Nvidia participated in 67 venture capital deals in 2025, surpassing the 54 deals completed in all of 2024, according to PitchBook data. The investment acceleration reflects a deliberate strategy to expand influence across the artificial intelligence ecosystem while the company's core GPU business generates unprecedented revenues.
The chipmaker's stock price has soared to a 4.6 trillion dollar market cap driven by insatiable demand for high-performance computing chips powering everything from ChatGPT to autonomous vehicles. Those ballooning fortunes have fueled aggressive corporate venture activity targeting startups Nvidia considers "game changers and market makers."
The investment portfolio spans the full AI value chain. Nvidia's corporate venture arm participates separately from NVentures, its formal VC fund, which ramped activity from just one deal in 2022 to 30 deals in 2025.
The billion-dollar commitments demonstrate Nvidia's willingness to deploy massive capital. The company committed up to 100 billion dollars to OpenAI through a strategic partnership for AI infrastructure deployment, though subsequent quarterly filings noted no assurance any investment would complete on expected terms. In November, Nvidia invested up to 10 billion dollars in Anthropic as part of a round including a 5 billion dollar Microsoft check.
The investments create circular economics benefiting Nvidia's core business. When Anthropic received capital, the AI lab committed to spending 30 billion dollars on Microsoft Azure compute and purchasing Nvidia's future chip systems. The arrangement simultaneously funds AI development and guarantees hardware sales.
Nvidia backed AI coding assistants aggressively. The company participated in Cursor's 2.3 billion dollar Series D that valued the startup at 29.3 billion dollars, nearly 15 times higher than early 2025. Nvidia also invested in Poolside's 500 million dollar October round.
Strategic positioning extends beyond model developers. Nvidia invested 863 million dollars in Commonwealth Fusion for nuclear fusion energy, recognizing AI data centers require massive power infrastructure. The company backed Crusoe's 1.4 billion dollar round for data center development, with Crusoe building campuses in Texas and Wyoming leased to Oracle for OpenAI's workloads.
International investments reflect global AI competition. Nvidia backed French LLM developer Mistral AI for the third time when it raised 2 billion dollars in September. The company also invested in Japan-based Sakana AI, which trains low-cost generative models.
Unusual structures emerged as AI boomed. In September, Nvidia reportedly spent over 900 million dollars to hire networking chip designer Enfabrica's CEO and staff while licensing technology in an acquihire arrangement.
Some investments carry notable risks. Inflection raised 1.3 billion dollars in June 2023 with Nvidia leading, but less than a year later Microsoft hired Inflection's founders and paid 620 million dollars for a technology license, leaving the company with diminished prospects.
The autonomous vehicle sector received substantial backing. Nvidia participated in Wayve's 1.05 billion dollar round and committed an additional 500 million dollars in September. The company also backed Nuro despite a 30 percent valuation drop from its 2021 peak.
Healthcare AI captured attention with Nvidia participating in Hippocratic AI's 141 million dollar Series B, valuing the healthcare LLM startup at 1.64 billion dollars.
Beyond direct equity stakes, Nvidia supplies chips to virtually every AI lab, creating dependencies that strengthen market position regardless of which companies succeed. The strategy positions Nvidia as essential infrastructure while hedging bets across competing approaches.
Nvidia's venture activity signals confidence that current investment levels can sustain despite questions about return timelines. The willingness to deploy billions across dozens of startups suggests belief that AI infrastructure demand will continue justifying capital deployed.
