In a press release this morning, NVIDIA announced that it is looking to invest in, and support, early stage companies that produce or develop products which make use of the GPU. As of this morning, a new webpage on the NVIDIA website was launched (named the GPU Ventures Program), which explains how businesses can submit their proposals.
The investments are expected to be between $500,000 and $5 million, although NVIDIA also explained in the statement that they may also help with marketing, development and product distribution, depending on the partnership. Although NVIDIA did not state what, if anything, it would get back in exchange for this, as the Business Journal pointed out, NVIDIA may take minority stakes in the companies it invests in.
"The GPU Ventures Program represents a huge opportunity for young ambitious companies basing their businesses around the GPU. These companies are the innovators that will fuel the continued growth of the GPU platform," said Jeff Herbst, vice president of business development at NVIDIA. "Through this program we will provide financial, marketing and other support to help start-up companies realize their full potential and we strongly encourage interested entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and others to reach out to us with their ideas," he added.
NVIDIA is also evaluating new companies which make use of its parallel computing architecture, CUDA - typically for scientific, medical or financial purposes.