Nvidia is little known despite a market capitalization of over $3 trillion

Apple, Microsoft, Amazon And Google According to the consulting firm, the 4 leading global brands at the tip of 2023 InterbrandThey are also among the many five most respected corporations on the planet.

The other is NVIDIAwhich temporarily overtook Microsoft this week to grow to be the most important company on the planet by market capitalization.

Yet despite its $3.1 trillion valuation (it reached $3.3 trillion before a two-day slide), Nvidia doesn’t even make it into the 100 most recognizable names on Interbrand’s latest list, which incorporates corporations like MC Donalds, Starbucks, Disney And Netflix.

Nvidia's historic rise in value – the stock has risen nearly ninefold because the end of 2022 – has been driven almost entirely by demand for its graphics processing units (GPUs), that are at the center of the generative artificial intelligence boom, and the hype around AI more generally. Nvidia holds over 80% of the marketplace for chips used to coach and deploy AI software like ChatGPT. A handful of huge technology corporations are the predominant buyers of its chips.

The speed of Nvidia's rise and the relatively low level of contact with consumers during its ascent mean that the 31-year-old company's brand awareness on Main Street lags far behind its appeal on Wall Street. At No. 100 on Interbrand's 2023 list is Japanese camera maker Canon, while Dutch brewer Heineken is at No. 99.

“As a product company that only recently entered the global stage, Nvidia has had neither the time nor the resources to change its brand role and strengthen its brand to secure future revenue,” said Greg Silverman, Interbrand's global director of name economics, in an email. The risk for Nvidia, Silverman added, is that its “weak brand strength will limit its value despite its market capitalization.”

A spokesman for Nvidia declined to comment.

Nvidia's annual revenue growth has been over 200% in each of the last three quarters. According to LSEG, revenue is predicted to almost double year-on-year to over $120 billion in fiscal 2025.

The GPUs for the corporate's data centers, which accounted for 85% of revenue last quarter, are installed in massive facilities and typically require a team of costly data science and supercomputing experts to configure them to efficiently construct AI software.

Apple, however, ranked No. 1 by Interbrand, makes most of its money selling iPhones and other devices to consumers around the globe. Microsoft, at No. 2, could also be an enterprise sales giant but is ubiquitously known for its Windows and Office software. Amazon, at No. 3, aspires to be the buyer's jack of all trades, and Google, at No. 4, is many individuals's front door to the Internet.

Interbrand’s top 10 is rounded off by the South Korean electronics giant Samsungalong with three automobile manufacturers (ToyotaMercedes-Benz and BMW), Coke And Nike.

Further down the list, at number 24, is Nvidia competitor Intelwhich is principally used to fabricate the processor at the center of laptops and PCs and for its long-lasting “Intel Inside” Advertising campaign. Even Hewlett-Packard Enterprisea company that builds servers, made it to number 91 on the list.

However, a competing survey shows that Nvidia's brand value is catching up with its competitors.

In a ranking of the 100 most valuable global brands published This month, Nvidia came in at No. 6, jumping 18 spots from the last survey, according to Kantar BrandZ. The brand's total value increased 178% in a year to an estimated $202 billion. Kantar surveys corporate buyers to evaluate brands that primarily sell to other companies to get an overall estimate of brand value.

“Nvidia is as relevant and meaningful to the B2B buyer looking to make large, high-volume purchases for their business as Apple is to the consumer buying an iPad or a Mac,” Marc Glovsky, chief brand strategist at Kantar, told CNBC.

And while Nvidia may not be familiar to your parents—or your kids—the name does have some recognition in a certain corner of the consumer world. Just ask your hardcore gaming buddy.

When Nvidia was founded in 1991, AI was still a young field. The company's primary focus was on developing chips that could quickly draw digital triangles, a fundamental capability that led to a huge expansion in 3D gaming.

For years, Nvidia and its GeForce brand and green logo were well known to people optimizing their computers to run the most advanced games. Nvidia supplies the chips for the Nintendo Switch console, of which over 140 million units have been shipped worldwide.

Unlike Intel, Nvidia has never pushed its name to the forefront with flashy advertising campaigns. And gaming is now just a nice side business for the chipmaker. Last quarter, it accounted for $2.6 billion in revenue, or 10% of total revenue, an increase of 18% year over year.

When it comes to Nvidia’s core products, companies and institutions competing for its AI chips must go through an extensive bidding and sales process, often through a computer equipment company like Dell or HPE. These vendors sell complete systems, including memory, central processor and other parts. Even experts who want to train AI models are more likely to rent Nvidia access through a cloud provider than build their own server clusters.

Nevertheless, Nvidia's popularity is growing rapidly. Among retail investors, Nvidia has become the most widely held stock, according to data collected and published last month by Vanda Research.

And while the name didn't make Interbrand's top 100 list for 2023, the company's data shows that brand awareness has quadrupled in the past 12 months, which will help with the next ranking, Silverman said.

Maybe by then people will know how to pronounce his name, a topic that has sparked debate. in obscure gaming forums. The company pronounces it en-VID-ia.

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