Apple, Microsoft, Amazon and Google were the four leading global brands at the end of 2023, according to consulting firm Interbrand. They’re are also four of the world’s five most valuable companies.

The other is Nvidia, which for a time this week, surpassed Microsoft to become the largest company in the world by market cap.

But despite its $3.1 trillion valuation (it reached $3.3 trillion before a two-day slide), Nvidia doesn’t even crack the top 100 most iconic names on Interbrand’s most recent list, which is populated by such companies as McDonald’s, Starbucks, Disney and Netflix.

Nvidia’s historic rise in valuation — the stock has climbed almost ninefold since the end of 2022 — has been driven almost entirely by demand for its graphics processing units (GPUs) that are at the heart of the boom in generative artificial intelligence and, more broadly, by the hype over AI. Nvidia has over 80% of the market for chips used to train and deploy AI software like ChatGPT. A handful of huge tech companies are the primary buyers of its chips.

The speed of Nvidia’s ascent and its relative lack of contact with consumers along the way combines to put the 31-year-old company’s brand recognition on Main Street far behind its allure on Wall Street. No. 100 on Interbrand’s list for 2023 is Japanese camera maker Canon, with Dutch brewer Heineken at No. 99.

“As a product company recently moving onto a global stage, Nvidia has not had time, nor has it dedicated resources, to change its role of brand and strengthen its brand to protect future revenue,” Greg Silverman, Interbrand’s global director of brand economics, said in an email. The risk for Nvidia, Silverman added, is that its “weak brand strength will limit how valuable it will be, despite its market cap heights.”

A spokesperson for Nvidia declined to comment.

Nvidia’s annual revenue growth has exceeded 200% in each of the past three quarters. For fiscal 2025, revenue is expected to almost double from a year earlier to over $120 billion, according to LSEG.

The company’s data center GPUs, which made up 85% of sales in the most recent quarter, are installed in massive facilities, and typically require a team of expensive data science and supercomputing experts to configure them to efficiently create AI software.

By contrast, Apple, ranked No. 1 by Interbrand, makes the vast majority of its money by selling iPhones and other devices to consumers across the globe. Microsoft, ranked second, is an enterprise sales giant, but is ubiquitously known for its Windows and Office software. Third-ranked Amazon strives to be consumers’ everything store, and No. 4 Google is, for many people, the front door to the internet.

Rounding out Interbrand’s top 10 are South Korean electronics giant Samsung, along with three car companies (Toyota, Mercedes-Benz and BMW), Coca-Cola and Nike.

Further down the list, at No. 24, is Nvidia rival Intel, which is best known for making the processor at the heart of laptops and PCs and for its long-running “Intel Inside” advertising campaign. Even Hewlett Packard Enterprise, a company that builds servers, made the list at No. 91.

However, a competing survey shows that Nvidia’s brand value is catching up to that of its peers.

In a ranking of the 100 most valuable global brands published this month by Kantar BrandZ, Nvidia landed at No. 6, leaping 18 places from its prior survey. The brand’s overall valued jumped 178% in a year to an estimate of about $202 billion. Kantar surveys enterprise buyers to evaluate brands that primarily sell to other businesses to come up with a total estimate of brand value.

“Nvidia is pound for pound as relevant and meaningful to that B2B buyer that’s looking to make big, large purchases in-house for their company as Apple is to the consumer who’s buying an iPad or a Mac,” Marc Glovsky, senior brand strategist at Kantar, told CNBC.

And while Nvidia may not be a name known to your parents — or your kids — it does have resonance in a particular corner of the consumer world. Just ask your hard-core gaming buddy.

When Nvidia was founded in 1991, AI was a nascent field. The company’s primary focus was on designing chips that could draw digital triangles quickly, a basic capability that led to a huge expansion in 3D games.

