The technological eyes of the world have been focused primarily on chip manufacturers and designers for a long time now, including primarily the triumphant nVidia, which has basically monopolized the hardware dimension of the AI revolution. However, to break the track record in this race, a supercar is sometimes not enough and, to maintain the title of leader, a good driver is also needed. And it is precisely such “Stigs” that the American giant is starting to look for.
Of course. At the Computexx trade fair in Taiwan, Nvidia showed many new products, announced new projects, the CEO himself appeared, but at the same time, in the hall next door, something equally, if not more important, was happening, which many media outlets missed. It's about software.
Among the many exhibitors in the second hall of the expo in Taiwanese Taipei, the green walls of the Nvidia stand attracted special attention, or rather its partners – who appeared there as part of the Nvidia Inception Startups, over which the giant took a kind of “curatorship”.
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Nvidia, but not quite. What is Inception Startups?
In simple terms, it is an incubator. Nvidia invites start-ups to it that build solutions using AI, HPC or graphics. In exchange for zero shares and zero fees, members receive primarily discounts on equipment and licenses (e.g. GPU cards, NVIDIA AI Enterprise package), access to training and support from the giant, marketing support, for example, such as joint stands, but also presentations or entries on the giant's blog, and, equally importantly, access to the network of investors within the NVIDIA VC Alliance, i.e. over 400 different venture capital funds that filter projects through the graphics card manufacturer's incubator.
Why all this? In short, the GPU giant provides software “rocket fuel” and contacts, and in return gains loyal (and growing) customers for its computing platforms, which ensures sales, profits, and ultimately money for further investments. A kind of perpetual motion machine.
An important project? The numbers speak for themselves
In 2021, Inception had around 8.5 thousand companies, a year later it exceeded 10 thousand. In 2023, there were over 13 thousand, and in 2024, over 20 thousand companies. At GTC 2025 in March, Jensen Huang boasted that the ecosystem had grown to over 22,000 startups, of which 135 got their own stands at the conference exhibition. In other words: in less than four years, the program has grown 2.5 times, an average of around 40 percent year over year.
For Nvidia, this is a strategic “side entrance”. The company does not have to write every algorithm or enter every niche – it is enough to attract thousands of developers and software houses to its ecosystem, and they will ensure that subsequent cloud servers are filled with GPUs with the green eye logo, especially since the entry level is low and there is no shortage of willing people due to financial incentives.
The hardware sells itself while the software is ready and waiting for computing power.
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The “green” logo does the job
16 young companies were invited to the Taiwanese edition of the program – from robotics to med-tech – which presented their ideas under the common banner of a giant for three days.
One of the dozen or so “stands” measuring just two or three square meters featured Coxwave Align, a 15-person start-up from San Jose operating since 2021, which is developing a platform for analyzing and evaluating conversations for $3.5 million raised in early 2024. Right next to it was MetAI, a young Taiwanese start-up focused on “generative physical AI.”
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During Computex, the modest “green” logo above their booths proved to be an invaluable booster: a stream of questions, pilot proposals and business cards from integrators and funds from the alliance, which they normally hunt for months, appeared here in a few hours. As exhibitors admitted, the interest that the Nvidia logo itself attracted is invaluable and worth more than any, even the most ambitious, marketing campaigns.
For Coxwave Align or MetAI, it's three days of exposure, and for Nvidia, it's further proof that a two-meter stand with a green logo can generate more future GPU orders than many a billboard – because the software that flashes here will need hard silicon tomorrow, and investors will make money on that. The circle will close. The only question is when the bubble will start to burst.
