Calling this the ‘age of AI’, Nvidia’s CEO said he plans to invest in companies including Revolut and Wayve.
Nvidia is investing £2bn to boost the UK’s artificial intelligence (AI) start-up ecosystem. The new capital will be used to develop AI tech in the country, with the aim of creating new companies and jobs, Nvidia said in a statement yesterday (18 September).
The funding comes in collaboration with venture capitals Accel, Air Street Capital, Balderton Capital, Hoxton Ventures and Phoenix Court.
The investment will expand access to capital in economic centres, ‘AI Growth zones’ and deep technology ecosystems across the UK in areas such as London, Oxford, Cambridge and Manchester, the chipmaker said.
Growth zones are of particular interest to the UK, with the government saying that these dedicated areas for AI development will create thousands of new jobs and bring in billions in private investment.
CEO Jensen Huang said that he plans to invest in Revolut, autonomous driving tech maker Wayve and AI biotech companies such as Basecamp Research and the freshly emerged Latent Labs.
The £2bn figure includes the £500m investment that Nvidia announced into AI data centre start-up Nscale earlier this week, a spokesperson told Bloomberg.
Meanwhile, Wayve had separately announced yesterday that it will be raising $500m from Nvidia. Last year, the company raised $1bn backed by Nvidia and Microsoft.
The chipmaker wants to deepen its relationship with UK’s up-and-coming entrepreneurs, especially those situated in London’s AI hub.
“This is the age of AI – the big bang of a new industrial revolution. The United Kingdom is in a Goldilocks moment, where world-class universities, bold start-ups, leading researchers and cutting-edge supercomputing converge,” said Huang.
“There has never been a better time to invest in the UK – AI is unlocking new science and sparking entirely new industries.”
Earlier this week, companies including Nvidia, Microsoft and OpenAI announced a combined investment of more than $40bn towards UK’s AI capabilities.
This included $30bn from Microsoft in its largest investment into the UK to date. While OpenAI launched its Stargate venture in the country and Nvidia partnered up with CoreWeave, Nscale and Microsoft for new AI factories worth $15bn.
Yesterday, Nvidia announced that it is buying $5bn in stocks from its struggling competitor Intel, as the two companies agree to jointly develop newer generations of custom data centre and personal computer products.
Don’t miss out on the knowledge you need to succeed. Sign up for the Daily Brief, Silicon Republic’s digest of need-to-know sci-tech news.
UK prime minister Keir Starmer with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and former UK minister of state for investment Poppy Gustafsson. Image: Lauren Hurley/No 10 Downing Street via Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
