Nvidia deepens early-stage startup support in India

Nvidia is increasing its efforts to engage with artificial intelligence startups in India earlier in their lifecycle. The chipmaker is launching a series of partnerships in the South Asian nation to reach founders before their companies are formally established. According to Aakrit Vaish, founder of the early-stage venture firm Activate, Nvidia’s engagement with startups in India has historically been relatively light-touch compared with the U.S. The new push represents a shift toward deeper, earlier technical collaboration in the region.

To execute this strategy, Nvidia is collaborating with local venture firms and organizations. These partnerships include:

• Activate: The venture firm plans to back about 25 to 30 AI startups from its $75 million debut fund. Activate focuses on what Vaish describes as “inception investing”—an investment strategy focused on meeting technical teams before company formation. The partnership is designed to provide a curated layer on top of Nvidia’s broader startup program, giving portfolio companies direct access to Nvidia’s engineering and technical expertise. The firm’s backers include venture capitalist Vinod Khosla, Perplexity co-founder Aravind Srinivas, Peak XV managing director Shailendra Singh, and Paytm CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma.
• AI Grants India: Nvidia is partnering with this nonprofit, co-founded by Vaibhav Domkundwar and Bhasker (Bosky) Kode, to support 10,000 early-stage founders over a 12-month timeframe.
• Venture Capital Firms: The company has established ties with firms including Accel, Peak XV, Z47, Elevation Capital, and Nexus Venture Partners to identify and fund early-stage AI startups.
• India Deep Tech Alliance: In November 2025, Nvidia joined this consortium of U.S. and Indian investors, which includes Accel, Blume Ventures, Premji Invest, and Celesta Capital, to provide strategic and technical guidance to emerging startups.

These new initiatives complement Nvidia’s existing Inception program—the company’s global startup support program—which already supports 4,000 startups in India. By establishing relationships with technical teams at the earliest stages, Nvidia aims to position itself to capture long-term demand. As these growing startups scale, they typically consume increasing amounts of AI compute over time. By engaging early, Nvidia seeks to ensure these AI-native companies rely on its computing infrastructure as they grow globally.

Why it matters

Nvidia is moving to secure its position in one of the world’s fastest-growing developer markets by embedding itself with founders before their companies are even fully formed, ensuring it remains the primary infrastructure provider as they scale.