Dealroom: Nvidia is the most active large-scale investor in AI startups in 2023, excluding accelerator funds like YC, with 35 deals, almost 6x more than in 2022
Context & Ripple Effects
This marks Nvidia's early emergence as a major corporate backer of AI startups, not merely a supplier to them. A subsequent comparison put Nvidia and NVentures at 32 2023 deals versus 21 for Microsoft and M12, underscoring the gap with another large platform investor Nvidia's lead over Microsoft in 2023 deal activity.
The activity became the base of a sustained investment push: Nvidia later reported $1B across 50 funding rounds and corporate deals in 2024, suggesting that startup investing was becoming a recurring strategic channel rather than a one-off response to the AI boom.
First-order effects
- Nvidia becomes a prominent source of capital for AI startups, expanding its direct exposure to the companies building on and around AI infrastructure.
- The reported deal pace distinguishes Nvidia from other large corporate investors in the 2023 AI funding market, excluding accelerator-led portfolios.
Second-order effects
- Other cloud, chip, and platform companies face pressure to use corporate venture activity more actively to maintain access to emerging AI companies and technical ecosystems.
- For AI startups, corporate capital becomes more consequential alongside traditional VC, potentially making strategic alignment with infrastructure providers a larger factor in fundraising.
Third-order effects
- If sustained, corporate investment can tighten the connection between AI infrastructure suppliers and the startups that shape demand for their platforms, concentrating influence across the stack.
- The later rise in Nvidia's deal count and commitments points to AI startup finance becoming a strategic instrument for infrastructure companies, not just a financial-return vehicle Nvidia's higher 2025 startup-investment pace.
The trend: AI infrastructure leaders are increasingly using venture investing to extend their strategic position from supplying compute into influencing the startup ecosystem that consumes it.