SANTA CLARA — Nvidia, buoyed by billions in profits from the AI boom, has bought more South Bay buildings in a $700 million-plus real estate shopping spree that has given the tech company an even bigger local footprint.

In a deal first reported in January, Nvidia paid $254.3 million to the Sobrato Organization for three office and research buildings located on San Tomas Expressway in Santa Clara, documents filed on Tuesday with the Santa Clara County Recorder’s Office show.

A fourth building that was eyed in the original agreement between Sobrato and Nvidia, at 2701 San Tomas Expressway, has not yet been purchased.

Expanding in the South Bay through property purchases and leases, the company has spent $747 million over the last year on properties in Santa Clara, where it has its headquarters, a review of several completed transactions shows.

“There is always something new in Silicon Valley that astonishes us,” said Mark Ritchie, president of San Jose-based real estate firm Ritchie Commercial. “Nvidia is a classic case. You had Cisco decades ago, and recently you had Google. Now, Nvidia has the throne. Nvidia is a real standout.”

Among the property purchases made since 2024, Nvidia paid $374.3 million in May 2024 for six buildings at 2770, 2806, 2880 and 2886 Scott Boulevard; 2001 Walsh Avenue; and 2220 Central Expressway. In a May 1 deal, the company paid $123 million for 10 buildings at 2348 and 2350 Walsh Avenue, among other addresses.

A spokesperson for Nvidia said the company declined to comment about the transactions.

Tim Bajarin, principal analyst with Campbell-based Creative Strategies, said Nvidia is pushing the envelope of innovation for high-performance chips, particularly those used in artificial intelligence.

“Every year, Nvidia accelerates the capabilities of its chipsets to make them more powerful,” Bajarin said. “Nvidia is driving even higher demand.”

The potential for a much larger Nvidia presence in the South Bay is likely to mean more jobs in cities such as Santa Clara and San Jose.

“Nvidia understands it needs high-quality engineers and incredible support staff, and it needs to have them as local as possible,” Bajarin said.

The Santa Clara buildings that Nvidia purchased in recent months are close to its headquarters, a futuristic two-building complex located at 2788 and 2888 San Tomas Expressway.

Large tech companies often invest in mega-campuses, partly as a way to create a visible statement about their success, said Michael Tchong, a Silicon Valley futurist and founder of Ubertrends LLC, which tracks the tech industry.

“Every big tech company wants to put a stamp of royalty on their landscape,” Tchong said. “Oracle built a campus. Apple has a spaceship. Google has the Googleplex. Meta has its mega campus in Menlo Park. A lot of tech companies get into the campus-building mentality.”

Nvidia also has been leasing some properties recently, including an office and research building at 300 Holger Way in San Jose.

While Nvidia looks to expand, its profits and revenue have skyrocketed.

Over the 12 months that ended in January, Nvidia earned $72.89 billion on revenue of $130.5 billion, according to Yahoo Finance.

The company’s profits and revenue during the most recent one-year period both more than doubled compared to the 12 months that ended in January 2024. Profits soared by 146%, while revenue increased by 114%.

As a result, Nvidia has hired workers at a brisk pace, according to regulatory documents on file with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

In January, Nvidia employed 36,000 people in 38 countries. That was 21.6% more employees than in January 2024, when Nvidia employed 29,600 people in 36 countries, Nvidia SEC filings show.

“Google’s growth, Apple, Facebook, Cisco, and now Nvidia’s growth don’t happen anywhere else in the world. It only happens in the Bay Area, only in Silicon Valley,” Ritchie said. “Silicon Valley is the absolute edge of everything that’s happening. Whatever the cutting edge happens to be, you will find it in the Bay Area.”

Any sort of expansion of the tech industry is a welcome occurrence, especially at a time when the tech sector overall is losing jobs in the Bay Area and office vacancy rates remain elevated, Ritchie said.

“We will need every inch of the office space that Nvidia is taking off the market with these purchases to get through the office vacancy disaster in the Bay Area,” Ritchie said.

The growth boom at Nvidia might have some staying power, Bajarin believes.

“Nvidia is the leading semiconductor company providing chips especially for high-level artificial intelligence,” Bajarin said. “Nvidia is in growth mode for the foreseeable future.”