The Economist reported that NVIDIA is "becoming the central bank of AI." Over the past three years, NVIDIA has invested more than $70 billion in startups and is providing financial support on a scale of $300 billion to its customers. This is due to the company playing a crucial role in the supply of capital to the industry.
NVIDIA Reportedly Becoming the "Central Bank of AI"
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NVIDIA's financial strategy also stems from the fact that its major customers, the tech giants, are advancing their own AI semiconductor development. Customers such as Amazon, Google, Meta, and Microsoft are able to build infrastructure more cheaply than with NVIDIA products by using their own custom-designed semiconductors.
Some of NVIDIA's investments are aimed at popularizing open-weight AI models (models whose mechanisms are public and available for anyone to use). The company's acquisition of Hugging Face (approximately ¥2 trillion) is one such example.
On the other hand, risks associated with this expansion have also been pointed out. The Economist stated that no other company is as deeply involved in providing funding within the AI market, and noted that if an AI bubble bursts, the losses incurred by the company could be significant.
Sources
- NVIDIA is becoming the central bank of AI （GIGAZINE, 2026-09-17）