No tech company has ridden the generative AI wave harder than Nvidia — and it’s not just selling GPUs.
Since ChatGPT’s launch a little over three years ago, Nvidia’s revenue and profits have exploded, turning it into a $4.6 trillion company. It has plowed a chunk of that cash into startups, especially in AI, quietly building one of the most aggressive strategic portfolios in tech.
According to PitchBook, Nvidia took part in nearly 67 venture deals in 2025, already topping the 54 it did in all of 2024. That tally doesn’t even include the separate corporate VC arm, NVentures, which ramped from a single deal in 2022 to 30 in 2025.
Nvidia says the goal is to expand the AI ecosystem by backing startups it sees as “game changers and market makers.” A look at the biggest checks it has written since 2023 shows how far that strategy stretches beyond selling chips.
Below is a breakdown of startup rounds over $100 million since 2023 where Nvidia is a named investor, ordered roughly from the largest rounds down.
The billion‑dollar club
OpenAI
Nvidia first backed OpenAI in October 2024, joining the ChatGPT maker’s gigantic $6.6 billion round at a $157 billion valuation. The company reportedly wrote a $100 million check, a sliver compared to Thrive’s $1.3 billion, but strategically important.
PitchBook data suggests Nvidia did not join OpenAI’s $40 billion round that closed in March. Still, Nvidia and OpenAI announced in September that Nvidia would invest up to $100 billion over time as part of a massive infrastructure partnership. Later SEC filings added a dose of cold water: “There is no assurance that any investment will be completed on expected terms, if at all.”
Anthropic
In November 2025, Nvidia made its first direct investment in Anthropic, committing up to $10 billion. Microsoft also wrote a $5 billion check in that round.
The deal is structured as a "circular" spending pact: Anthropic agreed to spend $30 billion on Microsoft Azure compute and to buy Nvidia’s next‑gen Grace Blackwell and Vera Rubin systems.
Cursor
Nvidia entered the AI coding tools race in November, joining Cursor’s $2.3 billion Series D. The round, co‑led by Accel and Coatue, valued Cursor at $29.3 billion — nearly 15x its valuation at the start of the year.
Nvidia was already a major enterprise customer. This round made it a shareholder alongside Google.
xAI
OpenAI reportedly urged investors not to fund its rivals. Nvidia ignored that.
In December 2024, the chipmaker participated in the $6 billion round for Elon Musk’s xAI. Bloomberg later reported Nvidia will invest up to $2 billion in the equity portion of xAI’s planned $20 billion funding round, a deal designed to finance even more Nvidia hardware.
Mistral AI
Nvidia has backed French LLM startup Mistral three times. Its latest check went into a €1.7 billion (about $2 billion) Series C round in September at an €11.7 billion (around $13.5 billion) post‑money valuation.
Reflection AI
In October, Nvidia joined a $2 billion round into Reflection AI, a one‑year‑old startup now valued at $8 billion.
Reflection is pitching itself as a U.S. alternative to China’s DeepSeek. Its open‑source LLM aims to undercut closed models from OpenAI and Anthropic on cost.
Thinking Machines Lab
Former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati’s new venture, Thinking Machines Lab, raised a $2 billion seed round announced in July. Nvidia was among a long list of backers. The newborn AI startup debuted with a $12 billion valuation.
Inflection
In June 2023, Nvidia was one of the lead investors in Inflection’s $1.3 billion round. Inflection, co‑founded by DeepMind’s Mustafa Suleyman, became one of Nvidia’s first big AI bets.
The outcome was unusual. Less than a year later, Microsoft hired Inflection’s founders and paid $620 million for a non‑exclusive tech license. Inflection was left with a much smaller team and an uncertain roadmap.
Crusoe
Nvidia joined Crusoe’s $1.4 billion Series E in October, valuing the AI data center builder at $10 billion. Nvidia first backed Crusoe in late 2024.
Crusoe is a key infrastructure partner for the "Stargate" project, building huge data center campuses in Texas and Wyoming that Oracle will lease to power OpenAI workloads.
Nscale
Nscale raised a $1.1 billion round in September, then followed with a $433 million SAFE in October. Nvidia participated in the SAFE, locking in future equity.
Spun out of Australian crypto miner Arkon Energy in 2023, Nscale is building data centers in the U.K. and Norway for OpenAI’s Stargate project.
Wayve
In May 2024, Nvidia joined a $1.05 billion round in Wayve, a U.K. startup developing a self‑learning system for autonomous driving. Wayve is testing in the U.K. and the San Francisco Bay Area.
The company told TechCrunch in September that Nvidia is expected to invest another $500 million.
Figure AI
Nvidia joined Figure AI’s Series C in September, a round "over $1 billion" that valued the humanoid robotics startup at $39 billion.
That followed Nvidia’s first investment in February 2024, when Figure raised a $675 million Series B at a $2.6 billion valuation.
Scale AI
In May 2024, Nvidia invested in Scale AI’s $1 billion round at a nearly $14 billion valuation. Amazon, Meta and Accel were also in the syndicate.
In June, Meta went much further, paying $14.3 billion for a 49% stake in Scale and hiring co‑founder and CEO Alexandr Wang plus several key employees.
The many‑hundreds‑of‑millions club
Commonwealth Fusion
Nvidia took part in Commonwealth Fusion’s $863 million round in August, alongside Google and Breakthrough Energy Ventures. The nuclear fusion startup was valued at $3 billion.
Cohere
Enterprise LLM provider Cohere raised a $500 million Series D in August at a $6.8 billion valuation. Nvidia has backed the Toronto‑based startup across multiple rounds, starting in 2023.
Perplexity
Nvidia first invested in AI search engine Perplexity in November 2023 and joined most follow‑on rounds, including a $500 million raise in December 2024.
