NVIDIA (NVDA, Financial) is set to invest $1 billion in 50 AI startups in 2024, focusing on companies with high demand for computing infrastructure. Notable investments include Elon Musk's xAI, OpenAI, Cohere, Mistral, and Perplexity. This marks a significant increase from 2023’s 39 funding rounds totaling $872 million. The growth is fueled by NVIDIA's $9 billion cash reserve and the popularity of its GPUs, which have driven the company's stock up over 170% in 2024.
Recent acquisitions include Israel's AI workload management platform, Run:ai, with EU antitrust approval. NVIDIA's diverse investments span healthcare, gaming, drones, chips, transportation, logistics, data storage, and more. Despite some major clients like Microsoft, Amazon, and Google developing custom chips, smaller AI companies may become vital revenue sources for NVIDIA.
Concerns about NVIDIA's influence in the AI sector arise amid antitrust scrutiny in the US and Europe. However, NVIDIA denies tying investments to the use of its technology, emphasizing ecosystem development and platform enhancement.
