Nvidia’s Network Effect: Growing Together with Tech Startups

By Trason Soh & Marsya Amnee

Once known mainly for powering computer graphics, Nvidia has become the defining force behind today’s AI revolution. Its chips power everything from ChatGPT to self-driving cars, but Nvidia’s true advantage lies in its technology and the ecosystem it has built to sustain it.

Through a deliberate strategy of investing in companies that rely on its products, Nvidia has created a circular economy strategy — a system where its partners’ growth drives its own, and vice versa. It’s a masterclass in how strategic investment can shape entire industries.

Driving the Engine of AI Growth

Nvidia’s scale today is staggering. Its annual free cash flow surged from USD 3.8 billion in just three years to over USD 60 billion, powered by global demand for AI hardware.

But instead of hoarding profits, Nvidia reinvests its capital into the broader ecosystem — data centres, chip designers, AI model developers, and even clean-energy companies that power future computing sites.

This creates what business strategists call a flywheel effect — each investment accelerates the next. When Nvidia funds an AI lab or a data centre provider, that company, in turn, depends on Nvidia’s GPUs to operate. Their success becomes Nvidia’s success. Capital flows out as investment and returns as product demand — a seamless loop that keeps the AI economy spinning.

Investing to Accelerate Innovation

Nvidia’s approach is simple but powerful: build the market by enabling it. It invests across every layer of the AI value chain — the physical infrastructure, the software ecosystem, and the applications that bring AI into everyday use.

On the infrastructure side, Nvidia backs data centre operators like CoreWeave and Applied Digital to ensure global access to GPU power. In software and applications, it supports companies such as OpenAI, Mistral, and xAI, which develop the models that push its chips to new limits. It even invests in quantum computing and clean energy, anticipating future hybrid computing and sustainable power needs.

Each of these moves reinforces the other. More data centres mean more GPU demand; more AI models mean higher hardware utilisation; and better energy solutions mean more scalable computing. Nvidia has designed a business model where every physical, digital, or financial component works together to sustain long-term growth.

Building for Shared Growth

At its heart, Nvidia’s circular strategy reflects a simple philosophy: growth is strongest when shared. Rather than chasing one-off wins, the company focuses on building an ecosystem where every participant, from chipmakers to AI startups, reinforces one another’s progress. By investing across the entire AI value chain, Nvidia ensures that innovation never outpaces infrastructure and that advancement in one area fuels advancement in another.

This approach mirrors how enduring institutions design for stability — not by owning everything, but by connecting everything. Each investment strengthens the sustenance system, turning interdependence into a competitive advantage.

For large, diversified organisations like Sunway Group, the message is clear. The business’s strength lies in how its parts work together, internally between the business units and between the business units and external partners, including the tech startups. By sharing resources, insights, and goals, growth becomes not just faster but more resilient.

After all, the most powerful systems, in business as in technology, are circular — where progress creates more progress, and every gain fuels the next wave of innovation.