The CEO of the company that supplies the chips powering the AI boom just admitted he should have owned more of it.Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said on the Dwarkesh Podcast on April 15 that Nvidia missed the chance to invest early in OpenAI and Anthropic, KuCoin reported. Huang called it a strategic error he has no intention of repeating. “I’m not going to make that same mistake again,” he said.Why Nvidia missed OpenAI, Anthropic investment opportunitiesHuang was candid about why Nvidia was not at the table when OpenAI and Anthropic needed their first major backing. “What they were trying to do couldn’t have been done through VCs,” he said, noting that frontier AI labs required funding at a scale of $5 billion to $10 billion. That is far beyond what traditional startup funding models could provide.At the time, Nvidia lacked both the precedent and what Huang called the “sensibility” to deploy capital at that scale outside its core chip business, Benzinga noted. Because Nvidia could not write those checks, the hyperscalers stepped in instead. Microsoft backed OpenAI. Google and Amazon backed Anthropic. In return, both labs committed to running their compute on those investors’ infrastructure, according to WCCFTech.That capital-for-compute arrangement is what Nvidia missed. It was not just an equity opportunity. It was a chance to be woven into the infrastructure commitments of the most important AI labs in the world at the moment those relationships were being formed.Nvidia made later AI investments to correct courseHuang said Nvidia is now “delighted to invest” in OpenAI and Anthropic, Benzinga reported. Nvidia’s reported current investments stand at approximately $30 billion in OpenAI and approximately $10 billion in Anthropic, according to Futunn.However, those investments may be approaching their end. In March 2026, Huang said Nvidia’s stakes in OpenAI and Anthropic are likely to be its last in both companies, as once they go public as anticipated later this year, the opportunity to invest closes, TechCrunch indicated.On the broader investment strategy, Huang was clear. “There are so many great, amazing foundation model companies, and we try to invest in all of them. We don’t pick winners. We need to support everyone,” he said on the same podcast, according to Benzinga. He cited Nvidia’s own history as a guiding lesson, noting the company was once one of 60 3D graphics companies that was not expected to survive.
Nvidia missed the chance to invest early in OpenAI and Anthropic.Ann/Getty Images
The TPU challenge Huang addressed directlyPodcast host Patel pressed Huang on a pointed question: Two of the top three AI models in the world, Claude and Gemini, were trained on TPUs rather than Nvidia chips. What does that mean for Nvidia going forward?Huang’s answer was direct. “Without Anthropic, why would there be any TPU growth at all? It’s 100% Anthropic,” he said. His argument is that the only meaningful defection from Nvidia at scale traces back to a single lab. In addition, the broader thesis that frontier labs will bring silicon in-house collapses when you look at who is actually moving workloads off Nvidia’s chips.Key details from Huang’s podcast appearance:Podcast aired: April 15, 2026Huang’s admission: Nvidia missed early investment in OpenAI and AnthropicScale of capital required by frontier labs: $5 billion to $10 billion, Benzinga reportedWho filled the gap: Microsoft (OpenAI), Google, and Amazon (Anthropic)Nvidia’s current reported OpenAI investment: Approximately $30 billion, Futunn confirmedNvidia’s current reported Anthropic investment: Approximately $10 billion, according to FutunnOpenAI, Anthropic expected to go public: Later in 2026, TechCrunch notedNvidia’s investment philosophy: Invest in all foundation model companies rather than picking winners, according to BenzingaHuang’s missed chance with OpenAI, Anthropic: implications for Nvidia investorsHuang’s admission is notable precisely because it comes from the leader of the company that has profited most from the AI boom. Nvidia’s chip dominance has made it one of the most valuable companies in the world. But Huang’s comment reveals that even from that vantage point, he sees value that was left on the table.The broader signal is that AI is still in a phase where early positioning compounds significantly over time. The companies that secured equity stakes in frontier labs early did not just gain financial upside. They gained influence over infrastructure decisions, model development priorities, and long-term compute commitments.Nvidia’s current investments in OpenAI and Anthropic show it has corrected course. But Huang’s public acknowledgment that the early window was missed, and his vow not to repeat it, is a candid reminder that even in a boom, timing, and scale of conviction still separate good outcomes from great ones.Related: Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang says we have achieved AGI