TechCrunch: After Huang’s departure, venture capital expects Nvidia to cut the size of its checks
TechCrunch reported on November 13, 2026, that during Jensen Huang’s tenure, Nvidia invested billions of dollars annually in AI startups, participated in 105 funding rounds in 2026 alone, and was often the largest investor (PitchBook data).
Multiple founders and venture capitalists said that after Huang’s departure, the ecosystem has lost its main backer, capital will decrease in the near term, and this could affect deal volume, valuations, and financing. Most major investment decisions were made by Huang himself. Interim CEO Colette Kress is expected to be more conservative and will not maintain the same scale of early-stage investment.
Nvidia’s past investments include CoreWeave, Crusoe (including a $1.4 billion Series E), Mistral AI, Lambda, Black Forest Labs, as well as the $12.9 billion acquisition of Hugging Face (expected to be completed in 2027), and it invested $800 million in Reflection AI’s $2 billion Series B.
Original sources:
Title: Jensen Huang’s departure blasts big hole in AI startup funding, VCs and founders say
Publisher: TechCrunch
Publication date: 2026-11-13
URL: techcrunch.com/2026/11/13/jensen-huangs-departure-blasts-big-hole-in-ai-startup-funding-vcs-and-founders-say
Source type: media report
Verification status: full text actually read in this report, verification date 2026-11-13
Supporting content: billions of dollars in investment scale, data on 105 funding rounds, founders’ and VCs’ expectations of smaller checks and lower valuations, specific investment cases, and Kress’s statement that she is expected to be more conservative
ABAB AI Insight
Jensen Huang had long directed strategy since founding Nvidia in 1993. On November 12, 2026, he resigned as president, CEO, and board director, and Colette Kress (who has served as CFO since 2013) became interim CEO. Investors interviewed by TechCrunch pointed out that Huang personally took part in most startup investment decisions, and his absence will change the pace of capital deployment.
Nvidia’s investments often form a closed loop with chip purchases: it injects capital into startups, enabling them to buy Nvidia GPUs, while expanding demand through equity and guarantees. PitchBook data show that it participated in 105 rounds in 2026 and was often a core investor. Typical targets include neoclouds (CoreWeave, Crusoe), open-source model companies (Mistral, Reflection AI), and the Hugging Face acquisition. These transactions strengthened lock-in to the CUDA ecosystem.
Compared with the rapid expansion previously led by Huang, Kress is described as more conservative. Investors expect the new company to receive smaller checks, and existing portfolios will also be reduced, thereby pressuring valuations. Large cloud providers and other chipmakers may fill part of the gap, but it will be difficult to replicate Nvidia’s large-scale support for pre-revenue infrastructure startups.
This change shifts Nvidia from the “last supporter of the AI ecosystem” to a more cautious capital allocator. If the pace of investment slows, financing conditions for open-source models and neoclouds will tighten, while also creating a window for competitors such as Google, Amazon, and AMD in software ecosystems and hardware adoption, but it will not by itself end the overall AI capital expenditure cycle.
ABAB News · Cognitive Law
Strategic investment driven by individuals and institutionalized conservative decision-making are not the same capital deployment model.
Closed-loop financing can expand demand, and it can also contract after the founder leaves.
The absence of the largest investor changes the valuation anchor, but it does not mean the market as a whole runs out of capital.