Most of the world’s largest corporations have simple names. Steve Jobs named Apple, being on a fruitarian diet, found the title “fun, energetic and not intimidating.” Plus, it appeared in the phone book before Atari. Microsoft is Union the words “microcomputer” and “software”, and Walmart is a combination of the surname of the supermarket founder Sam Walton and the word “mart”.
Nvidia, which briefly held the title of the world’s most valuable company last week, is challenging these simple branding rules. The name is consonant and creepy, 1990s style op art logo is reminiscent of its failed, startup roots rather than its current reality: a giant monopolizing the market for artificial intelligence chips.
Despite its unconventionality, Nvidia’s fame demands conversation, and conversation demands pronunciation. So, how to pronounce Nvidia correctly?
According to him Web siteNvidia is pronounced “en-VID-eeee” rather than NUH-vid-eeya as many people call it.
Where did the name NVIDIA come from?
When Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang founded the company with his friends Chris Malachowski and Curtis Priem in 1993, they discussed almost every detail of their new business except the name. Sitting in a Palo Alto Denny’s—a place chosen because of its cheap coffee and Huang’s experience working there as a youth—the three co-founders omitted the name of their business.
So as they continued to build, they simply named their files “NV” for the next version, Huang previously said. Luck. When it came time to register the company, all three had to search for a name. First we chose NVision, for now they found out that the toilet paper manufacturer has already taken this name.
Back to the drawing board, the co-founders tried all the words with “NV” until Huang suggested Nvidia, trying out the Latin word. invidia, means “envy”.
The name worked because the three were hoping to develop a graphics chip so powerful that it could compete, as Priem had previously said. New Yorker “green with envy.”
The first Nvidia‘
The first “Nvidia” was Invidia, the Roman goddess of envy. Her heart was “green with bile,” poison dripped from her tongue, she had “pallor smeared across her face, her whole body was emaciated, her eyesight was squinting at everything,” as the Roman poet Ovid describes her in Metamorphosis.
It’s not often that a company’s branding draws on Roman mythology, much less such an obscene figure. And yet, the motive of envy seems to be present in all of the company’s products. The eighth generation of GPUs had the slogan “green with envy.”
Nvidia’s logo, a green spiral eye, may also have been inspired by the first Invidia game. Her figure was associated with a piercing gaze, an “evil eye” that brings a curse on those whom she envies. People of many religions I still wear it “evil eye” amulets or read prayers to ward off the curse.
Many companies now have reason to envy Nvidia. With a market capitalization of $3.1 trillion, unprecedented market concentration and seemingly limitless growth, Nvidia’s success is what every CEO dreams of.
Juan may have anticipated this and deliberately put envy at the forefront as a reminder that his competitors were scratching him. In accordance with New Yorker For years, Juan opened every employee meeting with the words, “Our company is 30 days away from bankruptcy.”
Apparently, even after all the success, this phrase remains an unofficial corporate motto.