Nvidia Invests in Two Autonomous Driving Companies Within a Month

Nvidia has made consecutive investments in two autonomous driving companies over the past month, including the UK self-driving startup Wayve and, most recently, Oxa.

EPA Yonhap News

According to Bloomberg News on March 4 (local time), Nvidia’s venture capital arm, NVentures, participated in Oxa’s latest fundraising round.

Oxa raised a total of 103 million dollars through this Series D funding round. Key participants include the UK’s sovereign wealth fund, which has committed to invest 50 million dollars. Existing investors, such as BP’s venture fund, also took part in the round. However, Oxa did not disclose the specific size of Nvidia’s investment.

Nvidia has been actively making investments in autonomous driving companies recently. Last month, it participated in Wayve’s 1.5 billion dollar fundraising round. At that time, existing investors such as Microsoft, Nvidia, and Uber were joined by Eclipse Ventures LLC, Balderton Capital, and SoftBank Vision Fund 2.

Oxa is a spin-off from the University of Oxford. It previously operated under the name Oxbotica. The company was the first to conduct autonomous vehicle test drives on public roads in the UK, and later expanded its operations into factories, ports, and mining sites.

Oxa plans to use part of the newly raised funds to expand its business into Europe and the Middle East, as well as the UK. The company also plans to seek additional Series D investments by the end of the first half of this year.

Although London is known for challenging autonomous driving test environments, such as rainy and cloudy weather and narrow roads, the city is emerging as a global testing ground for self-driving car companies. This has been made possible after the UK government eased regulations on the operation of autonomous cars and buses on public roads, allowing for these pilot tests to take place.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.