Blockchain startups excluded? NVIDIA rejects crypto assets companies from participating in the Inception accelerator program.

NVIDIA ( has recently adjusted the participation criteria for its new startup accelerator program "Inception Program," clearly listing "companies related to Crypto Assets" as one of the five major categories of ineligibility. Speculation arises whether this is related to the US-China technology war, tightening resources to focus more on AI chip development.

Not just Crypto, five types of companies are not allowed to join.

According to NVIDIA's official website, the following five types of businesses will be excluded from the accelerator program:

Crypto Assets新創業者 )Crypto startups(

Consulting firm and outsourcing developer

Cloud Service Provider

Distributors and Agents

Publicly Listed Company

Even if the funding stage or years of establishment criteria are met, it is not possible to join this mentorship program designed for "startups established within the last ten years."

In 2018, it accepted blockchain startups, but now its attitude has taken a big turn.

NVIDIA had previously accepted the integration of AI blockchain technology with Ubex into the Inception program in 2018, but now it has cut ties with Web3 operators, leading to external doubts about whether NVIDIA has marginalized the Crypto Assets industry.

This is an illustration of the collaboration between Nvidia and Ubex in 2018.

However, NVIDIA has not yet responded publicly and has only stated "no comments" regarding media inquiries.

Why is the Nvidia Accelerator important, and what resources do blockchain startups miss out on?

NVIDIA's accelerator program Inception is essentially a global support network designed for startups, where participants can gain:

Technical Support ) GPU, SDK (

Marketing and Event Opportunities

Link with partners in the industry with NVIDIA

Therefore, for blockchain operators who rely on high-performance computing, especially for startups that are pushing the integration of AI with encryption concepts, being able to join Inception is a crucial key.

The background pressure is significant, and the crypto miners once caused Nvidia to "suffer greatly."

NVIDIA has a complicated "love-hate relationship" with the encryption industry. In the past, crypto miners rushed to buy NVIDIA graphics cards for mining, driving up the prices of the graphics cards and causing NVIDIA to be embroiled in a "hoarding and price speculation" controversy.

To differentiate the market, Nvidia later launched a version with "limited mining performance" to keep a distance from the crypto market. This time, formally excluding blockchain startups may also be related to past experiences and considerations of market image.

The graphics card version limited to crypto assets mining Lite Hash Rate )LHR( AI and geopolitics, NVIDIA seeks survival in the cracks between the US-China battlefield.

On the other hand, NVIDIA's core battlefield in recent years has already shifted to AI chips, and it has become one of the key players in the US-China tech war:

The H20 chip aimed at the Chinese market will be launched in 2024, attempting to comply with the Biden administration's export restrictions on advanced AI chips.

However, H20 is still considered to have "substitutive effects," leading the Trump administration to impose stricter export controls, requiring special permits.

According to foreign media reports, the Chinese market accounts for about 13% of Nvidia's revenue in 2024.

Huida also reported a loss of up to $5.5 billion in this quarter's earnings due to Trump's export restrictions on H20. But Mr. Huang is still actively meeting this month with Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, a top Chinese government official, to try to break the deadlock.

NVIDIA is fully focused on AI development, while blockchain is excluded from its main business.

Although blockchain and Crypto Assets are still hot topics in the tech circle, NVIDIA seems to no longer regard them as a preferred target for acceleration. In the face of the escalating global AI arms race, coupled with the ongoing US-China rivalry, excluding blockchain may simply be one of the strategies to focus more on the core battlefield.

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This article Blockchain startups excluded? NVIDIA rejects Crypto Assets companies from participating in the Inception accelerator program first appeared in Chain News ABMedia.