Nvidia’s AI Investment Empire: Backing Every Major Startup That Matters

Nvidia didn’t just sell chips during the AI boom. It bought stakes in practically everyone.

The GPU giant participated in 67 venture deals this year alone. That’s up from 54 in all of 2024. Plus, these numbers exclude its formal VC fund NVentures, which completed another 30 deals. The strategy is clear: spread money everywhere AI touches.

Below are Nvidia’s biggest bets since 2023, organized by round size. The list reveals how deeply the chipmaker embedded itself across the AI ecosystem.

OpenAI Got $100 Million, Maybe More

Nvidia first invested in ChatGPT’s creator during October 2024’s massive $6.6 billion round. The chipmaker wrote a $100 million check, valuing OpenAI at $157 billion.

But that was just the start. Nvidia announced plans to invest up to $100 billion in OpenAI over time. The commitment was structured as a strategic partnership to deploy massive AI infrastructure.

However, Nvidia later hedged its bets. In quarterly filings, the company stated there’s “no assurance that any investment will be completed on expected terms, if at all.” Translation: They might not follow through.

OpenAI raised another $40 billion in March. Nvidia didn’t participate in that round.

Anthropic Locked In $10 Billion Deal

In November 2025, Nvidia made its first direct investment in the Claude AI maker. The chipmaker committed up to $10 billion as part of a strategic round that included $5 billion from Microsoft.

Here’s where it gets circular. Anthropic committed to spending $30 billion on Microsoft Azure compute capacity. Plus, they agreed to buy Nvidia’s future Grace Blackwell and Vera Rubin systems.

So Nvidia invests billions, Anthropic spends it back buying Nvidia hardware through Microsoft. Everyone wins, except maybe Anthropic’s balance sheet.

Cursor Valued at $29 Billion After Nvidia Joined

The AI-powered code assistant raised $2.3 billion in November. Accel and Coatue co-led the Series D round. Nvidia participated for the first time as a strategic investor.

The deal valued Cursor at $29.3 billion. That’s nearly 15 times higher than the company’s valuation at the start of the year. Nvidia had been an enterprise customer before becoming a shareholder.

Google also joined as an investor in the same round.

xAI Got $6 Billion Despite OpenAI’s Objections

OpenAI reportedly asked its investors not to fund competitors. Nvidia invested in Elon Musk’s xAI anyway, participating in the $6 billion round last December.

Now Nvidia plans to invest up to $2 billion more. That money comes as part of xAI’s planned $20 billion funding round. The deal is structured to help xAI purchase more Nvidia gear.

Again, the circular spending pattern emerges. Invest billions, get it back through hardware sales.

Mistral AI Raised €1.7 Billion With Nvidia Backing

The French LLM developer secured a massive Series C in September. The €1.7 billion round (about $2 billion) valued Mistral at €11.7 billion ($13.5 billion).

This marked Nvidia’s third investment in Mistral. The chipmaker clearly believes in Europe’s answer to OpenAI and Anthropic.

Data Center Builders Got Massive Checks

Nvidia invested heavily in companies building AI infrastructure.

Crusoe raised $1.4 billion in October at a $10 billion valuation. The AI data center developer is a key infrastructure partner for the ‘Stargate’ project. Crusoe is building massive campuses in Texas and Wyoming to be leased to Oracle specifically for OpenAI’s workloads.

Nscale raised $1.1 billion in September, then another $433 million in October. The startup formed in 2023 after spinning out of Australian cryptocurrency mining company Arkon Energy. Now it’s building data centers in the U.K. and Norway for OpenAI’s Stargate project.

Commonwealth Fusion got $863 million in August. Nvidia joined Google and Breakthrough Energy Ventures to back the nuclear fusion-energy startup at a $3 billion valuation.

Autonomous Vehicle Companies Received Strategic Investments

Nvidia spread money across self-driving technology providers.

Wayve raised $1.05 billion in May 2024 for its self-learning autonomous driving system. The U.K.-based startup tests vehicles in Britain and the San Francisco Bay Area. Nvidia plans to invest another $500 million.

Nuro secured $203 million in August. However, the self-driving delivery startup’s valuation dropped 30% to $6 billion from its 2021 peak of $8.6 billion.

Waabi raised $200 million in June 2024. Uber and Khosla Ventures co-led the autonomous trucking startup’s Series B.

Humanoid Robotics Got Billion-Dollar Backing

Figure AI raised over $1 billion in September at a $39 billion valuation. Nvidia first invested in February 2024 when Figure raised $675 million at a $2.6 billion valuation.

That’s a 15x valuation increase in 18 months. The humanoid robotics market is clearly heating up.

Bright Machines secured $126 million in June 2024. The smart robotics and AI-driven software startup focuses on manufacturing automation.

Scale AI Lost Its CEO to Meta

Nvidia joined Accel, Amazon, and Meta to invest $1 billion in Scale AI in May 2024. The data-labeling services provider was valued at nearly $14 billion.

Then Meta made a bold move. In June, the social media giant invested $14.3 billion for a 49% stake in Scale. Meta also hired away co-founder and CEO Alexandr Wang, plus several other key Scale employees.

So Nvidia’s investment got interesting fast.

