NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang said the company does not expect to make additional investments in OpenAI or Anthropic following their latest funding rounds.
Speaking at the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media and Telecom conference in San Francisco, Huang said the expected IPOs of major AI labs later this year would likely close the opportunity for further private investment.
The statement follows NVIDIA’s recent financial commitments to leading AI developers. NVIDIA participated in OpenAI’s $110 billion funding round with a $30 billion investment and invested $10 billion in Anthropic in late 2025. The company also supplies the GPUs used to train and run models developed by these organizations.
During the same period, NVIDIA announced a partnership with optical technology company Lumentum that includes a $2 billion investment and long-term purchasing commitments for advanced laser components.
The agreement focuses on optical networking technology used inside large AI data centers. These systems rely on high-speed connections between thousands of GPUs, making optical interconnects a growing priority as computing clusters grow larger.
Why It Matters: NVIDIA holds financial stakes in OpenAI and Anthropic while also supplying the processors that power their AI systems. As the companies expand and compete for users, developers, and distribution, NVIDIA maintains close relationships with multiple AI developers that rely on its hardware. At the same time, the company continues investing in technologies that support the infrastructure required to train and operate large AI models.
- NVIDIA’s Investments Helped Expand Its Role in the AI Ecosystem: NVIDIA invested in OpenAI and Anthropic during a period when AI labs required enormous computing capacity to train large models. Those companies rely heavily on NVIDIA GPUs for training and inference workloads. Equity investments strengthened NVIDIA’s relationships with major customers while reinforcing demand for its hardware. Huang has said these investments are intended to support companies building on NVIDIA’s computing platforms.
- The Structure of Some AI Funding Deals Has Drawn Scrutiny: Some analysts have questioned the structure of deals in which NVIDIA invests in AI companies that then commit to purchasing large amounts of NVIDIA hardware. MIT Sloan professor Michael Cusumano described the arrangement between NVIDIA and OpenAI as “kind of a wash.” NVIDIA invests billions in OpenAI equity while OpenAI plans to spend comparable amounts on NVIDIA chips for its infrastructure.
- NVIDIA Works Closely With Competing AI Developers: NVIDIA holds stakes in OpenAI and Anthropic while supplying the computing hardware used to train and run their models. The companies compete for users, developers, and platform adoption, creating a situation where NVIDIA maintains relationships with multiple rival AI developers that depend on its technology.
- AI Assistant Rankings Are Changing Quickly: Following a public disagreement between OpenAI and Anthropic over a Pentagon partnership, Anthropic’s Claude app moved to the top of Apple’s U.S. App Store free rankings. At the end of January, the app sat outside the top 100, according to Sensor Tower data.
- NVIDIA Continues Investing in AI Infrastructure: NVIDIA’s agreement with Lumentum includes a $2 billion investment to support research, manufacturing capacity, and a new U.S. fabrication facility. Optical interconnect technology allows large clusters of GPUs to exchange data using laser-based communication. These systems play an important role as AI data centers expand and require higher bandwidth between computing nodes.
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