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Nvidia has invested in 14 European startup rounds in 2025, compared to 7 in 2024 and zero in 2020-2021, according to Trading room
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Top bets included Mistral AI’s €1.7 billion Series C, UK Data Centers play Nscale’s two rounds totaling $1.5 billion and Quantinuum’s $600 million quantum computing raise.
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The European push reflects Nvidia’s global strategy of reinvesting excess cash to ensure ecosystem dominance across AI infrastructure, models and applications.
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Nvidia continues the trend in 2026, backing British AI video startup Synthesia’s $200 million Series E, announced Monday.
Nvidia is quietly becoming Europe’s most aggressive investor in AI. The chip giant participated in 14 funding rounds with European startups in 2025, double the seven deals completed in 2024, according to Trading floor data. This is a strategic blitz that positions Nvidia not only as a GPU supplier, but also as a kingmaker in the European AI ecosystem – supporting everything from pioneering model labs like Mistral AI to the newcomer in quantum computing Quantumwhile its European investments accounted for a sixth of its 86 global seed rounds last year.
Nvidia has just become Europe’s most active investor in AI, and the numbers demonstrate calculated expansion. The company participated in 14 European startup funding rounds throughout 2025, exactly double its seven deals in 2024, according to Dealroom transaction tracking platform. Go back to 2020 or 2021, and Nvidia has made no European investments. The acceleration is not subtle.
These 14 European rounds were among 86 global startup investments made by Nvidia last year, positioning the chip giant as a venture capital player alongside its dominance in GPU supply. But this is not about traditional venture capital: it is about building a strategic ecosystem. “Nvidia’s investments in European AI companies appear to reflect its broader global strategy of taking its excess cash and reinvesting in the AI ecosystem through a host of startups,” Brian Colello, senior equity analyst at Morningstar, told CNBC.
The portfolio reads like a who’s who of European technological ambition. Mistral AIthe French answer to OpenAI, has obtained the support of Nvidia in its massive project 1.7 billion euros Series C in Septembervaluing the border model laboratory at €11.7 billion ($13.6 billion). Nvidia had already invested in Mistral’s B series in 2024, thus doubling down on one of the few major credible competitors in terms of language models in Europe.