Nvidia and Qualcomm are laying out their AI investment plans, and these star companies have been captured!

Since the beginning of this year, the big model equality brought by DeepSeek, a newcomer in the AI industry, has promoted AI applications, boosted the prosperity of the cloud computing market, and driven capital expenditure growth. Regarding the emergence of DeepSeek, Nvidia CEO Huang Renxun stated that models like R1 will not reduce the demand for chips. On the contrary, future computing demands will only increase, especially for computing infrastructure.
Nvidia has also significantly increased its investment in various startups, especially in AI startups, using its strong funds. According to PitchBook data, Nvidia increased its venture capital activities in 2024, participating in 49 rounds of investments in artificial intelligence companies, a significant increase from 34 rounds in 2023, and a surge in investment compared to the total of the previous four years. This article will review AI startups with investments of over $100 million to $1 billion from NVIDIA.
Recently, Qualcomm announced that it is increasing its investment in the vertical field of edge AI applications and has already invested in multiple AI companies from 2024 to March 2025.
$1 billion financing club
On October 3, 2024, OpenAI announced that it had raised $6.6 billion (approximately RMB 46.3 billion) in funding, making it the company's largest venture capital deal to date. This round of financing is led by the emerging American venture capital Thrive Capital, with Microsoft continuing to participate, and Nvidia and SoftBank both investing in OpenAI for the first time.
According to reports, Nvidia invested $100 million in OpenAI's massive $6.6 billion funding round, which valued the company at $157 billion. Compared to other investors in OpenAI, the investment of this chip manufacturer pales in comparison, especially Thrive, which reportedly invested $1.3 billion, Microsoft invested $750 million in OpenAI, and SoftBank Group's investment scale is around $500 million.
As a strategic investor, NVIDIA invests in xAI: On December 23, 2024, xAI, an artificial intelligence startup under Tesla CEO Elon Musk, announced on social media X that the company has completed a $6 billion Series C funding round and announced the list of investors. Semiconductor giants Nvidia and AMD will participate as strategic investors and support the xAI fast extender infrastructure.
This transaction indicates that not all OpenAI investors have complied with OpenAI's request not to invest in its direct competitors. After investing in ChatGPT developer OpenAI in October, Nvidia joined the shareholders of xAI a few months later.
Reflection: Reflection AI is a machine learning startup founded in January 2022. In March 2023, the company released its first conversational chatbot Pi, which is considered a major competitor to OpenAI. In June 2023, Nvidia was one of the leading investors in Infection's $1.3 billion funding round. Less than a year later, Microsoft hired the founder of Infection AI and paid $620 million for a non exclusive technology license, which significantly reduced the company's workforce and made its future direction less clear.
Wayve： On May 7, 2024, Wayve Technologies, a UK based autonomous driving technology startup, received $1.05 billion (approximately RMB 7.5 billion) in funding for the largest financing in the field of autonomous driving. Wayve's official website announced that chip giant Nvidia has participated in the company's RMB 7.5 billion Series C investment. It is reported that this round of financing is led by SoftBank Group, with new investor NVIDIA and existing investor Microsoft joining in.
Wayve stated that this investment will support the comprehensive development and launch of the first embedded artificial intelligence product for mass production vehicles. The company is developing a self-learning system for autonomous driving. The company is testing its vehicles in the UK and the San Francisco Bay Area.
Scale AI： On May 21, 2024, Scale AI announced that it had raised $1 billion in a post funding round led by venture capital firm Accel, with tech giant Nvidia also participating. Scale AI was founded in 2016 and provides a large amount of accurately labeled data, which is crucial for training complex tools such as OpenAI's ChatGPT. This round of financing values the San Francisco based company at nearly $14 billion.
Billions of dollars invested in AI startups
Lambda： In February 2025, Lambda, which provides computing services and hardware for training artificial intelligence software, raised $480 million in Series D funding, with a reported valuation of $2.5 billion. This round of financing is jointly led by SGW and Andra Capital Lambda, with participation from institutions such as Nvidia and ARK Invest. A large part of Lambda's business involves renting servers driven by NVIDIA GPUs.
