Nvidia is preparing to invest up to $1 billion in Poolside, whose valuation is set to leap to $12 billion. This is a fourfold jump from its $3 billion valuation last year. The investment would form a significant part of Poolside’s $2 billion fundraising round, which has already drawn more than $1 billion in commitments.
Poolside has pulled in roughly $700 million from existing backers, while Magnetar, a prominent hedge-fund manager, is also in talks to join the round.
Major technical ambitions
Poolside operates across the US and Paris, focusing on coding automation tailored for government and defence clients. Its broader mission, however, is far more ambitious: building technology capable of handling wide-ranging tasks at levels beyond today’s systems.
This sweeping goal has helped the company stand out in an increasingly crowded field. Investors view Poolside as a contender capable of shaping the next era of intelligent systems, particularly given its pace of development and its leadership team.
Founded in 2023 by Jason Warner, formerly of GitHub, and Eiso Kant, the company has quickly attracted attention from major industry players. Nvidia has backed Poolside before, but this latest move signals a deeper commitment.
Massive infrastructure plans
Nvidia’s involvement goes beyond financial support. Poolside plans to allocate part of the new capital toward purchasing Nvidia’s GB300 chips, reinforcing a mutually beneficial relationship: Nvidia strengthens its customer base while Poolside scales its computing power.
The company is also working on bold infrastructure expansion. Earlier this month, Poolside partnered with CoreWeave to build one of the largest data centres in the US under an initiative called Project Horizon. Set in West Texas, the facility is slated to reach 2 gigawatts of capacity, which is enough to power about 1.5 million homes.
This large-scale buildout reflects Poolside’s need for immense processing capabilities and suggests that the company is gearing up for rapid growth.
Nvidia, now the world’s most valuable company with a $5 trillion valuation, has been aggressively backing emerging tech players. According to PitchBook, it invested in 59 companies this year, including Perplexity and Figure. Now, Poolside appears to be one of its most significant bets yet and potentially one of the most transformative.