For years, Nvidia, and its GeForce brand and green logo were well known to the type of people who tweaked their computers to run the most advanced games. Nvidia provides the chips for the Nintendo Switch console, which has shipped over 140 million units around the world.

Unlike Intel, Nvidia never put its name in front of consumers with flashy ad campaigns. And gaming is now just a nice side business for chipmaker. In the latest quarter, it accounted for $2.6 billion of revenue, or 10% of total sales, rising 18% year over year.

When it comes to Nvidia’s most important products, companies and institutions vying for its AI chips have to go through an extensive quoting and sales process, often through a computer-equipment company, like Dell or HPE. Those vendors sell complete systems, including memory, a 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.

Still, Nvidia’s name recognition is rapidly increasing. Among retail investors, Nvidia has emerged as 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 firm’s data shows its brand awareness quadrupled in the past 12 months, which will help when it’s time for the next ranking, Silverman said.

Maybe by then people will know how to say its name, a topic that’d been the source of debate on obscure gaming forums. The company pronounces it en-VID-ia.

WATCH: The ‘Magnificent Seven’ should have another good earnings season

Wayne, Michigan. – Jim Farley, CEO of Ford Motor Company, does not expect raw material costs for the company’s electric vehicles to decline in the near future, suggesting that automakers will continue to raise prices for their new electric vehicles.

“I don’t think there’s going to be much comfort around lithium, cobalt and nickel anytime soon,” Farley told reporters Wednesday during an event at a Michigan assembly plant.

Farley’s comments come a day after the Detroit automaker said it would raise starting prices for its F-150 electric truck due to “significant material cost increases.” The range increases from $6000 to $8,500, depending on the model. Ford isn’t alone: ​​Rival Tesla raised its prices in the US in June.

Prices for all lithium, cobalt and nickel have risen sharply over the past year as demand from battery manufacturers has outstripped miners’ efforts to increase supply.

Farley said the higher costs of the metals used in its current lithium-ion batteries are why Ford plans to offer low-cost lithium iron phosphate, or LFP, batteries in vehicles like the F-150 Lightning and Mustang Mach-E crossover. .

“I don’t think we should be confident of any results other than an increase in prices,” he said. That’s why we think LFP technology is so critical… we want to make it affordable. “

Last month, Ford said it would start offering LFP batteries from Chinese battery giant CATL that don’t use nickel or cobalt as a low-cost option in the Mustang Mach-E next year. The company plans to expand the option to the F-150 Lightning in 2024.

Ford has also invested in Colorado-based battery-powered company Solid Power, one of several companies developing solid-state batteries for electric vehicles. Solid-state batteries have the potential to offer electric vehicle owners greater range, shorter recharge times, and a lower fire risk than today’s batteries.

Solid Power said Tuesday it is on track to deliver prototype batteries to Ford and BMW, which is also an investor, by the end of the year. But cars that use batteries are still at least a few years away.

Electric car battery maker Northvolt announced Tuesday a $1.1 billion funding increase, with a group of investors — including Volkswagen and Goldman Sachs Asset Management — participating in the capital raise.

Sweden-based Northvolt said in a statement that the $1.1 billion convertible bond will be used to fund “the company’s expansion of battery and cathode cell production in Europe to support rapidly growing demand for batteries.”

Other investors in the increase include Billy Gifford, Swedbank Robor, BCS Holdings and TM Capital.

Northvolt recently said its first gigfactory, Northvolt Ett, has begun commercial deliveries to European customers. The company says it has orders of up to $55 billion from companies such as Volvo Cars, BMW and Volkswagen.

Giga factories are facilities that produce batteries for electric vehicles on a large scale. Tesla CEO Elon Musk is widely credited as coining the term.

Northvolt’s latest funding announcement comes at a time when major European economies are making plans to move away from road-based vehicles that use diesel and petrol.

The UK, for example, wants to stop selling diesel and petrol cars and vans by 2030. From 2035 it will require all zero-emission cars and vans. European Union – which the United Kingdom left on 3 January. 31, 2020 – Seeking similar goals.

