The AI revolution has been a game-changer for many companies, but none more so than Nvidia. Since the introduction of ChatGPT over two years ago, the company's revenue, profitability, and cash reserves have skyrocketed, and its stock price has soared. As the world's leading high-performance GPU maker, Nvidia has used its ballooning fortunes to significantly increase investments in startups, particularly in the AI space.

In 2024, Nvidia ramped up its venture capital activity, participating in 49 funding rounds for AI companies, a sharp increase from 34 in 2023, according to PitchBook data. This represents a dramatic surge in investment compared to the previous four years combined, during which Nvidia funded only 38 AI deals. Notably, these investments exclude those made by its formal corporate VC fund, NVentures, which also significantly ramped up its investing in the last two years.

Nvidia's corporate investing goal is to expand the AI ecosystem by backing startups it considers to be "game changers and market makers." Below is a list of startups that raised rounds exceeding $100 million where Nvidia is a named participant since 2023, including new ones it has backed so far in 2025, organized from the highest amount to lowest raised in the round.

OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, received a $100 million investment from Nvidia in October, as part of a colossal $6.6 billion round that valued the company at $157 billion. Other notable investors include Thrive, which invested $1.3 billion.

Nvidia also participated in the $6 billion round of Elon Musk's xAI, revealing that not all of OpenAI's investors followed its request to refrain from backing any of its direct competitors.

Inflection, founded by Mustafa Suleyman, who earlier co-founded DeepMind, was one of Nvidia's first significant AI investments. In June 2023, Nvidia was one of several lead investors in Inflection's $1.3 billion round. Less than a year later, Microsoft hired Inflection AI's founders, paying $620 million for a non-exclusive technology license, leaving the company with a significantly diminished workforce and a less defined future.

Other notable investments by Nvidia include:

1. Wayve: 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.

2. Scale AI: In May 2024, Nvidia joined Accel and other tech giants Amazon and Meta to invest $1 billion in Scale AI, which provides data-labeling services to companies for training AI models.

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

4. Figure AI: In February 2024, AI robotics startup Figure raised a $675 million Series B from Nvidia, OpenAI Startup Fund, Microsoft, and others.

5. Mistral AI: Nvidia invested in Mistral for the second time when the French-based large language model developer raised a $640 million Series B at a $6 billion valuation in June.

6. Lambda: AI cloud provider Lambda, which provides services for model training, raised a $480 million Series D at a reported $2.5 billion valuation in February. The round was co-led by SGW and Andra Capital Lambda, and joined by Nvidia, ARK Invest, and others.

7. Cohere: In June, Nvidia invested in Cohere's $500 million round, a large language model provider serving enterprises.

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

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

10. CoreWeave: Nvidia invested in the AI cloud computing provider in April 2023, when CoreWeave raised $221 million in funding. Since then, CoreWeave's valuation has jumped from about $2 billion to $19 billion, and the company has filed for an IPO.

11. Together AI: In February, Nvidia participated in the $305 million Series B of this company, which offers cloud-based infrastructure for building AI models.

12. Sakana AI: In September, Nvidia invested in the Japan-based startup, which trains low-cost generative AI models using small datasets. The startup raised a massive Series A round of about $214 million at a valuation of $1.5 billion.

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

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

15. Ayar Labs: In December, Nvidia invested in the $155 million round of Ayar Labs, a company developing optical interconnects to improve AI compute and power efficiency.

16. Kore.ai: The startup developing enterprise-focused AI chatbots raised $150 million in December of 2023. In addition to Nvidia, investors participating in the funding included FTV Capital, Vistara Growth, and Sweetwater Private Equity.

17. Sandbox AQ: In April, Nvidia, alongside Google, BNP Paribas, and others, invested $150 million in Sandbox AQ, a startup developing large quantitative models (LQMs) for handling complex numerical analysis and statistical calculations.

18. Hippocratic AI: This startup, which is developing large language models for healthcare, announced in January that it raised a $141 million Series B at a valuation of $1.64 billion led by Kleiner Perkins. Nvidia participated in the round, along with returning investors Andreessen Horowitz, General Catalyst, and others.

19. Weka: In May, Nvidia invested in a $140 million round for AI-native data management platform Weka.

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

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

22. Enfabrica: In September 2023, Nvidia invested in networking chips designer Enfabrica's $125 million Series B. Although the startup raised another $115 million in November, Nvidia didn't participate in the round.

Nvidia's investments in these AI startups demonstrate its commitment to expanding the AI ecosystem and shaping the future of the industry. By backing innovative startups and technologies, Nvidia is well-positioned to continue its dominance in the AI space and drive the next wave of technological advancements.