Nvidia’s growing influence in the artificial intelligence industry is no longer limited to supplying the powerful chips that run AI systems. The chipmaker’s AI investments have soared to $99 billion, putting the company among the world’s biggest corporate investors in technology as it pours capital into businesses across the rapidly expanding AI ecosystem.
The figure represents a dramatic increase from roughly $7 billion a year earlier and about $2.2 billion two years ago. Nvidia committed more than $40 billion to investment deals in 2026 alone, backing companies ranging from frontier AI laboratories and cloud providers to firms developing the infrastructure needed to power next-generation AI systems.
Among the major beneficiaries are OpenAI, CoreWeave and Nebius, while Nvidia has also invested heavily in emerging technologies such as photonics and optical networking. The company has committed at least $6.5 billion to photonics businesses since March, while its investments in Lumentum, Coherent and Marvell each reached $2 billion. Nvidia has also seen the value of some earlier investments rise sharply, including its $5 billion stake in Intel, which was valued at about $30 billion.
Nvidia’s strategy goes beyond simply earning returns on its investments. The company says the moves are designed to expand its ecosystem, create new growth opportunities and strengthen its competitive position. By providing capital to AI companies that need huge amounts of computing power, Nvidia can also help create more customers for its GPUs. The company has said it invested nearly $50 billion in frontier AI labs, including a planned $30 billion investment in OpenAI.
The aggressive spending comes as Nvidia’s core AI-chip business continues to boom. Its revenue jumped 106% to $96.2 billion in its latest fiscal second quarter, while its stock has gained about 33% over the past year. With AI demand showing little sign of slowing, Nvidia is increasingly using its financial strength to shape the companies, technologies and infrastructure that could define the next phase of the AI industry.
source: cnbc