As the number of electric cars on our roads increases, so does competition to develop factories capable of making large-scale electric car batteries, as companies like Tesla and VW look to establish a foothold in the sector.

In a statement Tuesday, Northvolt CEO and co-founder, Peter Carlsson — who previously worked at Tesla — was optimistic about the future.

“The combination of political decision-making, a more assertive customer commitment to the transition to electric vehicles, and a very rapid rise in consumer demand for cleaner products, created a perfect storm for electricity,” he said.

According to the International Energy Agency, sales of electric vehicles reached 6.6 million in 2021. In the first quarter of 2022, sales of electric vehicles reached 2 million, a 75% increase compared to the first three months of 2021.

The electric vehicle space has seen a few impressive stock market debuts in recent years, but the QuantumScape battery rollout in its first few weeks of trading has been impressive even by EV stock standards.

QuantumScape, founded in 2010, went public through its merger with a Special Purpose Acquisition Corporation, or SPAC. Its stock jumped 49% on its first trading day in November 2020, and rose to a high of $131.67 by Dec. 22- More than 400% profit in less than a month.

That run gave QuantumScape a staggering $54 billion valuation, fueled by investor excitement about the company’s solid-state battery technology, so named because it gets rid of the flammable liquid or gel electrolyte found in today’s lithium-ion batteries. Moreover, it didn’t hurt that auto giant Volkswagen was a big investor, or that Bill Gates also took a stake.

But the hype that surrounded the company in late 2020 appears to have all but dried up, as once-hot stocks shed about 92% of their value from that record high.

QuantumScape stands by the lofty claims it made in 2020 and says its batteries are still on track to start production within a few years. But the company faces a long, cash-intensive road to testing ahead. Competition is intensifying, Wall Street is still waiting.

Investors may have moved on, but the auto industry is still watching: In addition to Volkswagen, QuantumScape said it now has three other automaker partners signed on to test the company’s batteries. So far, the names of these automakers have not been disclosed.

It’s not hard to see why automakers are interested in solid-state battery technology. Existing lithium-ion batteries are generally reliable, but their size, weight, and recharge times make them less than ideal for electric vehicles. And while electric vehicle fires are rare, they tend to be intense and difficult to put out, in part because lithium-ion batteries can burn for hours.

The batteries QuantumScape is developing are called “solid state” because they don’t need the liquid or gel electrolyte found inside existing batteries. A solid state battery pack can be smaller and lighter in weight than a lithium-ion battery pack of similar capacity, and the lack of liquid inside makes it less likely to catch fire.

In December 2020, QuantumScape CEO Jagdeep Singh promised a solid, reliable battery, at scale, by about the middle of the decade. Here are some of the allegations he made during Live view of early test results:

• QuantumScape batteries can be recharged from zero to 80% of their capacity in just 15 minutes, about half the time required by most lithium-ion EV batteries.
• An electric vehicle using the company’s batteries will have up to 80% greater range than those powered by existing lithium-ion batteries, of similar weight.
• The QuantumScape battery cells were “capable of running for hundreds of thousands of miles” in a wide range of temperatures, including temperatures as low as minus 22 degrees Fahrenheit.

“If QuantumScape can turn this technology into mass production, it has the potential to transform the industry,” said Stan Whittingham, co-inventor of the lithium-ion battery and 2019 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, in a QuantumScape press release.

It sounded too good to be true. Researchers have been fiddling with solid-state batteries for decades, to no avail.

Inventors faced a major challenge. These batteries were prone to failure due to dendrites — needle-like structures that form inside, often within weeks, which can short an electrical circuit and end their life.

QuantumScape’s main innovation is a spacer made of a flexible, proprietary ceramic material that resists bifurcation and cannot catch fire. If they work as intended, solid state batteries should be able to last as long as a typical lithium-ion battery while maintaining all the desired benefits.

