Nvidia is planning new investments in five UK startups, its boss said last night, as it continues to spread its reach across the startup ecosystem.

At an event last night in London, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang announced the chip giant's new bets, as he also addressed questions about the West's relationship with China amid safety concerns in the AI race.

Nvidia is investing in AI drug discovery startup Boltz, infrastructure predictor Foresight, AI logistics planning startup Hiverge, AI biology startup Prima Mente and quantum computing startup Riverlane.

Nvidia is understood to be taking a minority stake in the five startups.

Its other existing investments in the UK include Basecamp Research, Ineffable Intelligence, Synthesia and Wayve. The string of new UK investments follows just hours after Nvidia announced it was investing in four French startups, as well as making a $250m compute donation to UK AI safety and research, as it looks to underscore its commitment to the European tech ecosystem.

These were French healthtech Doctolib, AI startup Entalpic, robotics startup Genesis AI and enterprise software company Pigment.

Speaking outside the London event last night, Huang was asked about the West’s relations with China in the AI race amid safety concerns.

Huang said the West should continue to talk to Chinese AI firms.

In a video recorded by a Bloomberg reporter, he said: “I have dialogue with many researchers in China, and we ought to continue to exchange dialogue. United States should do it. I advocate that the UK do that same thing. The UK is phenomenally well positioned because you have the intellectual capital, you have the position in the world.”