No company has capitalized on the artificial intelligence (AI) revolution more dramatically than Nvidia, witnessing a significant surge in its revenue, profitability, and cash reserves since the advent of ChatGPT and other competitive generative AI services. This period has also seen its stock price soar, propelling it to a remarkable $4.5 trillion market capitalization. As the world’s leading manufacturer of high-performance GPUs, Nvidia has leveraged its burgeoning wealth to substantially increase its investments in startups, particularly those focused on AI.

Nvidia’s aggressive investment strategy is evident in its venture capital activity. The company has participated in 50 venture capital deals so far in 2025, already surpassing the 48 deals completed in the entirety of 2024, according to PitchBook data. This pace excludes investments made by its formal corporate VC fund, NVentures, which also significantly accelerated its investment activities, engaging in 21 deals in 2025 compared to just one in 2022. Nvidia articulates that the primary goal of its corporate investing is to expand the AI ecosystem by backing startups it identifies as “game changers and market makers,” showcasing its broad influence beyond merely supplying its cutting-edge products.

The Billion-Dollar-Round Club

OpenAI: Nvidia first backed the creator of ChatGPT in October 2024, reportedly contributing $100 million as part of a colossal $6.6 billion funding round that valued the company at $157 billion. While this investment was dwarfed by other backers, such as Thrive’s reported $1.3 billion, Nvidia announced in September its intention to invest up to $100 billion in OpenAI over time. This is structured as a strategic partnership aimed at deploying massive AI infrastructure, even though PitchBook data indicates Nvidia did not participate in OpenAI’s $40 billion funding round that closed in March.

xAI: Despite OpenAI’s efforts to dissuade investors from backing its rivals, Nvidia participated in Elon Musk’s xAI $6 billion funding round in December 2024. Furthermore, Bloomberg reported that Nvidia is set to invest up to $2 billion in the equity portion of xAI’s planned $20 billion funding round, a deal designed to facilitate xAI’s purchase of more Nvidia equipment.

Mistral AI: Nvidia made its third investment in Mistral, the French-based large language model developer, when the company raised €1.7 billion (approximately $2 billion) in a Series C round in September. This round valued Mistral at €11.7 billion ($13.5 billion) post-money.

Reflection AI: In October, Nvidia led a $2 billion funding round for Reflection AI, a one-year-old startup, which valued the company at $8 billion. Reflection AI aims to be a US-based competitor to Chinese DeepSeek, offering an open-source large language model as a more cost-effective alternative to proprietary models from companies like OpenAI and Anthropic.

Thinking Machines Lab: Nvidia was among a diverse group of investors that supported former OpenAI Chief Technology Officer Mira Murati’s Thinking Machines Lab in its $2 billion seed round. This funding, formally announced in July, valued the new AI startup at $12 billion.

Inflection: One of Nvidia’s earliest significant AI investments, a $1.3 billion round in June 2023 where Nvidia was a lead investor for the company co-founded by DeepMind’s Mustafa Suleyman, concluded with an increasingly common, yet unusual, outcome. Less than a year later, Microsoft hired Inflection’s founders and acquired a non-exclusive technology license for $620 million, leaving Inflection with a significantly reduced workforce and an uncertain future.

Nscale: Following its $1.1 billion round in September, Nvidia participated in Nscale’s $433 million SAFE (Simple Agreement for Future Equity) funding in October. Nscale, which emerged in 2023 as a spin-off from Australian cryptocurrency mining company Akorn Energy, is currently developing data centers in the UK and Norway for OpenAI’s ambitious Stargate project.

Wayve: In May 2024, Nvidia participated in a $1.05 billion funding round for Wayve, a UK-based startup specializing in developing a self-learning system for autonomous driving. Wayve informed TechCrunch in September that Nvidia is expected to invest an additional $500 million. The startup is actively testing its autonomous vehicles in both the UK and the San Francisco Bay Area.

Figure AI: In September 2024, Nvidia participated in Figure AI’s Series C funding round of over $1 billion, which valued the humanoid robotics startup at $39 billion. Nvidia had previously invested in Figure in February 2024 during its $675 million Series B round, when the company was valued at $2.6 billion.

Scale AI: In May 2024, Nvidia joined tech giants Accel, Amazon, and Meta in investing $1 billion in Scale AI, a company that provides data-labeling services crucial for training AI models. This round valued the San Francisco-based company at nearly $14 billion. Subsequently, in June, Meta invested $14.3 billion for a 49% stake in Scale and also recruited the company’s co-founder and CEO Alexandr Wang, along with several other key Scale employees.

The Many-Hundreds-of-Millions-of-Dollars Club

Commonwealth Fusion: The chipmaker participated in the nuclear fusion-energy startup’s $863 million funding round in August 2025. This deal, which also involved investors such as Google and Breakthrough Energy Ventures, valued Commonwealth Fusion at $3 billion.

