No company has capitalized on the AI ​​revolution more dramatically than Nvidia. Its revenue, profits, and cash reserves have skyrocketed since the introduction of ChatGPT more than two years ago — and the many competing generative AI services that have launched since. And its stock price rose more than eightfold.

During that time, the world’s leading high-performance GPU maker used its ballooning fortune to increase investments in all kinds of startups but especially in AI startups.

The chip giant increased its venture capital activity in 2024, participating in 49 funding rounds for AI companies, a sharp increase from 34 in 2023, according to PitchBook data. This is a dramatic increase in investment compared to the previous four years combined, where Nvidia funded only 38 AI deals. Note that these investments do not include those made by the formal corporate VC fund, NVentures, which has also significantly increased its investment over the past two years. (PitchBook says NVentures engaged in 24 deals in 2024, compared to just 2 in 2022.)

Nvidia expressed that the goal of its corporate investment is to expand the AI ​​ecosystem by backing startups it considers “game changers and market makers.”

Of course, Nvidia isn’t the only big tech corporation writing checks to AI startups. But in the last two years, it has been the most active. Compared to Nvidia’s 83 deals in two years (2023 and 2024), Alphabet participated in 73, while Microsoft made 40 rounds, PitchBook data shows.

Below is a list of startups that have raised rounds of more than $100 million in the past two years where Nvidia is a named participant, organized from the highest amount to the lowest round raised.

The billion-dollar circle club

OpenAI: Nvidia supported the maker of ChatGPT for the first time in October, reportedly writing a $100 million check leading to a massive $6.6 billion round that values ​​the company at $157 billion. The chipmaker’s investment was dwarfed by other OpenAI backers, notably Thrive, which according to the New York Times invested $1.3 billion.

xAI: Nvidia participates in $6 billion round of Elon Musk’s xAI. The agreement reveals that not all investors are OpenAI complied with its request to avoid supporting any of his direct competitors. After investing in maker ChatGPT in October, Nvidia joined xAI’s cap table a few months later.

Inflection: One of Nvidia’s first significant AI investments also had one of the most unusual results. In June 2023, Nvidia was one of several leading investors in Inflection’s $1.3 billion round, a company founded by Mustafa Suleyman, who previously founded DeepMind. Less than a year later, Microsoft hired the founders of Inflection AI, paid $620 million for a non-exclusive technology license, leaving the company with a significantly reduced workforce and a less clear future.

wave: In May, Nvidia participated in a $1.05 billion round for the UK-based startup, which is developing a self-learning system for autonomous driving. The company is testing its vehicles in the UK and the San Francisco Bay Area.

Secure Superintelligence: Last September, Nvidia was a backer of a new startup founded by former OpenAI chief scientist Ilya Sutskever. the $1 billion round is reported to value the new 10 people AI lab for $5 billion.

AI Scales: In May 2024, Nvidia joined Accel and other tech giants Amazon and Meta to invest $1 billion of Scale AI, which provides data labeling services to companies for training AI models. The round values ​​the San Francisco-based company at nearly $14 billion.

The multi-hundred-million-dollar club

Crusoe: A startup building data centers IS reported to be leased by Oracle, Microsoft, and OpenAI raised $686 million in late November, according to an SEC filing. The investment was led by Founders Fund, and a long list of other investors included Nvidia.

Image AI: In February, AI robotics startup Figure raised $675 million Series B from Nvidia, OpenAI Startup Fund, Microsoft, and more. The round valued the company at $2.6 billion.

Mistral AI: Nvidia is investing in Mistral for the second time when the French-based developer of large language models raised a $640 million Series B in a $6 billion valuation in June.

Correspondence: In June, Nvidia invested in Cohere’s $500 million roundis a large provider of modeling languages ​​serving businesses. The chipmaker first backed the Toronto-based startup a year ago.

Confusion: Nvidia first invested in Perplexity in November of 2023 and has participated in every subsequent round of AI search engine startups, including $500 million round in December, valuing the company at $9 billion, according to PitchBook data.

poolside: In October, the AI coding assistant startup Poolside announced it was raised $500 million led by Bain Capital Ventures. Nvidia participated in the round, valuing the AI ​​startup at $3 billion.

CoreWeave: Nvidia invested in the AI ​​cloud computing provider in April 2023, when it raised CoreWeave $221 million of the fund. Since then, CoreWeave’s valuation has jumped from about $2 billion to $19 billionand the company reportedly has views on a $35 billion IPO this year. CoreWeave allows its customers to rent Nvidia GPUs by the hour.

AI Division: In September, Nvidia invested in THE Japan-based startup, which trains low-cost generative AI models using small datasets. The startup raises a big one Series A round for about $214 million in the amount of $1.5 billion.

Imbue: The AI ​​research lab that claims to develop AI systems that can reason and increase code a $200 million round in September 2023 from investors, including Nvidia, Astera Institute, and former Cruise CEO Kyle Vogt.

Reference: In June, the autonomous trucking startup raised a $200 million Series B round co-founded by existing investors Uber and Khosla Ventures. Other investors include Nvidia, Volvo Group Venture Capital, and Porsche Automobil Holding SE.

Deals over $100 million

Setting up Labs: In December, Nvidia invested in $155 million round of Ayar Labs, a company to develop optical interconnects to improve AI computing and power efficiency. This is the third time Nvidia has supported the startup.

Kore.ai: Business development startups focused on AI chatbots have been raised $150 million in December of 2023. In addition to Nvidia, investors participating in the fund include FTV Capital, Vistara Growth, and Sweetwater Private Equity.

Weka: In May, Nvidia invested in a $140 million round for the AI-native data management platform Weka. The round valued the Silicon Valley company at $1.6 billion.

Road: In June of 2023, Runway, a startup building generative AI tools for multimedia content creators, raised the $141 million Series C extension from investors, including Nvidia, Google, and Salesforce.

Bright Machines: In June 2024, Nvidia joined a $126 million Series C of Bright Machines, a smart robotics and AI-driven software startup.

Big Data: The startup that provides storage solutions for AI and data analytics raised a $118 million Series E at a $9.3 billion valuation in December of 2023. That’s the third time Nvidia has invested in Vast Data.

Enfactory: In September 2023, Nvidia invested in network chips designer Enfabrica $125 million Series B. Although the startup raised $115 million in November, Nvidia did not participate in the round.