No firm has capitalized on the AI revolution extra dramatically than Nvidia. Its income, profitability, and money reserves have skyrocketed because the introduction of ChatGPT a bit of over two years in the past — and the numerous aggressive generative AI companies which have launched since. And its inventory worth soared greater than eightfold.
During that interval, the world’s main high-performance GPU maker has used its ballooning fortunes to considerably enhance investments in all kinds of startups however significantly in AI startups.
The chip large ramped up its enterprise capital exercise in 2024, collaborating in 49 funding rounds for AI firms, a pointy enhance from 34 in 2023, in keeping with PitchBook information. It’s a dramatic surge in funding in comparison with the earlier 4 years mixed, throughout which Nvidia funded solely 38 AI offers. Note that these investments exclude these made by its formal company VC fund, NVentures, which additionally considerably ramped up its investing within the final two years. (PitchBook says NVentures engaged in 24 offers in 2024, in comparison with simply 2 in 2022.)
Nvidia has said that the purpose of its company investing is to increase the AI ecosystem by backing startups it considers to be “recreation changers and market makers.”
Of course, Nvidia shouldn’t be the one massive tech company writing checks to AI startups. But during the last two years, it was essentially the most lively. Compared to Nvidia’s 83 offers in two years (2023 and 2024), Alphabet participated in 73, whereas Microsoft has completed 40 rounds, PitchBook information reveals.
Below is a listing of startups that raised rounds exceeding $100 million over the previous two years the place Nvidia is a named participant, organized from the best quantity to lowest raised within the spherical.
The billion-dollar-round membership
OpenAI: Nvidia backed the ChatGPT maker for the primary time in October, reportedly writing a $100 million examine towards a colossal $6.6 billion spherical that valued the corporate at $157 billion. The chipmaker’s funding was dwarfed by OpenAI’s different backers, notably Thrive, which in keeping with the New York Times invested $1.3 billion.
xAI: Nvidia participated within the $6 billion spherical of Elon Musk’s xAI. The deal revealed that not all of OpenAI’s traders adopted its request to chorus from backing any of its direct opponents. After investing within the ChatGPT maker in October, Nvidia joined xAI’s cap desk a couple of months later.
Inflection: One of Nvidia’s first vital AI investments additionally had one of the uncommon outcomes. In June 2023, Nvidia was certainly one of a number of lead traders in Inflection’s $1.3 billion spherical, an organization based by Mustafa Suleyman, who earlier based DeepMind. Less than a yr later, Microsoft employed Inflection AI’s founders, paying $620 million for a non-exclusive expertise license, leaving the corporate with a considerably diminished workforce and a much less outlined future.
Wayve: In May, Nvidia participated in a $1.05 billion spherical for the U.Okay.-based startup, which is creating a self-learning system for autonomous driving. The firm is testing its automobiles within the U.Okay. and the San Francisco Bay Area.
Safe Superintelligence: In September, Nvidia was a backer within the new startup based by former OpenAI chief scientist Ilya Sutskever. The $1 billion spherical reportedly valued the brand new 10-person AI lab at $5 billion.
Scale AI: In May 2024, Nvidia joined Accel and different tech giants Amazon and Meta to speculate $1 billion in Scale AI, which supplies data-labeling companies to firms for coaching AI fashions. The spherical valued the San Francisco-based firm at practically $14 billion.
The many-hundreds-of-millions-of-dollars membership
Crusoe: A startup constructing information facilities reportedly to be leased to Oracle, Microsoft, and OpenAI raised $686 million in late November, in keeping with an SEC submitting. The funding was led by Founders Fund, and the lengthy record of different traders included Nvidia.
Figure AI: In February, AI robotics startup Figure raised a $675 million Series B from Nvidia, OpenAI Startup Fund, Microsoft, and others. The spherical valued the corporate at $2.6 billion.
Mistral AI: Nvidia invested in Mistral for the second time when the French-based massive language mannequin developer raised a $640 million Series B at a $6 billion valuation in June.
Cohere: In June, Nvidia invested in Cohere’s $500 million spherical, a big language mannequin supplier serving enterprises. The chipmaker first backed the Toronto-based startup a yr prior.
Perplexity: Nvidia first invested in Perplexity in November of 2023 and has participated in each subsequent spherical of the AI search engine startup, together with the $500 million spherical in December, which values the corporate at $9 billion, in keeping with PitchBook information.
Poolside: In October, the AI coding assistant startup Poolside introduced it raised $500 million led by Bain Capital Ventures. Nvidia participated within the spherical, which valued the AI startup at $3 billion.
CoreWeave: Nvidia invested within the AI cloud computing supplier in April 2023, when CoreWeave raised $221 million in funding. Since then, CoreWeave’s valuation has jumped from about $2 billion to $19 billion, and the corporate reportedly has its sights on a $35 billion Initial Public Offering this yr. CoreWeave permits its prospects to lease Nvidia GPUs on an hourly foundation.
Sakana AI: In September, Nvidia invested in the Japan-based startup, which trains low-cost generative AI fashions utilizing small datasets. The startup raised a large Series A spherical of about $214 million at a valuation of $1.5 billion.
Imbue: The AI analysis lab that claims to be creating AI techniques that may purpose and code raised a $200 million spherical in September 2023 from traders, together with Nvidia, Astera Institute, and former Cruise CEO Kyle Vogt.
Waabi: In June, the autonomous trucking startup raised a $200 million Series B spherical co-led by current traders Uber and Khosla Ventures. Other traders included Nvidia, Volvo Group Venture Capital, and Porsche Automobil Holding SE.
Deals of over a $100 million
Ayar Labs: In December, Nvidia invested within the $155 million spherical of Ayar Labs, a firm creating optical interconnects to enhance AI compute and energy effectivity. This was the third time Nvidia backed the startup.
Kore.ai: The startup creating enterprise-focused AI chatbots raised $150 million in December of 2023. In addition to Nvidia, traders collaborating within the funding included FTV Capital, Vistara Growth, and Sweetwater Private Equity.
Weka: In May, Nvidia invested in a $140 million spherical for AI-native information administration platform Weka. The spherical valued the Silicon Valley firm at $1.6 billion.
Runway: In June of 2023, Runway, a startup constructing generative AI instruments for multimedia content material creators, raised a $141 million Series C extension from traders, together with Nvidia, Google, and Salesforce.
Bright Machines: In June 2024, Nvidia participated in a $126 million Series C of Bright Machines, a sensible robotics and AI-driven software program startup.
Vast Data: The startup that gives storage options for AI and information analytics raised a $118 million Series E at a $9.3 billion valuation in December of 2023. That was the third time Nvidia invested in Vast Data.
Enfabrica: In September 2023, Nvidia invested in networking chips designer Enfabrica’s $125 million Series B. Although the startup raised one other $115 million in November, Nvidia didn’t take part within the spherical.
