Jensen Huang is well known for building the world’s leading AI chip builder. But as growing demand for GPUs has turned Nvidia into a $4.5 trillion powerhouse, the company has quietly expanded its influence beyond hardware, pouring billions into startups across the AI ecosystem. Today, almost every major player in the industry, from OpenAI to xAI, has some financial link to the Santa Clara, Calif.-based giant.
Over the past two decades, Nvidia has participated in 177 funding rounds, according to Crunchbase. Most of that work has come since 2023, following the explosion of artificial intelligence The figures do not include NVentures, the official division of Nvidia, which made another 83 investments.
Many of Nvidia’s large checks have gone to its customers, raising questions about the so-called circular funding arrangements that could bolster demand sentiment. Huang dismissed that criticism, saying Nvidia’s contributions represent a fraction of the money needed by leading AI developers.
The pace is increasing. In the first two months of 2026, Nvidia joined 11 funding rounds. They include Wayve’s $1.5 billion raise, a London-based robotaxi startup, and a $1 billion round for World Labs, a model-building business founded by Fei-Fei Li. Recently, Nvidia participated in an incredible $110 billion funding round launched by OpenAI.
Here are 10 of the most notable AI startups backed by Nvidia:
OpenAI, valued at $840 billion
Nvidia and OpenAI formalized their financial commitments in October 2024, when the chip maker joined a $6.6 billion financing round. A year later, Nvidia pledged to invest up to $100 billion over time, while OpenAI signed plans to buy up to 10 gigawatts of Nvidia’s computing power.
That great commitment was never completed. Instead, Nvidia participated in OpenAI’s recent fundraising of $110 billion with an investment of $30 billion. The round, which includes sponsors such as Amazon and SoftBank, values the maker of ChatGPT at $840 billion and is expected to bring in more investors.
Anthropic, estimated at $380 billion
Led by Dario Amodei, Anthropic has positioned itself as a leading enterprise AI player and a direct competitor to OpenAI. The company was recently valued at $380 billion after raising $30 billion, a round that includes part of Nvidia’s previously announced commitment to invest up to $10 billion.
In return, Anthropic plans to buy up to 1 gigawatt of Nvidia GPU capacity. “This is our dream come true,” Jensen Huang said in November. “We’ve loved Anthropic and Dario’s work for a long time.”
xAI, valued at 250 billion
Nvidia’s partnership with Elon Musk’s xAI investment, hardware supply and joint infrastructure projects. The companies are collaborating on a 500-megawatt data center planned in Saudi Arabia near Humain.
Nvidia first invested in XAI’s $6 billion Series C in 2024 and later joined its $20 billion Series E in January, just before xAI was acquired by SpaceX. “My only regret is that I didn’t give him more money,” Huang told CNBC last October. “Almost everything Elon is a part of, he really wants to be a part of.”
Safe Superintelligence, valued at $32 billion
Founded by OpenAI founder Ilya Sutskever, Safe Superintelligence has kept its research largely secret, focusing on advanced AI rather than consumer products. Nvidia joined a $2 billion round of funding last April.
Huang has long praised Sutskever’s role in developing AlexNet, calling him one of the figures behind the “big explosion in deep learning” during his 2024 commencement address at the California Institute of Technology.
Anysphere, valued at $29.3 billion
Nvidia is both an investor in Anysphere and a heavy user of its Cursor coding tool. About 30,000 Nvidia engineers rely on the product, known as AI-assisted “vibe coding,” which the company says has triple-digit coding internally.
Cursor is “incredibly useful,” Huang said in a CNBC interview, calling it his “favorite business AI service.” Nvidia backed Anysphere’s $2.3 billion Series D last fall.
Think Machines Lab, valued at $12 billion
Founded by former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati, Thinking Machines Lab has raised $2 billion in a seed round backed by Nvidia. Murati hired talent from Google, Meta, Mistral AI and OpenAI, and the company introduced tools that let developers fine-tune models for special tasks.
Recent reports, however, suggest internal rifts, with several employees leaving for OpenAI.
Mistral AI, valued at $13.8 billion
Nvidia recently joined Mistral’s $2 billion Series C last September, adding to previous investments in 2023 and 2024. The Paris-based startup aims to create a European alternative to US leaders such as OpenAI and Anthropic.
Its collaboration with Nvidia has helped scale multilingual and multimodal models. “It’s very important,” CEO Arthur Mensch told CNBC, saying the partnership allows Mistral to “accelerate and provide the best services.”
Crusoe, worth $10 billion
Crusoe is emerging as a key infrastructure partner for OpenAI’s Stargate project. Nvidia is backing Crusoe’s $600 billion Series D in 2024 and its $1.4 billion Series E in 2025, strengthening its position in AI data center design.
Reflection AI, valued at $8 billion
After the growth of China’s DeepSeek, New York-based Reflection AI presents itself as a Western counterpart focusing on advanced, cost-effective models. Nvidia wrote the largest check in the company’s $2 billion Series B last October, donating $800 million.
Inflection AI, valued at $4 billion
Co-founded by Reid Hoffman and Mustafa Suleyman, Inflection AI launched in 2023 with its Pi chatbot and quickly raised $1.3 billion in a round led by Nvidia.
In 2024, Microsoft paid $650 million to license Inflection’s models and hired most of its team, including Suleyman, who now leads Microsoft’s consumer AI division.
