No company has leveraged the AI boom more effectively than Nvidia. Since the introduction of ChatGPT over two years ago, Nvidia’s revenue, profits, and cash flow have surged dramatically. With the growing demand for generative AI services, its stock price has skyrocketed, cementing its dominance in the AI hardware market. During this period, Nvidia has aggressively expanded its investments footprint, particularly in AI startups. As the world’s leading high-performance GPU manufacturer, the company has used its financial windfall to back pioneering startups shaping the AI landscape.
Nvidia significantly increased its venture capital activity in 2024, participating in 49 AI startup funding rounds—up from 34 in 2023, according to PitchBook data. This marks a stark contrast to the previous four years, during which it backed only 38 AI deals in total. These figures exclude investments made by NVentures, its dedicated corporate VC fund, which also escalated its investments from just two in 2022 to 24 in 2024.
The momentum has continued into 2025, with Nvidia already engaging in seven funding rounds this year. The company has consistently stated that its investment strategy is designed to strengthen the AI ecosystem by supporting “game changers and market makers.”
Nvidia’s Largest AI Investments Since 2023
Below is a breakdown of the most significant funding rounds Nvidia has participated in, ordered from the highest to the lowest amounts raised.
Billion-Dollar AI Rounds
- OpenAI: Nvidia entered the ChatGPT maker’s cap table for the first time in October, contributing $100 million to OpenAI’s staggering $6.6 billion round, which valued the company at $157 billion. This investment was dwarfed by Thrive’s $1.3 billion commitment.
- xAI: Nvidia joined the $6 billion funding round for Elon Musk’s xAI, despite OpenAI requesting its investors not to support direct competitors. This investment followed Nvidia’s backing of OpenAI just months earlier.
- Inflection AI: In June 2023, Nvidia co-led a $1.3 billion round for Inflection, founded by DeepMind co-founder Mustafa Suleyman. However, less than a year later, Microsoft absorbed Inflection’s leadership team, significantly altering its trajectory.
- Wayve: In May, the UK-based autonomous driving startup raised $1.05 billion, with Nvidia as a key participant. The company is testing its self-learning AI in the UK and San Francisco Bay Area.
- Scale AI: Nvidia joined Amazon, Meta, and Accel in a $1 billion round for Scale AI, a data-labeling service provider for AI model training. The round valued Scale AI at nearly $14 billion.
Multi-Hundred-Million-Dollar AI Rounds
- Crusoe: In late 2024, Nvidia participated in a $686 million round for Crusoe, a company building data centers for major AI players like Microsoft, Oracle, and OpenAI.
- Figure AI: Nvidia co-invested in the $675 million Series B of AI robotics startup Figure AI, alongside OpenAI, Microsoft, and others. The round valued the company at $2.6 billion.
- Mistral AI: Nvidia doubled down on Mistral, a French-based LLM developer, with a $640 million Series B investment in June 2024 at a $6 billion valuation.
- Lambda: AI cloud provider Lambda raised $480 million in a Series D round that valued it at $2.5 billion. Nvidia participated alongside ARK Invest and others.
- Cohere: Nvidia invested in Cohere’s $500 million round, continuing its support for the Toronto-based enterprise-focused LLM provider.
- Perplexity: Nvidia first backed AI search engine startup Perplexity in November 2023 and has since participated in every subsequent funding round, including a $500 million round in December 2024 that valued the company at $9 billion.
- Poolside: Nvidia participated in Poolside’s $500 million funding round in October 2024. The AI coding assistant startup was valued at $3 billion.
Notable AI Investments Over $100 Million
- CoreWeave: Nvidia invested in CoreWeave’s $221 million round in 2023. The AI cloud computing firm has since skyrocketed in valuation from $2 billion to $19 billion and is now IPO-bound.
- Together AI: Nvidia participated in the $305 million Series B of Together AI, a cloud-based AI model provider, in February 2025.
- Sakana AI: The Japan-based startup raised $214 million in September 2024 for its work on low-cost AI models trained on small datasets, with Nvidia among its backers.
- Imbue: The AI research lab raised a $200 million round in September 2023, attracting Nvidia and other high-profile investors.
- Waabi: Nvidia invested in the $200 million Series B round of Waabi, an autonomous trucking startup, in June 2024.
- Ayar Labs: Nvidia backed a $155 million round in December 2024 for Ayar Labs, which develops optical interconnects for AI processing.
- Kore.ai: Enterprise chatbot developer Kore.ai secured $150 million in December 2023 with Nvidia as a key investor.
- Hippocratic AI: Nvidia participated in a $141 million Series B round for this AI-driven healthcare startup in January 2025.
- Weka: The AI-native data management platform raised $140 million in May 2024 with Nvidia’s support.
- Runway: Nvidia backed generative AI multimedia startup Runway in a $141 million Series C round in June 2023.
- Bright Machines: Nvidia participated in a $126 million Series C round for this smart robotics firm in June 2024.
- Enfabrica: Nvidia joined Enfabrica’s $125 million Series B round in September 2023.
Nvidia’s Strategic AI Expansion
By pouring billions into AI startups, Nvidia is not only fueling innovation but also reinforcing its dominance in the AI chip market. These strategic investments ensure that emerging AI companies rely on Nvidia’s powerful GPUs, creating a self-sustaining AI ecosystem that secures Nvidia’s role at the forefront of the AI revolution.
With 2025 already witnessing major deals, Nvidia shows no signs of slowing down. As the AI industry expands, the company’s investment strategy will likely continue shaping the future of artificial intelligence for years to come.
