Nvidia’s AI empire: A look at its top startup investments | TechCrunch

San Francisco: Nvidia has really taken the lead in the AI game. Since ChatGPT hit the scene, their revenue and profits have shot up like crazy. Their stock price? It’s gone up more than eight times!

With all this cash flowing in, Nvidia has been on a startup investment spree, especially in AI. In 2024 alone, they jumped into 49 funding rounds for AI companies, which is a big leap from 34 in 2023. Just think about it: in the four years before that, they only backed 38 AI deals!

They’re not just throwing money around, though. Nvidia aims to support startups that they believe can really shake things up in the AI world. They want to help build a strong ecosystem.

And they’re not the only big player in the game. Over the last two years, Nvidia has been the most active investor in AI startups, with 83 deals. Alphabet followed with 73, and Microsoft was behind with 40.

So, who are some of the startups that Nvidia has backed? Well, they’ve been part of some massive funding rounds. For instance, they invested in OpenAI, the folks behind ChatGPT, with a cool $100 million in a $6.6 billion round. That’s a big deal!

Then there’s xAI, founded by Elon Musk. Nvidia jumped in on a $6 billion round there too. It’s interesting because they invested in OpenAI first, then turned around and backed one of its competitors.

Another notable investment was in Inflection, which raised $1.3 billion. But things got a bit messy when Microsoft swooped in and hired Inflection’s founders, leaving the startup in a tough spot.

Nvidia also put money into Wayve, a UK startup working on self-driving tech, and Safe Superintelligence, a new venture from a former OpenAI scientist. They’re really spreading their wings!

In short, Nvidia is making waves in the AI startup scene, and it’ll be exciting to see how these investments play out in the future.