The world’s most valuable semiconductor manufacturer, Nvidia, has positioned itself as a significant backer of artificial intelligence (AI) startups this year. As per the Financial Times (FT) report on Monday (Dec. 11), referencing data from Dealroom, the company has engaged in 35 transactions in 2023, marking a substantial surge from the previous year and establishing itself as one of the most active investors in the AI sector.
The report highlights Nvidia’s diverse investments across various sectors, ranging from major billion-dollar AI platforms to smaller startups focusing on AI applications in the healthcare and energy fields. The company’s investment strategy primarily targets businesses that leverage its products and technologies. To streamline this process, Nvidia has established a dedicated venture capital arm known as NVentures, which, in conjunction with its business development division, has curated an impressive portfolio featuring prominent figures in the AI realm such as Inflection AI and Cohere.
Additionally, Nvidia has ventured into partnerships with CoreWeave, a cloud infrastructure specialist in high-performance computing applications utilizing its graphics processing units (GPUs), and Hugging Face, a provider of AI developer tools and data. Notably, Nvidia recently injected a substantial sum into Mistral, a Paris-based AI startup valued at 2 billion euros (approximately $2.2 billion).
The review underscores that each entity benefiting from Nvidia’s investments incorporates its GPU chips or software as integral components of their operations. Particularly, Nvidia’s H100 GPU, a robust processor facilitating enhanced training of “large vocabulary models,” has gained significant traction in Silicon Valley this year, positioning it as a pivotal asset for enterprises operating in the realm of advanced AI technologies.
Furthermore, Nvidia is known to allocate substantial financial resources from its own reserves, often amounting to tens of millions of dollars. While the business development unit aligns its efforts with corporate objectives, NVentures focuses on generating substantial returns from its investment ventures. Nvidia typically spearheads funding rounds and collaborates closely with venture capital entities.
A September report further underscores Nvidia’s ascendancy as the premier provider of computer chips utilized in artificial intelligence processes, thereby solidifying its market dominance and impeding the progress of its prospective competitors.
