Nvidia plans up to $1b investment in AI startup Poolside: sources

Nvidia plans to invest up to US$1 billion in Poolside, an AI startup focused on coding automation, according to sources familiar with the matter.

Poolside, which operates in the US and Paris, is in talks to raise US$2 billion at a US$12 billion valuation, four times its previous valuation from last year.

Nvidia’s involvement could begin with a US$500 million investment, potentially rising to US$1 billion if Poolside meets its fundraising goals.

The startup has already secured more than US$1 billion in commitments, including about US$700 million from existing investors, sources said.

Magnetar, a hedge fund manager, is also reportedly in discussions to join the round.

Poolside, founded in 2023 by former GitHub executive Jason Warner and Eiso Kant, plans to use some of the new funds to purchase Nvidia’s GB300 chips.

Earlier this month, Poolside announced a partnership with CoreWeave to build a large data center in West Texas as part of Project Horizon.

Nvidia is already an investor in Poolside from previous funding rounds.

🔗 Source: Bloomberg

🧠 Food for thought

Implications, context, and why it matters.

Poolside’s $12B valuation hinges on unproven technical performance versus established coding assistants

Poolside’s valuation rose to $12B, four times its 2024 level 1. The company has shared no SWE-bench scores, enterprise customer counts, or revenue 1. GitHub Copilot (Microsoft-owned AI coding assistant) reaches 44% daily developer usage and tops 1 million users 1.
On SWE-bench-Live (a continuously updated contamination-resistant benchmark), state-of-the-art agent–model pairs land about a 19% resolved rate on real GitHub issues 2. The same methods often hit over 60% on the older static SWE-bench Verified dataset 2, and Poolside has not posted RLCEF or synthetic data results to back its claims 1.

Project Horizon creates immediate procurement opportunities for infrastructure vendors supplying the 250 MW first phase

Project Horizon spans 568 acres in West Texas and needs near-term buys for the first 250 megawatts (MW) phase 3. Construction targets completion by Q1 2027 3. The modular plan uses aero-derivative turbines (natural gas turbines adapted from aircraft engines) with Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR) emissions systems, grid-interconnect redundancy (multiple independent utility connections to improve reliability), and battery storage 4.
CoreWeave (a GPU-focused cloud provider) has a 15-year lease for 250 MW with an option to add 500 MW 5. Dual long-haul fiber routes and high-bandwidth fiber interconnection (multi-terabit links to the internet backbone) plus gas lines require work with regional utilities and telecom providers 4. Vendors should track Texas Public Utility Commission (PUC) interconnection filings plus environmental permits for the aero-derivative turbines 4. Also watch for RFPs from CoreWeave and Poolside for cooling, power distribution, networking tied to a 40,000+ GPU build starting December 2025 5. The electrical design supports incremental load operation (adding power capacity in steps without disrupting existing workloads) 5.