Nvidia took part in an $80 million funding round for Israel-based Cytoreason, a start-up which uses AI technology to develop models which can detect diseases.

Cytoreason stated the chip giant joined healthcare companies Pfizer and Thermo Fischer in the round, in along with venture capital investor OurCrowd.

Nvidia used a large portion of its good fortune in demand for its AI chips to invest in the technology.

At the end of 2023, Nvidia stated it made AI-related investments in more than 30 companies, either directly or through its venture capital arm NVentures.

It has continued to invest in 2024, most recently contributing to a $450 million funding round in Canadian AI start-up Cohere and a $1.1 billion pot raised by UK-based Wayve.

Cytoreason explained it will use the cash influx to expand the application of its models, grow its proprietary molecular and clinical data, and establish an office in the US state of Massachusetts later this year.

The company explained reduced R&D timelines and improved operations are among its top priorities. It partnered with Pfizer in 2022 and has since been able to scale its AI-powered disease models, while teaming with leading data organisations.

Kimberly Powell, VP and GM of healthcare at Nvidia, said Cytoreason had used its accelerated computing and AI platforms to strengthen its offering.

Using Nvidia’s technology had enabled the healthcare player to achieve “more than ten-times acceleration for inference workloads”, she added.