The July round valued Perplexity at $18 billion. Nvidia sat out the company’s subsequent $200 million round in September, which pushed the valuation to $20 billion, per PitchBook.
Poolside
AI coding assistant startup Poolside raised $500 million in October 2024 in a round led by Bain Capital Ventures. Nvidia participated, joining at a $3 billion valuation.
Lambda
AI cloud provider Lambda closed a $480 million Series D in February at a reported $2.5 billion valuation. Nvidia joined ARK Invest and others in the round, co‑led by SGW and Andra Capital.
A big part of Lambda’s business is renting servers packed with Nvidia GPUs.
Black Forest Labs
In December, image generation startup Black Forest Labs closed a $300 million Series B co‑led by Salesforce Ventures and Anjney Midha (AMP). Nvidia joined the round, which valued the German company — maker of the "Flux" models — at $3.25 billion.
CoreWeave
Nvidia invested in GPU cloud provider CoreWeave back in April 2023, when it was still a startup raising $221 million. CoreWeave has since gone public, and Nvidia remains a major shareholder.
Together AI
Together AI, which offers cloud infrastructure for building AI models, raised a $305 million Series B in February at a $3.3 billion valuation. Prosperity7 and General Catalyst co‑led the round; Nvidia first backed the company in 2023.
Firmus Technologies
In September, Nvidia invested in Firmus Technologies’ AU$330 million (about $215 million) round at an AU$1.85 billion (roughly $1.2 billion) valuation.
Firmus is building an energy‑efficient "AI factory" in Tasmania. The company originally built cooling tech for Bitcoin mining.
Uniphore
In October, Nvidia joined AMD, Snowflake and Databricks to lead a $260 million Series F for Uniphore. The company’s multimodal Business AI platform powers automation and "AI agents" across customer service, sales and marketing.
Sakana AI
Japan’s Sakana AI raised about $214 million in a massive Series A in September 2024 at a $1.5 billion valuation. Nvidia participated.
Sakana later raised another $135 million at a $2.65 billion valuation in November without Nvidia.
Nuro
Self‑driving delivery startup Nuro raised $203 million in August with Nvidia in the round. The deal valued Nuro at $6 billion — down 30% from its $8.6 billion peak in 2021.
Imbue
AI research lab Imbue raised $200 million in September 2023 from investors including Nvidia, Astera Institute and former Cruise CEO Kyle Vogt. Imbue says it is focused on AI that can reason and write code.
Waabi
Autonomous trucking startup Waabi raised a $200 million Series B in June 2024, co‑led by Uber and Khosla Ventures. Nvidia joined Volvo Group Venture Capital and Porsche Automobil Holding SE in the round.
Deals north of $100 million
Ayar Labs
In December 2024, Nvidia backed Ayar Labs’ $155 million round — its third investment in the startup. Ayar builds optical interconnects aimed at boosting AI compute performance and power efficiency.
Kore.ai
Enterprise chatbot builder Kore.ai raised $150 million in December 2023 from Nvidia, FTV Capital, Vistara Growth and Sweetwater Private Equity.
Sandbox AQ
In April, Nvidia joined Google, BNP Paribas and others in a $150 million round for Sandbox AQ. The deal lifted the company’s Series E total to $450 million and its valuation to $5.75 billion.
Sandbox AQ is developing large quantitative models (LQMs) for complex numerical analysis and statistical workloads.
Hippocratic AI
Healthcare LLM startup Hippocratic AI raised a $141 million Series B in January at a $1.64 billion valuation, with Nvidia joining Kleiner Perkins, Andreessen Horowitz, General Catalyst and others.
Hippocratic says its models handle non‑diagnostic, patient‑facing tasks such as pre‑op procedures, remote monitoring and appointment prep. It later raised another $126 million at a $3.5 billion valuation in November without Nvidia.
Weka
In May 2024, Nvidia invested in Weka’s $140 million round. The AI‑native data management platform was valued at $1.6 billion.
Runway
Runway, which builds generative AI models for media production, raised a $308 million round in April led by General Atlantic. Nvidia — an investor since 2023 — joined again. PitchBook pegs the valuation at $3.55 billion.
Bright Machines
Smart robotics and AI software company Bright Machines closed a $126 million Series C in June 2024 with Nvidia among the investors.
Enfabrica
Networking chip designer Enfabrica raised a $125 million Series B in September 2023 from investors including Nvidia. The startup raised another $115 million in November 2024 without Nvidia.
In September, Nvidia reportedly spent more than $900 million to hire Enfabrica’s CEO and staff while licensing its technology in what amounted to an acquihire.
Reka AI
In July, AI research lab Reka raised $110 million from investors including Snowflake and Nvidia. Bloomberg reported the deal tripled Reka’s valuation to more than $1 billion.
A map of Nvidia’s AI bet
Taken together, these deals show Nvidia building an AI empire that runs far beyond its own silicon:
- Model labs and LLMs: OpenAI, Anthropic, Mistral, Cohere, Reflection AI, Thinking Machines Lab, Imbue, Reka.
- Cloud and infrastructure: CoreWeave, Lambda, Crusoe, Nscale, Together AI, Firmus, Ayar Labs, Enfabrica.
- Applications and agents: Perplexity, Poolside, Cursor, Kore.ai, Uniphore, Runway, Waabi, Wayve, Nuro, Bright Machines, Scale AI.
- Frontier bets: Commonwealth Fusion’s fusion reactors and Sandbox AQ’s LQMs.
The through‑line is clear: Nvidia is seeding demand for its own hardware at every layer of the AI stack while trying to ensure the most important "game changers and market makers" are building on its platform.
