Jensen Huang Brings Nvidia Investment Checks and a Blunt Message to London's Tech Scene

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang drew a crowd in West London on Wednesday night, taking a pop-up stage inside an old converted church to announce the chip giant was taking stakes in five U.K. startups.

"We're not your largest investor, but we are your best investor," he told the room of politicians, investors, tech executives and journalists, pointing at founders as he pledged backing. The London stop was part of a European tour ahead of Nvidia's GTC event in Berlin.

Earlier, Huang singled out U.K. neocloud Nscale CEO Josh Payne in the crowd, saying the company had been "zero" last year and that Nvidia's investment had drawn other investors. Nscale could become Britain's most valuable company within a decade, he said to cheers.

The five named recipients were biotechs Prima Mente and Boltz, project delivery platform Foresight, algorithm discovery startup Hiverge and quantum company Riverlane. Those companies, along with other unnamed U.K. firms, will share $1.16 billion of Nvidia cash. Nvidia also announced stakes in several French startups earlier in the week.

Huang's reception reflects his sway in AI, where Nvidia holds a near monopoly on the most powerful chips. He is a regular presence beside U.S. President Donald Trump at state dinners and visits.

After his speech, Huang emerged roughly 40 minutes late for a media huddle, telling reporters he had shared a whiskey with the Prime Minister and would meet German Chancellor Friedrich Merz in a couple of days. He spoke for nearly an hour despite having eaten only a fraction of a sandwich that day.

He praised and criticized Europe in turn. "Nothing pains me more, frankly, than to see one of the most technologically advanced countries to be left so far behind in technology," he said of Germany. The U.K. also drew a jab: "If you tell an entrepreneur there's one in a million chance they can succeed, that entrepreneur says, 'So you're telling me there's a chance?' But in the UK, somehow there's 999,000... reasons to fail."

Huang remained bullish on Europe's AI prospects. Nvidia has built stakes across the AI stack, with funding recipients including OpenAI, Anthropic, Intel and XAI. The company has participated in 116 investment rounds in 2026 so far, according to Dealroom, up from 12 in 2022.

Source: CNBC