NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang attracts a large crowd wherever he goes.
On Wednesday evening, in a venue in western London that was converted from an old church, Jensen Huang stood on a temporarily set up stage and announced to politicians, investors, tech executives, and journalists that this chip giant would invest in five British startups.
"We are not your largest investors, but we are your best investors," he declared. "I want to invest in you," he said, pointing at the founder. Jensen Huang's appearance in London this time is part of NVIDIA's European tour ahead of the GTC event to be held in Berlin next week.
Earlier on, he found Josh Payne, the CEO of Nscale from the British company neocloud, in the crowd, and said, "Last year you were still at zero."
“Now look at them,” he said. “We invested in you, and I also attracted a large number of investors to support you.” Jensen Huang said that Nscale could become the most valuable British company in a decade, and cheers erupted from the crowd.
This leader of NVIDIA clearly has no lack of confidence.
Drink whisky with Burnham
Jensen Huang is often warmly welcomed, which indicates the significant influence he holds in the field of artificial intelligence.
NVIDIA has almost a monopoly on the most powerful AI chips, and Jensen Huang is also able to easily interact with technology executives and world leaders. He is almost always present alongside U.S. President Donald Trump during state dinners and official visits.
In London, after the grandeur and ceremonies of the speech were over, Jensen Huang appeared about 40 minutes later for a brief media interaction in front of the church.
"Prime Minister [Andy Burnham] and I enjoyed some fine whisky together. He is a whisky enthusiast," he told reporters. Subsequently, Jensen Huang mentioned that in a few days, he would also meet with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz [Friedrich Merz].
That evening, Jensen Huang talked to reporters for nearly an hour – considering that he had only eaten “one quarter of a third” of a sandwich that day, which was quite an effort on his part – and he spoke about Europe in an exaggerated yet confident manner, both praising and criticizing it.
“To be honest, nothing pains me more than seeing one of the most technologically advanced countries fall far behind in technology,” he said, referring to Germany.
Even the UK was not spared. “If you tell an entrepreneur that their chances of success are only one in a million, they would say, ‘So that means I still have a chance?’ But in the UK, for some reason, there are 999,000 reasons for failure…”
Seed investment
This CEO is also optimistic about Europe's prospects for success in the AI field, and part of the reason for this is probably that NVIDIA now holds shares in many of the most promising startups in that region.
Start-up companies that received "lucky" investments on Wednesday include biotech companies Prima Mente and Boltz, project delivery platform Foresight, algorithm discovery start-up Hiverge, and quantification company Riverlane. The aforementioned companies, as well as other British companies not named by NVIDIA, will receive $1.16 billion in funding from NVIDIA.
Earlier this week, the chip giant announced that it would invest in several French startups.
These are all part of NVIDIA's efforts to increase its stake in various segments of the AI industry chain. Companies that have received financial support from NVIDIA include OpenAI, Anthropic, Intel, and xAI, among others.
According to Dealroom data, as of 2026, NVIDIA has participated in 116 rounds of investments this year, which is significantly higher than the 12 rounds in 2022.
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One more addition.
The military satellite system SpaceX, also known as Starshield, has once again drawn attention this week, as Ukraine faces limitations in its use of this technology. My colleague Elsa Ohlen has written a worthwhile analysis that explains how it operates and highlights its differences from Starlink.
