested in Vast Data since the company’s Series D.
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