The Infrastructure Race: Nvidia and Poolside’s High-Stakes AI Partnership

At IGF, we love seeing AI infrastructure develop, as well as startups that deal with it. That’s why we’re about to tell you about Nvidia’s preparation to invest up to $1 billion in the French-American AI startup Poolside. This step will also push the company’s valuation to an impressive $12 billion. Such investment marks a fourfold increase compared to last year. The investment will represent a major share of Poolside’s broader $2 billion funding round, which has already secured more than $1 billion in early commitments.

This move let us understand how strategically important advanced AI platforms and infrastructure have become. And it’s not only for private innovation, but also for government and defense technologies. So, let’s dive deeper into this great investment.

From Early Vision to Strategic Scale

The startup Poolside was established in 2023 by ex-GitHub executive Jason Warner and AI researcher Eiso Kant. The company now operates in both the U.S. and Paris. Poolside focuses on automated coding systems designed specifically for highly regulated environments such as government and defense.

The idea of a startup was to combine building systems capable of handling complex tasks and broader ambitions. That approach helped the company to stand out among others in the market. Existing investors have already contributed around $700 million, and leading hedge fund Magnetar is currently in discussions to join the round.

Earlier, Nvidia had already supported Poolside before, but this time it’s about a deeper strategic alignment between the two companies.

Building the Infrastructure for the Next AI Wave

Nvidia and Poolside’s partnership is not only about funding, but it also goes beyond it. Poolside’s planning to invest part of the funding into Nvidia’s high-performance GB300 chips, directly scaling its computational capacity. The other part of the funding goes to investing in a recent major infrastructure collaboration with CoreWeave under the initiative known as Project Horizon.

The idea of the project is to build one big data center in the United States in West Texas. Data centers are about to produce 2 gigawatts of electricity. This, in turn, can power up to 1.5 million homes. This alone highlights the scale of processing power required for next-generation AI systems.

For Nvidia — now valued at around $5 trillion and one of the most active tech investors globally — Poolside represents both a powerful customer and a long-term strategic partner.

At IGF, we see it as a clear message for investors and startups. It’s all about the next AI era at a large scale. We believe those who are prepared for it will have it all. Contact us today, and we’ll support you whether you’re a startup or an investor.