How NVIDIA Fuels the AI Revolution With Investments in Game Changers and Market Makers

Great companies thrive on stories. Sid Siddeek, who runs NVIDIA’s venture capital arm, knows this well.

Siddeek still remembers one of his first jobs, schlepping presentation materials from one investor meeting to another, helping the startup’s CEO and management team get the story out while working from a trailer that “shook when the door opened,” he said.

That CEO was Jensen Huang. The startup was NVIDIA.

Siddeek, who has worked as an investor and an entrepreneur, knows how important it is to find the right people to share your company’s story with early on, whether they’re customers or partners, employees or investors.

It’s this very principle that underpins NVIDIA’s multifaceted approach to investing in the next wave of innovation, a strategy also championed by Vishal Bhagwati, who leads NVIDIA’s corporate development efforts.

It’s an effort that’s resulted in more than two dozen investments so far this year, accelerating as the pace of innovation in AI and accelerated computing quickens.

NVIDIA’s Three-Pronged Strategy to Support the AI Ecosystem

There are three ways that NVIDIA invests in the ecosystem, driving the transformation unleashed by accelerated computing. First, through NVIDIA’s corporate investments, overseen by Bhagwati. Second, through NVentures, our venture capital arm, led by Siddeek. And finally, through NVIDIA Inception, our vehicle for supporting startups and connecting them to venture capital.

There couldn’t be a better time to support companies harnessing NVIDIA technologies. AI alone could contribute more than $15 trillion to the global economy by 2030, according to PwC.

And if you’re working in AI and accelerated computing right now, NVIDIA stands ready to help. Developers across every industry in every country are building accelerated computing applications. And they’re just getting going.

The result is a collection of companies that are advancing the story of AI every day. They include Cohere, CoreWeave, Hugging Face, Inflection, Inceptive and many more. And we’re right alongside them.

“Partnering with NVIDIA is a game-changer,” said Ed Mehr, CEO of Machina Labs. “Their unmatched expertise will supercharge our AI and simulation capabilities.”

Corporate Investments: Growing Our Ecosystem

NVIDIA’s corporate investments arm focuses on strategic collaborations. These partnerships stimulate joint innovation, enhance the NVIDIA platform and expand the ecosystem. Since the beginning of 2023, announcements have been made about 14 investments.

These target companies include Ayar Labs, specializing in chip-to-chip optical connectivity, and Hugging Face, a hub for advanced AI models.

The portfolio also includes next-generation enterprise solutions. Databricks offers an industry-leading data platform for machine learning, while Cohere provides enterprise automation through AI. Other notable companies are Recursion, Kore.ai and Utilidata, each contributing unique solutions in drug discovery, conversational AI and smart electricity grids, respectively.

Consumer services are another investment focus. Inflection is crafting a personal AI for creative expression, while Runway serves as a platform for art and creativity through generative AI.

The investment strategy extends to autonomous machines. Ready Robotics is developing an operating system for industrial robotics, and Skydio builds autonomous drones.

NVIDIA’s most recent investments are in cloud service providers like CoreWeave. These platforms cater to a diverse clientele, from startups to Fortune 500 companies seeking to build next-generation AI services.

https://blogs.nvidia.com/blog/nvidia-investments/?utm_content=275771943&utm_medium=social&utm_source=linkedin&hss_channel=lcp-6627049