Nvidia, which is currently the world’s largest manufacturer of chips used, among other things, for training and subsequent operation of artificial intelligence systems, this year strengthened its position as an investor interacting with startups operating in the sphere of AI.
The media reported that since the beginning of 2023, the mentioned company has participated in 35 investment transactions. This indicator indicates a significant increase in the level of involvement of the chip manufacturer in providing financial resources to firms at the initial stage of existence. Nvidia, according to Dealroom, is currently one of the main investors in the sphere of machine intelligence.
The financing by the chip manufacturer relates to startups of a wide functional spectrum. Nvidia is investing in large artificial intelligence platforms worth several billion dollars. The company also provides financing to smaller startups whose activities aim to introduce AI into spheres such as energy and healthcare.
In this case, an important nuance is that Nvidia is currently investing, as part of a strategy involving interaction with those firms that use the technologies and products of the chip manufacturer. The company has created a venture capital unit. This component of the Nvidia structure is called NVentures. This unit of the company, together with the corporate development team, has formed a portfolio that includes the most significant players in the sphere of artificial intelligence, such as Inflation AI and Cohere.
The media also released information that Nvidia is financing Hugging Face, which is a provider of data and tools for machine intelligence developers. CoreWeave, a company specializing in high-performance computing apps, also received investments from the chip manufacturer. Nvidia GPUs are required for the functioning of developments of this firm.
Also this year, the largest player in the chip market provided investment funds to Mistral, a Paris-based startup specializing in artificial intelligence. In this case, it is known that the amount of financing amounted to about $2.2 billion.
All companies in Nvidia’s investment portfolio, as mentioned above, are its clients. Some firms use GPUs of this brand. There are also startups in the investment portfolio that are consumers of Nvidia software.
Currently, there is a high level of demand in Silicon Valley for the Nvidia H100 GPU, which allows developers of large language models to train these systems more effectively. This product is a kind of valuable asset for companies that operate in the artificial intelligence industry.
Nvidia’s investment strategy is characterized by the firm’s willingness to provide startups with financing in the amount of several tens of millions of dollars. NVentures strives to make its activities highly efficient in terms of earnings. The corporate development team is focused on strategic goals. Nvidia is currently the leader of the investment rounds. The company provides financing to startups in conjunction with venture capital firms.
At the same time, this year in the United States, there was a decrease in the volume of investments in firms that are at the initial stage of existence and operating in the artificial intelligence industry. From January 1 to the end of August 2023, these startups received a total of $881.4 million in funding. During the first three quarters of last year, the volume of investments in this sphere amounted to $1.79 billion.
In September, the media reported that Nvidia had become the main manufacturer of computer chips, which curbed access to additional monetary resources for its competitors. In the fiscal year ended January 2023, the company’s revenue from the supply of graphics processors for data centers amounted to $15 billion. This is an incredible increase in the figure, which was equal to $3.8 billion a year earlier. Also in 2023, Nvidia’s market value reached the landmark $1 trillion mark. Greg Reichow, a partner at Eclipse Ventures, said in a media commentary this fall that the company’s dominant position in the chip market has complicated the ability of other firms to gain their share in this technology space.
As we have reported earlier, Nvidia Reportedly Sees Vietnam as Potential Second Home.