AI Code Assistants Drew Multiple Investments

Poolside raised $500 million in October 2024. Bain Capital Ventures led the round, which valued the AI coding assistant at $3 billion. Nvidia participated alongside other investors.

Cursor got the massive $2.3 billion round mentioned earlier at a $29.3 billion valuation.

The AI coding market is exploding. Every major player wants a piece.

Cloud Infrastructure Providers Secured Hundreds of Millions

Lambda raised $480 million in February at a $2.5 billion valuation. The AI cloud provider rents servers powered by Nvidia’s GPUs. SGW and Andra Capital co-led the Series D.

CoreWeave received $221 million back in April 2023 when still a startup. Now it’s a public company, with Nvidia remaining a significant shareholder.

Together AI secured $305 million in February at a $3.3 billion valuation. The startup offers cloud-based infrastructure for building AI models. Prosperity7 and General Catalyst co-led the Series B.

Enterprise AI Companies Got Strategic Backing

Cohere raised $500 million in August at a $6.8 billion valuation. Nvidia has invested in the enterprise LLM provider across multiple funding rounds since 2023.

Uniphore secured $260 million in October. Nvidia joined AMD, Snowflake, and Databricks to lead the Series F. Uniphore’s platform helps enterprises automate workflows and deploy AI agents.

Kore.ai raised $150 million in December 2023. The startup develops enterprise-focused AI chatbots.

AI Search and Research Labs Drew Strategic Capital

Perplexity raised $500 million in December 2024 at an $18 billion valuation. Nvidia first invested in November 2023 and participated in most subsequent rounds. However, the chipmaker skipped the September $200 million round that boosted Perplexity’s valuation to $20 billion.

Imbue secured $200 million in September 2023. The AI research lab claims to be developing systems that can reason and code. Astera Institute and former Cruise CEO Kyle Vogt joined Nvidia as investors.

Sakana AI raised about $214 million in September 2024 at a $1.5 billion valuation. The Japan-based startup trains low-cost generative AI models using small datasets. Sakana raised another $135 million at a $2.65 billion valuation in November, but Nvidia didn’t participate.

Reka AI secured $110 million in July at a valuation over $1 billion. Snowflake joined Nvidia in backing the AI research lab.

Former OpenAI Executives Started Well-Funded Ventures

Thinking Machines Lab raised a $2 billion seed round at a $12 billion valuation. Former OpenAI chief technology officer Mira Murati founded the startup, which was formally announced in July. Nvidia joined a long list of investors.

Reflection AI secured $2 billion in October at an $8 billion valuation. The one-year-old startup positions itself as a U.S.-based competitor to Chinese DeepSeek.

Inflection raised $1.3 billion in June 2023. Nvidia was one of several lead investors in the company co-founded by Mustafa Suleyman, the famed founder of DeepMind. However, less than a year later, Microsoft hired Inflection’s founders and paid $620 million for a non-exclusive technology license.

The deal left Inflection with a diminished workforce and uncertain future. Not every bet pays off the same way.

Specialized AI Applications Attracted Strategic Investment

Black Forest Labs raised $300 million in December at a $3.25 billion valuation. The German startup behind the “Flux” image generation models secured backing from Salesforce Ventures and Anjney Midha (AMP).

Runway got $308 million in April at a $3.55 billion valuation. General Atlantic led the round for the startup developing generative AI models for media production. Nvidia has been an investor since 2023.

Hippocratic AI raised $141 million in January at a $1.64 billion valuation. Kleiner Perkins led the Series B for the startup developing large language models for healthcare. Hippocratic raised another $126 million at a $3.5 billion valuation in November, but Nvidia didn’t participate.

Infrastructure and Hardware Startups Got Strategic Support

Weka secured $140 million in May 2024 at a $1.6 billion valuation. The AI-native data management platform received strategic investment from Nvidia.

Ayar Labs raised $155 million in December 2024. This marked the third time Nvidia backed the company developing optical interconnects to improve AI compute and power efficiency.

Enfabrica got $125 million in September 2023. Nvidia invested in the networking chips designer’s Series B. The startup raised another $115 million in November 2024, but Nvidia didn’t participate. Then in September, Nvidia reportedly spent over $900 million to hire Enfabrica’s CEO and staff while licensing its technology in an “acquihire” deal.

Firmus Technologies received AU$330 million (approximately $215 million) in September at an AU$1.85 billion ($1.2 billion) valuation. The Singapore-based data center company is developing an energy-efficient “AI factory” in Tasmania. The startup originally provided cooling technologies for Bitcoin mining.

The Pattern is Clear

Nvidia isn’t just selling chips. The company is systematically investing in every layer of the AI stack: infrastructure providers, model developers, application builders, and specialized hardware companies.

Many investments follow a circular pattern. Nvidia backs a startup, which then spends that money buying Nvidia hardware. The chipmaker gets equity upside while locking in future sales.

This strategy builds ecosystem dominance. Companies using Nvidia chips, funded by Nvidia capital, trained on Nvidia infrastructure. Competitors face an uphill battle against this integrated approach.

Whether regulators eventually scrutinize these interconnected relationships remains unclear. For now, Nvidia continues spreading investments across the AI landscape, cementing its position as the industry’s most critical player.