Nvidia bets on five UK startups

Nvidia is putting money into five more UK startups, widening a push that already reaches deep into Britain’s startup scene. Jensen Huang announced the new bets in London last night, alongside comments on the West’s ties with China and the risks around the AI race.

The new investments go to Boltz, which works on AI drug discovery; Foresight, an infrastructure predictor; Hiverge, which plans logistics with AI; Prima Mente, an AI biology startup; and Riverlane, a quantum computing company. Nvidia is understood to be taking minority stakes in all five.

This isn’t Nvidia’s first pass through the UK. The company already lists Basecamp Research, Ineffable Intelligence, Synthesia and Wayve among its existing British investments. And the pace is picking up: the UK deals came just hours after Nvidia said it was investing in four French startups, while also making a $250m compute donation to UK AI safety and research.

Those French investments went to Doctolib, Entalpic, Genesis AI and Pigment. Taken together, the moves look less like random venture activity and more like a deliberate attempt to plant Nvidia’s flag across European tech, from health to robotics to enterprise software.

Huang also used the London event to argue that the West should keep talking to Chinese AI firms. He said he has dialogue with many researchers in China and wants the UK and the United States to continue exchanging dialogue too, adding that Britain is “phenomenally well positioned” because of its intellectual capital and place in the world.