Key Points
- Nvidia is on a massive dealmaking spree, investing $23.7 billion in 59 AI firms so far in 2025.
- The latest deal involves investing up to $10 billion in the AI startup Anthropic, alongside Microsoft.
- These “circular” investments, where Nvidia invests in its own customers, are raising concerns about a potential AI bubble.
- Nvidia’s CEO, Jensen Huang, defends the strategy, stating that the company is simply investing in future multi-trillion-dollar companies.
Nvidia’s latest AI partnership with Microsoft and Anthropic highlights the chipmaker’s incredibly fast pace of dealmaking this year. However, these “circular” AI agreements, where companies invest in each other, are starting to make some investors nervous.
So far in 2025, Nvidia has invested $23.7 billion in AI firms across 59 deals, according to Pitchbook data. This already surpasses its activity for all of 2024, when it made 54 deals worth $22.8 billion.
Nvidia’s investments in AI, totaling about $53 billion across 170 deals since 2020, span the entire AI ecosystem. This includes everything from AI model developers such as OpenAI and Cohere to specialized AI cloud services such as Lambda and CoreWeave.
In the deal announced Tuesday, Nvidia and Microsoft will invest up to $10 billion and $5 billion, respectively, in the AI developer Anthropic. In return, Anthropic will buy $30 billion of computing power from Microsoft Azure and will work with Nvidia on design and engineering. This follows Nvidia’s $6.6 billion investment in OpenAI in October and a $6 billion investment in Elon Musk’s xAI in November.
The huge amount of money Nvidia is pouring into AI startups shows how the chipmaker is trying to tighten its grip on the market. Nvidia’s GPUs are essential for training and running AI models, giving it a dominant position.
However, analysts and investors are beginning to question some of Nvidia’s investments, especially when they are in its own customers. Tech stocks have recently sold off amid fears of a market bubble driven by AI hype. Some analysts are concerned about the “murky” nature of these deals, wondering if Nvidia is investing in these companies or simply “buying demand” for its own chips.
When asked about this, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang defended the investments, saying they are separate from the revenue Nvidia might earn. He said that companies like OpenAI are likely to become the next multi-trillion-dollar giants, and “who doesn’t want to be an investor in that?”
Many analysts agree with Huang, arguing that Nvidia’s big investments are a smart way to boost the entire AI ecosystem.
