Semiconductor Giants Are Busy Backing Startups This Year
Massive AI spending has helped push earnings and valuations for semiconductor industry leaders to record levels, prompting the sector's giants to invest record sums in artificial intelligence and robotics startups.
Semiconductor companies are experiencing a surge in investment activity this year, as they capitalize on the massive spending on artificial intelligence. The dominant players in the sector, such as Nvidia, AMD, and Samsung, have collectively invested $250 billion in startups so far this year, according to Crunchbase data. This figure represents a significant increase from previous records, with Nvidia leading the pack in terms of both active participation and spending.
The company has been involved in 59 known funding rounds thus far, a record number compared to 53 deals in all of 2025. AMD and Samsung have also shown strong investment activity, with the former making four rounds valued at $1 billion or more and the latter having at least 17 startup investments so far this year. The majority of these investments are from semiconductor giants leading or co-leading the deals, with Nvidia alone accounting for over 95% of the value of all semiconductor company-led financings.
While the OpenAI megaround certainly skewed the totals, there have been other substantial rounds in which semiconductor companies have played a key role. As semiconductor companies reap the benefits of the AI boom, it remains to be seen if this investment activity will reach a peak, or if it will continue to rise alongside the soaring share prices of industry leaders.
Written by urgent.news from Crunchbase News's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
