Nvidia’s $24B AI deal blitz has Wall Street asking questions about ‘murky’ circular investments

Nvidia's (NVDA) latest AI concern with Microsoft (MSFT) and Anthropic underscores the chipmaker's torrid gait of dealmaking this year, adjacent arsenic circular artificial quality agreements person acceptable disconnected alarm bells among investors.

Nvidia invested $23.7 cardinal successful firms successful the abstraction done 59 deals betwixt the commencement of 2025 and Monday, according to Pitchbook data. For the entirety of 2024, Nvidia inked a full of 54 deals worthy $22.8 billion.

Nvidia’s investments successful AI firms — totaling astir $53 cardinal and amounting to 170 deals betwixt 2020 and 2025 — span the full AI ecosystem, ranging from ample connection exemplary developers specified arsenic OpenAI (OPAI.PVT) and Cohere (COHR.PVT) to “neoclouds” similar Lambda (LAMD.PVT) and CoreWeave (CRWV), which specialize successful AI services and vie with the chipmaker’s Big Tech customers.

In the woody announced Tuesday, Nvidia and Microsoft volition put up to $10 cardinal and arsenic overmuch arsenic $5 billion, respectively, successful AI developer Anthropic (ANTH.PVT). Anthropic volition bargain $30 cardinal of compute capableness from Microsoft Azure, and Anthropic and Nvidia volition collaborate connected plan and engineering, the companies said.

The concern follows Nvidia's $6.6 cardinal concern successful OpenAI (OPAI.PVT) successful October and a $6 cardinal concern successful Elon Musk’s xAI (XAAI.PVT) successful November, per Pitchbook. Nvidia has committed to investing up to $100 cardinal successful OpenAI successful an eye-popping woody this September that sent its banal higher.

The heaping heap of currency Nvidia has poured into AI startups is simply a motion of however the chipmaker has looked to fortify its grip connected the marketplace pursuing the motorboat of ChatGPT successful 2022, which brought generative artificial quality mainstream. Nvidia is the ascendant AI chipmaker whose GPUs (graphics processing units) are important to grooming and moving AI models.

But analysts and investors are opening to question the quality of immoderate of Nvidia’s AI investments successful its ain customers. Tech stocks person sold disconnected successful caller days amid concerns of a marketplace bubble driven by artificial quality hype.

“It's precise murky,” Seaport expert Jay Goldberg, who holds a uncommon Sell standing connected Nvidia stock, said of the chipmaker's concern successful OpenAI. The investment, announced successful September, is portion of a concern successful which OpenAI would acquisition a ton of Nvidia chips — the AI developer has committed to deploying "at slightest 10 gigawatts" of compute capableness from Nvidia's AI systems to bid and tally its adjacent procreation of artificial quality models.