US-based artificial intelligence giant Nvidia Corp. announced on Thursday, September 18, 2025, its intent to potentially invest $500 million in the next funding round of Wayve, a UK-based self-driving technology startup. This strategic move aligns with a recently signed “Tech Prosperity Deal” between the United States and the United Kingdom, executed by US President Donald Trump on September 16, 2025. The deal aims to bolster both nations' capabilities in critical areas such as AI, quantum computing, and civil nuclear energy, fostering economic growth, scientific research, and energy security.

Wayve, an autonomous driving technology company backed by SoftBank, was founded in 2017. It develops its self-driving platforms by learning from traffic patterns and driver behavior through detailed digital maps, sophisticated coding, machine learning, and camera sensors mounted on vehicles. Crucially, Wayve utilizes semiconductor chips manufactured by Nvidia Corp. for its operations. In 2024, the British firm successfully raised over $1 billion in funding, attracting a prominent investor pool led by Japanese investment giant SoftBank Group and Nvidia. Additionally, Wayve secured an undisclosed separate investment from the cab-hailing platform Uber in the same year. While its primary operations are based in the UK and the United States, Wayve is actively expanding its testing and development efforts into new markets like Germany and Japan.

Nvidia's potential investment in Wayve is part of a broader and significant strategic investment initiative. On the same day, Thursday, September 18, 2025, the AI chipmaker pledged a substantial 2 billion pounds (approximately $2.70 billion) towards strengthening the British AI startup ecosystem. Concurrently, Nvidia also announced a $5 billion investment in Intel Corp., aimed at collaboratively developing semiconductor chips for PCs and data centers. As part of this collaboration, Nvidia plans to purchase Intel's common stock at $23.28 per share, though a timeline for the sale of the first manufactured parts has not yet been disclosed. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang emphasized the significance of this partnership, stating, “This historic collaboration tightly couples Nvidia’s AI and accelerated computing stack with Intel’s CPUs and the vast x86 ecosystem — a fusion of two world-class platforms.” He added, “Together, we will expand our ecosystems and lay the foundation for the next era of computing.” This substantial funding for Intel arrives at a time when the President Donald Trump-led United States' federal government has agreed to acquire nearly a 10% stake in the technology company.