Nvidia likely to invest $500 million in self-driving startup Wayve amid UK-US technology deal — Details here

US-based big tech artificial intelligence company, Nvidia Corp, on Thursday, 18 September 2025, has signed a letter of intent, looking to potentially invest $500 million in the next funding round into a UK-based self-driving startup named Wayve, reported the news agency Reuters on Friday, 19 September 2025.

Nvidia's potential investment in the UK-based autonomous driving technology group, Wayve, comes at a time when the United States and the United Kingdom have signed a technology deal aimed towards boosting the strength of both nations in artificial intelligence and other fields.

On 16 September 2025, US President Donald Trump signed a “Tech Prosperity Deal” with the United Kingdom to boost both nations' capabilities in AI, quantum computing, and civil nuclear energy. This deal aims to support economic growth, scientific research, and energy security for both nations.

What does Wayve do?

Wayve is a Softbank-backed autonomous driving technology company that uses detailed digital maps, coding, machine learning, and camera sensors mounted on vehicles to learn from traffic patterns and driver behaviour.

The company was founded in 2017, and in 2024, the British firm raised more than $1 billion in funding from a marquee investor pool led by the Japanese investment giant SoftBank Group and Nvidia. According to the agency report, the company also raised an undisclosed separate investment from the cab-hailing platform Uber in 2024.

Wayve uses semiconductor chips manufactured by Nvidia Corp. for its autonomous driving platforms. The company currently operates only in the UK and the United States but has been expanding its testing and development operations to other markets like Germany and Japan.

Nvidia's recent technology bets

According to the agency report, the big tech AI chipmaker, Nvidia, on Thursday, 18 September 2025, pledged that the company will invest 2 billion pounds ($2.70 billion) into the British AI startup ecosystem.

Along with the investments on the other side of the Atlantic, Nvidia on Thursday announced that the company will invest $5 billion in Intel Corp. in efforts to develop semiconductor chips for PCs and data centres.

Mint reported earlier that Nvidia will purchase Intel's common stock at $23.28 per share. However, the AI chipmaker has not disclosed the timeline for the sale of the first manufactured parts after the collaboration of the two US-based technology giants.

“This historic collaboration tightly couples Nvidia’s AI and accelerated computing stack with Intel’s CPUs and the vast x86 ecosystem — a fusion of two world-class platforms,” Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang told the media at the announcement. “Together, we will expand our ecosystems and lay the foundation for the next era of computing,” he said.

Intel's $5 billion funding comes at a time when the President Donald Trump-led United States' federal government has agreed to take nearly a 10% stake in the technology company.