Nvidia Accelerates AI Startup Investments, Nears Deal With Cloud Provider Lambda Labs

Nvidia is known for its stranglehold over the market for the data center chips that power ChatGPT and other artificial intelligence software. But in a matter of a few months, Nvidia has also become one of the biggest venture capital investors in an important class of customers who need its chips: cloud and AI software startups.

In the latest example, Nvidia is nearing a deal to take an equity stake in Lambda Labs, a startup that competes with Amazon Web Services and other established cloud providers in renting servers with Nvidia chips to other companies, according to people with knowledge of the situation. A deal, which could total $300 million in new capital and might value the company on paper at more than $1 billion including the new capital, would bring Nvidia closer to Lambda after the chip designer took a similar equity stake in CoreWeave, a Lambda rival.