Together AI： This is a cloud platform developer that allows developers to build on open and customized artificial intelligence models. In February 2025, it completed a $305 million financing with a valuation of $3.3 billion. Nvidia participated in the company's $305 million Series B financing, which valued TogetherAI at $3.3 billion and was jointly led by Saudi Arabian venture capital firm Prospery7 and General Catalyst. Nvidia first supported the company in 2023.
Figure AI: Figure AI is a startup company dedicated to creating humanoid robots capable of performing dangerous and arduous tasks. The company was founded in 2022 and has developed a general-purpose robot called Figure 01, which looks and moves similar to humans.
In February 2024, Figure, an artificial intelligence robot startup, received $675 million in Series B funding from institutions such as Nvidia, OpenAI Startup Fund, and Microsoft. This round of financing has valued the company at $2.6 billion.
Mistral AI: Mistral AI was founded by former scientists from DeepMind and Meta Platforms, both subsidiaries of Alphabet. The company focuses on providing open-source software for chatbots and artificial intelligence generation tools. This French language model developer Mistral AI made its second investment in June 2023 when it completed a $640 million Series B financing at a valuation of $6 billion.
Perplexity： According to PitchBook data, Nvidia made its first investment in artificial intelligence search engine startup Perplexity in November 2023 and has participated in every subsequent funding round of the company, including a $500 million funding round in December that valued the company at $9 billion.
Poolside： In October, artificial intelligence code assisted startup Poolside announced that it had raised $500 million in a funding round led by Bain Capital. Nvidia participated in this round of financing, which valued the artificial intelligence startup at $3 billion.
Weka: Weka is a startup based in Silicon Valley that has created an AI native data platform aimed at addressing the limitations of traditional data storage and management systems. On May 13, 2024, Weka Company completed its Series E financing, which raised $140 million. Nvidia participated in this round of financing, and the company's valuation after this round of financing was $1.6 billion.
Empowering the edge AI vertical application track, Qualcomm invests in five AI startups
In recent years, AI has achieved rapid development, accelerating the growth of automobiles, the Internet of Things, and cloud computing. Qualcomm sees an increasing application of edge AI in vertical fields, including manufacturing, fleet management, safety, and retail. In 2024, they invested in multiple AI startups, including Anthropic, ANYbotics, Netradyne, Spot AI, and Wisasy.
Anthropic： On February 16, 2024, artificial intelligence startup Anthropic received a valuation of $15 billion through its latest round of funding, with Qualcomm participating in the $750 million special purpose vehicle financing arranged by Menlo Ventures.
ANYbotics: ANYBotics was founded in 2016, focusing on developing advanced legged robots for industrial inspection. Announced in December 2024 the completion of a $60 million Series C funding round, with investors including Supernova Invest, TDK Ventures, and Qualcomm Ventures. This financing will be used to further develop and promote ANYbotics' robot products, expanding the company's market share.
Netradyne： On January 6, 2025, AI driven fleet management technology company Netradyne announced the completion of a $90 million Series D funding round, led by Point72 Private Investments, with participation from Qualcomm Ventures and Pavilion Capital.
Unlike traditional fleet management systems, the company's core product uses AI technology to analyze 100% of driving time, not only identifying risky behaviors, but also focusing on discovering and strengthening good driving habits. This financing will mainly be used in three directions: increasing research and development investment, strengthening market promotion, and promoting global expansion.
Spot AI： Spot AI, an industrial vision AI company, completed a $31 million Series C funding round on November 3, 2024. Led by Qualcomm Investments. This funding will be used to develop and deploy its Video AI Agents product. Spot AI was founded in 2018, focusing on using AI technology to help businesses gain more business value from security cameras. Qualcomm Investment chose to invest in Spot AI, focusing on its innovation in edge computing and real-time video processing. This investment will accelerate the development of Spot AI products, particularly in the fields of industrial automation and intelligent manufacturing.
Wiseasy： In March 2024, Wisesay, a smart POS terminal provider and payment innovation company, announced that it had received investment from Qualcomm Ventures, the investment arm of Qualcomm. The two companies will collaborate in the fields of payment solutions and device side artificial intelligence services.