Nvidia’s AI Empire: A Deep Dive into Its Top Startup Investments

Nvidia has emerged as a dominant force in the AI revolution, experiencing substantial growth in revenue, profitability, and market value since the introduction of ChatGPT. Capitalizing on this success, the company has significantly increased its investments in various startups, particularly those focused on artificial intelligence.

According to PitchBook data, Nvidia ramped up its venture capital activity in 2024, participating in 49 funding rounds for AI companies, a notable increase from 34 in 2023. This surge in investment contrasts sharply with the previous four years, during which Nvidia funded only 38 AI deals. These figures exclude investments made by NVentures, Nvidia’s corporate VC fund, which has also significantly increased its activity.

In 2025, Nvidia has already participated in seven funding rounds, demonstrating its continued commitment to expanding the AI ecosystem by backing startups it considers “game changers and market makers.”

Here’s a closer look at some of Nvidia’s most significant investments since 2023, focusing on rounds exceeding $100 million:

The billion-dollar-round club

OpenAI: Nvidia made its first investment in OpenAI in October, reportedly contributing $100 million to a $6.6 billion round that valued the company at $157 billion. Other major backers included Thrive, which invested $1.3 billion.

xAI: Nvidia participated in Elon Musk’s xAI $6 billion round, joining the cap table months after investing in OpenAI.

Inflection: Nvidia invested in Inflection’s $1.3 billion round in June 2023. However, Microsoft later hired Inflection AI’s founders and acquired a technology license for $620 million, leading to significant changes within Inflection.

Wayve: In May, Nvidia invested in a $1.05 billion round for Wayve, a U.K.-based startup developing a self-learning system for autonomous driving, testing its vehicles in the U.K. and the San Francisco Bay Area.

Scale AI: Nvidia joined Accel, Amazon, and Meta to invest $1 billion in Scale AI, a data-labeling service for training AI models, valuing the company at nearly $14 billion.

The many-hundreds-of-millions-of-dollars club

Crusoe: Crusoe, which is building data centers reportedly for Oracle, Microsoft, and OpenAI, raised $686 million in late November. Nvidia was among the investors led by Founders Fund.

Figure AI: In February 2024, AI robotics startup Figure raised a $675 million Series B from Nvidia, OpenAI Startup Fund, Microsoft, and others, valuing the company at $2.6 billion.

Mistral AI: Nvidia invested in Mistral for the second time when the French-based large language model developer raised a $640 million Series B at a $6 billion valuation in June.

Lambda: AI cloud provider Lambda raised a $480 million Series D in February, with Nvidia, ARK Invest, and others participating. Lambda rents servers powered by Nvidia’s GPUs.

Cohere: In June, Nvidia invested in Cohere’s $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, including the $500 million round in December, valuing the company at $9 billion.

Poolside: The AI coding assistant startup Poolside raised $500 million in October, with Nvidia participating in the round.

CoreWeave: Nvidia invested in CoreWeave in April 2023, and the company’s valuation has since jumped to $19 billion. CoreWeave allows customers to rent Nvidia GPUs.

Together AI: In February, Nvidia participated in the $305 million Series B of Together AI, which offers cloud-based infrastructure for building AI models. Nvidia first backed the company in 2023.

Sakana AI: In September, Nvidia invested in Sakana AI, a Japan-based startup training low-cost generative AI models using small datasets, raising a Series A round of about $214 million.

Imbue: The AI research lab Imbue raised a $200 million round in September 2023 from investors including Nvidia.

Waabi: In June, the autonomous trucking startup Waabi raised a $200 million Series B round with Nvidia among the investors.

Deals of over a $100 million

Ayar Labs: In December, Nvidia invested in the $155 million round of Ayar Labs, a company developing optical interconnects to improve AI compute and power efficiency.

Kore.ai: The startup developing enterprise-focused AI chatbots raised $150 million in December 2023, with Nvidia participating.

Sandbox AQ: In April, Nvidia invested $150 million in Sandbox AQ, a startup developing large quantitative models (LQMs).

Hippocratic AI: This startup, developing large language models for healthcare, raised a $141 million Series B in January, with Nvidia participating.

Weka: In May, Nvidia invested in a $140 million round for AI-native data management platform Weka.

Runway: In June 2023, Runway raised a $141 million Series C extension from investors, including Nvidia.

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

Enfabrica: In September 2023, Nvidia invested in networking chips designer Enfabrica’s $125 million Series B.