Nvidia’s dominance in the artificial intelligence sector continues to fuel unprecedented growth, with the company significantly increasing its venture capital investments in AI startups. Since the rise of generative AI with tools like ChatGPT, Nvidia has seen its revenue, profitability, and market capitalization soar, enabling it to become a major player in shaping the future of the AI landscape through strategic funding. The company’s investment activity has reached new heights, marking a substantial bet on the burgeoning AI ecosystem.
The world’s leading high-performance GPU maker has participated in nearly 67 venture capital deals in 2025, surpassing the 54 deals completed in 2024, according to data from PitchBook. This figure excludes investments made through its formal corporate venture fund, NVentures, which itself has dramatically increased its pace, completing 30 deals in 2025 compared to just one in 2022. These investments highlight Nvidia’s ambition to extend its influence beyond hardware provision and into the broader AI technology stack.
Nvidia’s Expanding AI Investment Portfolio
Nvidia has publicly stated its goal is to foster innovation within the AI industry by supporting companies identified as potential “game changers and market makers.” This strategy reflects a broader trend of tech giants investing in startups to gain early access to promising technologies and secure their positions in evolving markets. The sheer volume and scale of Nvidia’s investments, however, set it apart.
One of the largest publicly disclosed investments is connected to OpenAI. While Nvidia initially invested $100 million in a $6.6 billion round in October 2024, it later announced a potential investment of up to $100 billion in a strategic partnership aimed at deploying massive AI infrastructure. However, recent filings indicate the company may not fully execute that commitment, citing uncertainties around the partnership’s final terms. This highlights the complex and evolving nature of these large-scale agreements.
In November 2025, Nvidia committed up to $10 billion to Anthropic, a leading AI research lab, as part of a strategic funding round also including investment from Microsoft. This investment is linked to Anthropic’s commitment to utilize Microsoft Azure compute capacity and Nvidia’s future hardware systems, demonstrating a circular investment model. Similarly, Nvidia invested in xAI, Elon Musk’s AI venture, participating in a $6 billion round in 2024 and outlining a potential $2 billion equity investment to facilitate xAI’s purchase of Nvidia hardware.
Significant Investments in Emerging AI Companies
Beyond these headline-grabbing deals, Nvidia has backed a diverse range of AI startups. In November, the company invested in Cursor, an AI-powered code assistant, which saw its valuation soar to $29.3 billion following a $2.3 billion funding round. This signals increased investor confidence in the developer tools space and Nvidia’s strategic interest in supporting AI applications for software engineers.
Other notable investments include a substantial commitment to Mistral AI, a French large language model (LLM) developer, receiving a third investment in a €1.7 billion (approximately $2 billion) Series C round in September. Reflecting its broader vision, Nvidia also participated in a $2 billion funding round for Reflection AI, a competitor to Chinese AI firm DeepSeek. Just months prior, Nvidia was among investors in Thinking Machines Lab, the new AI startup founded by former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati, contributing to a $2 billion seed round.
Nvidia’s investments aren’t limited to software and model development. The company has also backed infrastructure providers crucial to the AI ecosystem. This includes Crusoe, an AI data center developer, and Nscale, which is building data centers for OpenAI’s ‘Stargate’ project. These investments underscore the understanding that robust infrastructure is fundamental to powering AI advancements.
The AI landscape isn’t without its turbulence, however. Nvidia’s early investment in Inflection AI faced an unexpected turn when Microsoft acquired Inflection’s founders and technology, significantly altering the startup’s trajectory. This illustrates the inherent risk in venture capital, even for a well-informed investor like Nvidia.
Further demonstrating its varied approach, Nvidia has also invested in Wayve, a UK-based autonomous driving startup, and Figure AI, a humanoid robotics company. These investments reflect an anticipation that AI will play a transformational role across multiple industries, extending far beyond the current focus on LLMs. Even established companies like Scale AI and Kore.ai have received funding from Nvidia, in addition to emerging startups like Reka AI.
Investments aren’t confined to the US or Europe either. Nvidia also participated in a round for Firmus Technologies, a Singapore-based data center company, highlighting a global outlook on AI infrastructure development. This wide-ranging portfolio underscores how crucial Nvidia believes AI will be to many sectors.
Looking Ahead: Nvidia and the Future of AI
Nvidia’s aggressive investment strategy is expected to continue as the AI market matures and new opportunities arise. While the company has demonstrated a willingness to make large, direct investments, it will likely continue to diversify its approach through both its corporate fund, NVentures, and direct participation in funding rounds. The size and ultimate success of these investments—and particularly the fulfillment of the proposed $100 billion commitment to OpenAI—will be key indicators of Nvidia’s long-term influence in the AI space. Monitoring the development and commercialization of technologies within these portfolio companies will be crucial for understanding the future direction of AI innovation.
