Nvidia's Investment Engine Stalls Following Jensen Huang's Exit

Jensen Huang, the co-founder and CEO who led Nvidia for 33 years, has officially stepped down, leaving a void in the AI startup funding ecosystem, as TechCrunch first reported. Under Huang, Nvidia acted as a prolific investor, participating in 105 funding rounds this year alone and often serving as the largest investor in those deals, according to PitchBook.

Nvidia's investment strategy heavily targeted neoclouds, inference providers, and open-weight models. Notable bets included participating in two funding rounds for Crusoe, including a $1.4 billion Series E, and backing CoreWeave while it was private. The company also acquired Hugging Face this year for $13 billion (closing expected in 2027) and holds stakes in Lambda, Black Forest Labs, and Mistral AI. Additionally, the Wall Street Journal reported that Nvidia invested $800 million into a $2 billion Series B for Reflection AI before the startup generated significant revenue.

Investors told TechCrunch that Huang's personal involvement in dealmaking often provided a safety net that encouraged other VCs to accept lofty valuations. One venture capitalist noted that infrastructure startups requiring $100 million to $500 million in GPUs frequently raised half that amount at valuations of $1 billion or more from Nvidia.

With interim CEO Colette Kress expected to be more conservative, investors anticipate a shift toward smaller checks and more selective backing. While Dharmesh Thakker of Battery Ventures suggests Big Tech rivals like Amazon, Microsoft, Google, and AMD may vie to fill the void, he doubts they will match Nvidia's history of pouring hundreds of millions into pre-revenue infrastructure startups.