Despite briefly surpassing Apple and Microsoft in market cap, Nvidia remains a relatively unknown brand.

• This week, Nvidia surpassed both Apple and Microsoft to become the most valuable publicly traded U.S. company.
• While Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, and Google are among the top-known tech brands, Nvidia is not included in the list.
• The growth of Nvidia has been driven by the high demand for AI chips from a limited number of large corporate customers.

According to consulting firm Interbrand, the four leading global brands at the end of 2023 were also among the world's five most valuable companies.

This week, for a brief period, Amazon surpassed Microsoft as the largest company in the world by market cap.

Although Nvidia has a valuation of $3.1 trillion, it did not make the top 100 most iconic companies on Interbrand's latest list, which includes companies such as Apple, Google, Microsoft, and Amazon.

Nvidia's stock has increased almost nine times since the end of 2022, primarily due to demand for its GPUs used in generative AI and the hype surrounding the technology. Nvidia has a dominant market share of over 80% for chips used in training and deploying AI software, with a few large tech companies being its primary customers.

Canon, a Japanese camera maker, is ranked No. 100 on Interbrand's list for 2023, while Dutch brewer Heineken is at No. 99. Despite its popularity on Wall Street, Nvidia's lack of contact with consumers has hindered its brand recognition on Main Street.

"Nvidia, a product company that has recently expanded globally, has not had the time or resources to modify its brand and enhance its brand to safeguard future revenue, according to Greg Silverman, Interbrand's global director of brand economics. The danger for Nvidia, Silverman stated, is that its weak brand strength will limit its value, despite its market cap heights."

A spokesperson for Nvidia declined to comment.

Nvidia has experienced over 200% annual revenue growth in each of the past three quarters, and is projected to generate over $120 billion in revenue for fiscal 2025, according to LSEG.

In the most recent quarter, the company's data center GPUs, which accounted for 85% of sales, were installed in large facilities and typically required a team of costly data science and supercomputing experts to optimize their performance for AI software creation.

While Apple, ranked first by Interbrand, generates most of its revenue from selling iPhones and other devices to consumers worldwide, Microsoft, ranked second, is a dominant enterprise sales company, widely recognized for its Windows and Office software. Amazon, in third place, aims to be consumers' one-stop-shop, and Google, in fourth place, is often seen as the main entrance to the internet for many people.

South Korean electronics giant, along with three car companies (Hyundai, Mercedes-Benz, and BMW), and two technology companies (Apple and Google), round out Interbrand's top 10.

Even and Nvidia rival are both well-known companies in the technology industry.

Gamers love it

Nvidia ranked 6th in the 100 most valuable global brands published this month by Kantar BrandZ, jumping 18 places from its previous survey. The brand's overall value increased by 178% in a year to an estimated $202 billion. Kantar evaluates brands that primarily sell to other businesses to determine their total brand value.

Nvidia may not be a name familiar to your parents or children, but it holds significance in a specific segment of the consumer market, particularly among avid gamers.

In 1991, when Nvidia was established, AI was still in its infancy. The company's main objective was to create chips that could rapidly draw digital triangles, which eventually resulted in a massive growth in the 3D gaming industry.

Nvidia, with its GeForce brand and green logo, has been recognized by computer enthusiasts for years due to its advanced gaming capabilities. Additionally, Nvidia produces the chips for the Nintendo Switch console, which has sold over 140 million units worldwide.

Unlike Intel, Nvidia does not use flashy advertising campaigns to market its products to consumers. Instead, gaming is now a secondary business for the chipmaker, generating $2.6 billion in revenue in the latest quarter, which is 10% of total sales and a 18% increase year over year.

Nvidia's AI chips are highly sought after by companies and institutions, but they must go through a rigorous quoting and sales process, often through a computer-equipment vendor like Dell or HP. These vendors offer complete systems that include memory, a central processor, and other components. Even experts who want to train AI models are more likely to rent Nvidia access through a cloud provider rather than building their own server clusters.

Last month, Vanda Research reported that among retail investors, Nvidia is the most widely held stock. Nvidia's name recognition is rapidly increasing.

Although Silverman's brand did not make Interbrand's top 100 list for 2023, its brand awareness has quadrupled in the past 12 months, which will aid in its future ranking.

WATCH: The 'Magnificent Seven' should have another good earnings season