Crusoe: A startup focused on building data centers, reportedly for lease to Oracle, Microsoft, and OpenAI, raised $686 million in November 2024, as per an SEC filing. This investment round was led by Founders Fund and included Nvidia among a long list of other investors.

Cohere: Nvidia has made multiple investments in Cohere, an enterprise large language model provider, including a $500 million Series D round that closed in August, valuing the Toronto-based company at $6.8 billion. Nvidia first backed Cohere in 2023.

Perplexity: Nvidia first invested in Perplexity in November 2023 and has since participated in most of the AI search engine startup’s subsequent funding rounds, including a $500 million round closed in December 2024. Nvidia also joined the company’s July funding round, which valued Perplexity at $18 billion. However, Nvidia did not participate in the startup’s later $200 million fundraise in September, which boosted the company’s valuation to $20 billion, according to PitchBook data.

Poolside: In October 2024, Poolside, an AI coding assistant startup, announced it raised $500 million in a round led by Bain Capital Ventures. Nvidia participated in this round, which valued the AI startup at $3 billion.

Lambda: AI cloud provider Lambda, which offers services for model training, secured a $480 million Series D round in February, at a reported $2.5 billion valuation. This round was co-led by SGW and Andra Capital Lambda, with participation from Nvidia, ARK Invest, and others. A substantial portion of Lambda’s business relies on renting servers powered by Nvidia’s GPUs.

CoreWeave: Although CoreWeave has transitioned from a startup to a public company, Nvidia initially invested in the GPU-cloud provider when it was still a startup, back in April 2023. That investment was part of a $221 million funding round, and Nvidia remains a significant shareholder.

Together AI: In February, Nvidia participated in the $305 million Series B round of Together AI, a company offering cloud-based infrastructure for building AI models. This round, co-led by Prosperity7 and General Catalyst, valued Together AI at $3.3 billion. Nvidia first backed the company in 2023.

Firmus Technologies: In September, Firmus Technologies, a Singapore-based data center company, received A$330 million (approximately $215 million USD) in funding at an A$1.85 billion ($1.2 billion USD) valuation from investors, including Nvidia. Firmus is developing an energy-efficient ‘AI factory’ in Tasmania, an island state of Australia, and originally provided cooling technologies for Bitcoin mining.

Sakana AI: In September 2024, Nvidia invested in this Japan-based startup, which specializes in training low-cost generative AI models using small datasets. The startup raised a massive Series A round of about $214 million, valuing it at $1.5 billion.

Nuro: In August, Nvidia participated in the $203 million funding round for Nuro, a self-driving startup focused on delivery. This deal valued Nuro at $6 billion, representing a significant 30% drop from its peak valuation of $8.6 billion in 2021.

Imbue: The AI research lab, which claims to be developing AI systems capable of reasoning and coding, raised a $200 million round in September 2023 from investors including Nvidia, Astera Institute, and former Cruise CEO Kyle Vogt.

Waabi: In June 2024, the autonomous trucking startup raised a $200 million Series B round, co-led by existing investors Uber and Khosla Ventures. Other investors included Nvidia, Volvo Group Venture Capital, and Porsche Automobil Holding SE.

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 designed to enhance AI compute and power efficiency. This marked Nvidia’s third time backing the startup.

Kore.ai: This startup, which develops enterprise-focused AI chatbots, raised $150 million in December 2023. In addition to Nvidia, participating investors included FTV Capital, Vistara Growth, and Sweetwater Private Equity.

Sandbox AQ: In April, Nvidia, alongside Google, BNP Paribas, and others, invested $150 million in Sandbox AQ, a startup focused on developing large quantitative models (LQMs) for complex numerical analysis and statistical calculations. This investment increased Sandbox AQ’s Series E round to $450 million and boosted the company’s valuation to $5.75 billion.

Hippocratic AI: This startup, which is developing large language models for healthcare, announced in January that it raised a $141 million Series B round at a valuation of $1.64 billion, led by Kleiner Perkins. Nvidia participated in this round, along with returning investors Andreessen Horowitz, General Catalyst, and others. The company asserts that its AI solutions can manage non-diagnostic patient-facing tasks such as pre-operating procedures, remote patient monitoring, and appointment preparation.

Weka: In May 2024, Nvidia invested in a $140 million round for Weka, an AI-native data management platform. This round valued the Silicon Valley company at $1.6 billion.

Runway: In April, Nvidia participated in Runway’s $308 million round, which was led by General Atlantic and valued the startup, developing generative AI models for media production, at $3.55 billion, according to PitchBook data. The chipmaker has been an investor since 2023.

Bright Machines: In June 2024, Nvidia participated in a $126 million Series C round for 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 round. Although the startup raised another $115 million in November, Nvidia did not participate in that subsequent round.

Reka AI: In July, AI research lab Reka raised $110 million in a round that included investments from Snowflake and Nvidia. This deal tripled the startup’s valuation to over $1 billion, according to Bloomberg.