Most of the world’s top corporations have simple names. Steve Jobs named Apple while on a fruitarian diet, and found the name "fun, spirited and not intimidating." Plus, it came before Atari in the phonebook. Microsoft is an amalgamation of the words “microcomputer” and “software,” while Walmart a combination of the last name of the superstore’s founder, Sam Walton, and “mart.”
Nvidia—which briefly held the title of the most valuable company in the world this past week—challenges these simple branding conventions. The consonant-ridden name and eerie, 1990s-esque op-art logo recall its underdog, start-up roots rather than its current reality: a behemoth cornering the AI chips market.
