This year, Nvidia, the most valuable chipmaker in the world, has cemented its status as a leading investor in artificial intelligence (AI) startups.
As per report, citing estimates by Dealroom, that the company had participated in 35 deals in 2023, a major rise from the previous year and making it one of the most active investors in the AI area.
According to the report, Nvidia has made investments in a wide range of companies, from larger AI platforms worth billions of dollars to smaller businesses that concentrate on employing AI in industries like energy and healthcare.
According to the report, the company’s investment strategy is focused on businesses that make use of its products and technologies. In order to help with this, Nvidia created a specialized venture capital division called NVentures. Working with its corporate development team, NVentures has amassed a portfolio that includes well-known AI companies like Inflection AI and Cohere.
As per the report, Nvidia has investments in two other companies: CoreWeave, a cloud infrastructure company that specializes in 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. Nvidia has invested a significant sum of money in Mistral, an AI business based in Paris with a valuation of two billion euros, or roughly $2.2 billion.
According to the report, every company in Nvidia’s portfolio uses its GPU chips or software, making them all customers of the chipmaker. Nvidia’s H100 GPU, a potent processor that helps developers of “large language models” train their systems more effectively, is particularly sought-after in Silicon Valley this year. As such, it’s a useful tool for businesses in the generative AI space.
According to the analysis, Nvidia’s investment strategy entails writing sizable checks from its own financial sheet, frequently totaling tens of millions of dollars. While the business development team concentrates on strategic goals, NVentures seeks to create healthy returns from its investments. In investment rounds, Nvidia leads the way and participates in joint ventures with venture capital firms.
According to a September report, Nvidia has cut off funding for possible rivals by positioning itself as the go-to supplier for computer chips used in artificial intelligence procedures.