Nvidia is playing many parts in the AI gold rush, a top business guru says

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang.

Bloomberg/Bloomberg via Getty Images In the AI gold rush, Nvidia is selling picks, investing in mines, and bankrolling prospectors.

That's according to Rob Lalka, a business professor and Big Tech expert.

Mark Cuban and Michael Burry have warned the AI industry's reliance on Nvidia makes it vulnerable.

Nvidia is playing many positions on the AI pitch, a leading business professor says.

"If AI is a modern-day gold rush, then Nvidia is not only selling the picks; they're also shareholders in the mines themselves, and now they're becoming the bank that's lending to all the prospectors," Rob Lalka told Business Insider in an email.

Lalka, a business professor at Tulane University and the author of "The Venture Alchemists: How Big Tech Turned Profits into Power," described Nvidia's meteoric rise over the past two decades, from making graphics cards for video games to becoming the world's most valuable company and the linchpin of the AI boom .

Nvidia has invested or committed tens of billions of dollars to OpenAI, Anthropic, and xAI, and has equity stakes in scores of AI startups that buy its hardware, Lalka said.

The chipmaker also holds stakes in data center specialists that need its processors, such as CoreWeave and Nebius, he continued.

Lalka highlighted Nvidia's latest financing agreement with some of Wall Street's biggest names, including Apollo and KKR, to raise $500 billion for AI infrastructure built around Nvidia chips.

Nvidia did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Nvidia's web of deals has made it the beating heart of the AI boom, as it sells the semiconductors that power the technology, and invests in and finances the array of companies buying its chips.

Several high-profile commentators have warned that the AI ecosystem's reliance on Nvidia could cause problems.

Mark Cuban , the tech billionaire of "Shark Tank" fame, recently posted on X that Nvidia is playing a similar role to the IPO market during the dot-com boom as it's "funding everyone and anyone." "One breakthrough in another chip provider, or a misstep, and it all could crumble ," Cuban added.