Smash the AI! Nvidia will acquire more companies in 2024 than in the past four years combined

In 2024, Nvidia's investment in the field of artificial intelligence reached a staggering US$1 billion, and it participated in 50 financing rounds and multiple corporate acquisitions, far exceeding the investment scale in 2023. This large-scale investment strategy focuses on "core AI" companies, most of which are Nvidia's customers, which has also made it a huge profit of $9 billion in AI chip sales. NVIDIA's investment list includes many well-known companies, such as xAI, OpenAI, Cohere, etc., and its acquisition activities have also reached a peak in recent years, triggering regulators' concerns about market competition.

In 2024, Nvidia has significantly increased its efforts in venture capital, investing up to US$1 billion and participating in 50 different financing rounds and several corporate acquisitions. This figure is a significant increase compared to US$872 million and 39 rounds of financing in 2023. After Nvidia made $9 billion in profits from AI chip sales, it focused its resources on "core AI" companies that require large amounts of computing power, many of which are also Nvidia customers.

Some well-known companies are on the 2024 investment list, including Elon Musk’s xAI, well-known AI companies OpenAI, Cohere, Mistral, and AI search company Perplexity. In addition to investments, Nvidia has launched its largest acquisitions in years, acquiring more companies than in the past four years combined, including Israeli AI workload management platform Run:ai. However, Nvidia’s investment spree has attracted the attention of regulators. Former Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Chairman Bill Kovacic said that competition regulators are very sensitive to the issue of whether such a large-scale investment by a "dominant enterprise" such as Nvidia will promote market exclusivity. In response, Nvidia stated that these funds have no strings attached and that the company's goal is to "expand our ecosystem, support outstanding companies and enhance our platform", while emphasizing that each company should be "free to make independent technology choices." According to the data, Nvidia's investment strategy has resulted in substantial growth for some of the companies in its portfolio. Take AI cloud computing provider CoreWeave as an example. The company received a US$100 million investment from Nvidia in early 2023 and is now preparing to go public with a valuation of up to US$35 billion, a significant increase from last year's valuation of approximately US$7 billion. At the same time, some of Nvidia's big customers are not idle either. Tech giants such as Microsoft, Amazon and Google are developing their own custom chips to reduce their reliance on Nvidia graphics processors. Still, Nvidia's main rival AMD still has a small market share.

Highlights:

NVIDIA will invest up to US$1 billion in 2024 and participate in 50 financing rounds, significantly higher than in 2023.

The company mainly focuses on the core AI field and has acquired a number of related companies, including Run:ai.

Regulators have expressed concern about Nvidia's market dominance and investment activities, and Nvidia has emphasized that its funding comes with no strings attached.

Although Nvidia's huge investment has promoted the development of the AI ​​field, it has also raised concerns about market monopoly. In the future, NVIDIA's investment strategy and market competition situation will continue to attract attention. Its final impact remains to be tested over time.