NVIDIA Adds Six AI Startups To Its GPU Ventures Portfolio

As the AI ecosystem continues its global expansion, NVIDIA is expanding its portfolio of startup investments, adding six companies in three countries over the past year.

In addition to providing funds for future growth, we offer these startups NVIDIA's advice and perspective as the world's leading AI computing company. This can take the form of technical guidance, joint marketing and strategic direction, among other efforts.

Our new investments, which we'll talk about at next month's GPU Technology Conference, in San Jose - the world's most important AI conference, set for May 8-11 - include the following:

• ABEJA - Tokyo-based startup focused on AI-powered retail analytics systems
• Datalogue - New York AI data-mining platform developed out of Cornell University
• Optimus Ride - MIT spinoff developing fully autonomous vehicles
• SoundHound - Silicon Valley startup building voice-enabled AI solutions
• TempoQuest - Boulder, Colo.-based startup doing GPU-accelerated weather forecasting
• Zebra Medical - Israeli-based startup using AI to read medical images

In addition, as previously announced, we just last month made our third investment in MapD, one of the most exciting startups we've ever seen, which uses GPUs to query massive databases. Plus, we'll be announcing at GTC the seventh AI startup we've recently invested in.

If you'd like to review all the disclosed investments in our GPU Ventures portfolio, you can check out our new website.

Our investment portfolio is only one element of NVIDIA's extensive involvement in the AI ecosystem.

Launched less than a year ago, NVIDIA's Inception Program has grown to include some 1,300 startups from around the world, which we support with a team that provides access to technology, experts and our global marketing platform.

We invited 14 of the most promising ones to pitch themselves in a competition last week judged by a panel from Fidelity Investments, Goldman Sachs, SoftBank, Microsoft and Coatue, as well as NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang. A total of $1.5 million will be handed out to six winners at an awards gala at GTC on May 10th.

NVIDIA also runs a series of conferences and private events around the world for the world's leading VC funds, where we introduce companies and discuss the future of AI and data analytics. The next one will be at GTC, on May 10. If you're a VC actively investing in AI and would like to request an invite, please contact us here.