Nvidia has been among the most notable investments in AI startups this year, the most valuable chipmaker in the world.
Dealroom claims that the company has been one of the most prominent investors in the artificial intelligence area in 2023, having engaged in 35 deals—a substantial rise from the previous year. Nvidia has invested in a diverse variety of companies, from large AI platforms with valuations in the billions to smaller businesses concentrating on using AI in industries such as energy and healthcare.
The corporation focuses its investment strategy on businesses that make use of its products and technologies. To make this happen, Nvidia set up a specialized venture capital arm called NVentures. This group works in tandem with the corporate development team at Nvidia to pick promising AI startups like Inflection AI and Cohere to add to their portfolio.
Nvidia invests in CoreWeave. This cloud infrastructure firm focuses on high-performance computing applications that rely on Nvidia’s graphics processing units (GPUs) and Hugging Face, a provider of data and tools for AI developers. A Paris-based artificial intelligence business called Mistral was recently valued at 2 billion euros, or approximately $2.2 billion, by Nvidia.
Every company in Nvidia’s portfolio uses GPU chips or processor manufacturer software. This year, companies in the generative AI area are particularly interested in Nvidia’s H100 GPU since it has a powerful processor that allows makers of “large language models” to train their systems more efficiently.
Much of Nvidia’s investment strategy entails using cash on hand, with the company allegedly writing checks in the tens of millions of dollars. The corporate development team concentrates on long-term strategy, unlike NVentures’s emphasis on short-term profit maximization. In investment rounds, Nvidia is the front-runner and often partners with VC firms to make additional investments.
In September, it was claimed that Nvidia had monopolized the market for AI computer processors, cutting off funding for any possible rivals.
