Nvidia bets $1B on AI startup poolside driving its value

Nvidia Corp. commits to allocating as much as $1 billion to Poolside, a San Francisco-based artificial intelligence company, according to sources close to the matter. Based on their prediction, this investment plan would increase the value of the AI startup by four times its current value.

The announcement leaks on the heels of Poolside’s plans to raise approximately $2 billion while being valued at $12 billion. It is essential to note that the quoted number does not incorporate prior financing.

Although the sum of Nvidia’s commitment to this current round has not been revealed, a source who asked to remain anonymous stated that the tech giant would start at $500 million and increase to as high as $1 billion if Poolside meets its fundraising goals.

This news follows the rise of Nvidia stock to a record closing price after the company announced new products, collaborations, and investments at its GTC event, pushing its market valuation to $5 trillion.

Nvidia also revealed earlier this week that it’s teaming up with the US Department of Energy to construct seven supercomputers, including one designed with 10,000 of its Blackwell GPUs.

The semiconductor firm, aiming to work on national security applications, also announced new alliances with Palantir and Oracle, as well as with telecom companies such as Cisco and T-Mobile, to support the next wave of 6G infrastructure.

Big tech companies seek to offer support to a growing network of AI startups

Regarding its funding round, sources have revealed that Poolside has already received more than $1 billion in commitments, with around $700 million secured from its current investors. Meanwhile, Magnetar, a money management company specializing in hedge fund investments, is also in talks to participate in this round, according to The Information.

Following this announcement, Poolside’s valuation substantially increased from the $3 billion investors predicted during a funding round last year. The outcome illustrates growing investor confidence in an AI startup that introduced its first product just a year ago, as evidenced by its big commitment.

Founded in 2023, Poolside focuses on coding automation for government and defense uses but seeks to establish a multipurpose artificial general intelligence (AGI). Notably, it has offices in the US and Paris, France. With AGI, the AI startup intends to remain competitive in the industry.

On the other hand, Nvidia’s involvement in the funding round demonstrates a growing trend among big companies by market value seeking to support a growing network of AI startups with the perspective that these startups might become important clients.

For example, one source noted that Poolside plans to utilize some of the newly raised funds to purchase Nvidia’s GB300 chips. According to the source, Nvidia has previously invested in the AI startup.

This agreement also aligns with Poolside’s extensive infrastructure plans. Earlier this month, the company announced a partnership with CoreWeave Inc. to develop one of the biggest data centers in the US as part of Project Horizon. The facility is slated to be located in West Texas and is projected to have a capacity of 2 gigawatts, sufficient to supply power to approximately 1.5 million homes.

Nvidia aims to remain competitive with significant investments in the AI industry 

Under the leadership of Jason Warner, who was a former executive at GitHub, Poolside is among several fast-growing AI firms that have caught Nvidia’s attention. 

According to reports from sources, Nvidia has already invested in 59 AI startups as of mid-October this year. This number has exceeded its total investments from the previous year, according to PitchBook data. 

Moreover, the Silicon Valley-based AI chipmaker has invested in Perplexity AI, an AI-powered search engine, and Figure AI, a company focusing on humanoid robotics.

During Nvidia’s GTC conference, Jensen Huang, the company’s Chief Executive Officer, expressed his pleasure in discovering that AI startups are built on Nvidia. “There are many reasons for this. First, our ecosystem is strong. Our tools perform really well,” Huang added.

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