AI's biggest benefactor, making 35 transactions in a year, not as a VC, but as: NVIDIA!
NVIDIA is one of the most active and largest investors in the AI field. This year, they have invested in over 20 companies, with the investment amount nearly six times that of last year. The head of their investment department, NVentures, stated that NVIDIA is more willing to invest in their own customers, including AI developers, tool developers, and computing power leasing companies. NVIDIA's investment means a closer relationship with AI companies and helps them gain more GPU market share. In addition, NVIDIA's H100 GPU product is also in high demand. Overall, NVIDIA has achieved tremendous success in the AI field through its investments and products.
NVIDIA, the leader in AI and the seller of water, is actively using its earnings to support the industry.
On Monday local time, NVIDIA announced that it has invested in "more than 20" companies this year, including both large AI unicorns valued at billions of dollars and small startups applying AI in industries such as healthcare and energy.
According to Dealroom, a venture capital tracking firm, NVIDIA participated in 35 deals in 2023, nearly six times the number from last year. Surpassing major venture capital firms like Sequoia, NVIDIA has become the most active and largest investor in the AI field.
The latest quarterly filing submitted by NVIDIA shows that as of October, the investment value of its "non-affiliated entities" reached $872 million, more than ten times the investment amount from the same period last year.
Mohamed Siddeek, head of NVIDIA's dedicated venture capital division NVentures, stated that NVIDIA tends to invest in its own customers:
"For NVIDIA, the primary criterion for investing in startups is relevance... companies that use our technology, rely on our technology, and base their business on our technology... I can't think of any company we've invested in that doesn't use NVIDIA's products."
Its investment targets include AI large model developers such as Inflection AI and Cohere, both of which are competitors of OpenAI, as well as AI tool developers and computing power leasing companies such as HuggingFace and CoreWeave.
NVIDIA's H100 GPU has become one of the most sought-after products in Silicon Valley this year. Due to high demand and limited supply, the H100 was even in short supply at one point. Most AI companies are willing to accept investments from NVIDIA, which to some extent means a closer relationship and more confidence in securing GPU quotas.
For example, Inflection AI has stated that due to its relationship with NVIDIA and its supported computing power leasing company CoreWeave, it can obtain 22,000 units of the H100 GPU.
An investor stated that NVIDIA's significant investment in the AI industry is the "most wise market strategy," as it not only brings investment returns but also deepens its relationship with customers. Typically, the money invested will eventually be used by customers to purchase GPUs, returning to NVIDIA.
However, NVIDIA stated that it does not have any special terms when investing and does not require the invested companies to use NVIDIA chips.
Siddeek also denied the claim that the invested companies can have priority access to NVIDIA's GPUs:
"We won't help anyone cut in line."