QuantumScape is still at least a few years away from being able to mass produce its batteries. But in lab tests, its technology appears to be working.

In a 2020 live test that sent the company’s stock prices soaring, Quantumscape said a small prototype of its battery was kept for more than 800 cycles of charge and discharge — roughly the number an electric car battery will last for its life.

But that test battery was a scaled down version, and resizing it to a battery ready for use in electric cars was a slow process.

Quantumscape was able to repeat the 800-cycle test twice last year using slightly denser batteries. One larger one passed 500 courses in a test round earlier this year. But the company is still a few more development rounds away from achieving a full-size prototype.

The steps needed to get QuantumScape batteries ready for road use will take at least two years—and possibly more—to complete.

Once the current prototype meets the 800-cycle test threshold, the company will need to build and test a nearly full-size “sample” battery, but still not exactly what it plans to mass-produce in the end.

Singh told CNBC in an interview in April that The product model will be ready this year to be sent to Volkswagen and other car partners for testing.

Then comes the Sample B, similar to its predecessor but made on a typical assembly line, with tools similar to the machines QuantumScape plans to use in its eventual full-speed production line, but smaller and simpler.

“The purpose of Sample A is for the customer to be able to verify that the battery can actually work as it is supposed to,” Singh said. “The purpose of Sample B is to take that battery and use it to make test cars.”

The final step will be a final prototype, sample C, made for the complete assembly line. Singh said he currently expects QuantumScape to deliver C samples in 2024 or 2025.

But even those first test cars won’t be ready for the road, Singh said. Instead, it will be an important milestone for the company and its automakers partners. After that, the experimental cars that were built using sample C batteries will be ready for production.

These development, production, and testing rounds will require significant amounts of cash.

Singh said he’s confident Quantumscape has enough cash — about $1.3 billion as of the end of March — to be able to deliver those Model C batteries to its car partners for testing. But it will need to raise more money to build a plant large enough to supply automakers on a large scale.

By then, she might have a competition.

Toyota has said it is developing its own solid-state batteries in-house, and at least one other startup — Colorado-based Solid Power, backed by BMW and Ford Motor — is on track to start manufacturing its own solid-state versions around the same time.

Raising the amount of cash needed for a plant may be difficult in the current economic environment, but Singh believes raising that money will not be difficult once investors have the opportunity to drive QuantumScape battery-powered test cars.

“The good news about US capital markets is that if you can prove that you have something real and that the market opportunity is really big, there is a lot of capital available,” Singh said.

Renault has released details of a concept car with hybrid electricity and hydrogen, with the French carmaker describing hydrogen technology as “one of the options for more comfortable electric vehicles”.

Renault Scenic Vision’s design includes a hydrogen engine, an electric motor, a battery, a fuel cell and a hydrogen tank. The 2.5-kilogram tank is located in the front of the car and, according to Renault, will take about five minutes to fill up.

According to a document released on Thursday outlining the concept, the Scenic Vision’s 40-kilowatt-hour battery is recyclable and will be produced at a facility in France by 2024.

In a statement, Gilles Vidal, Renault’s director of design, said the concept “presupposes the exterior design of the new 100% electric Scénic model for 2024.” The company said the electric-hydrogen propulsion was “part of a longer-term vision after 2030”.

The general idea is for the Scenic Vision’s hydrogen fuel cell to help expand the car’s range during longer journeys. “In 2030 and beyond, once the network of hydrogen stations is large enough, you will be able to drive up to 800 km. [a little over 497 miles] … without stopping to charge the battery, “said Renault.

Described by the International Energy Agency as a “universal energy carrier”, hydrogen has a diverse range of applications and can be used in a wide range of industries.

It can be produced in several ways. One method involves the use of electrolysis with an electric current that separates water into oxygen and hydrogen.

If the electricity used in this process comes from a renewable source, such as wind or solar energy, then some call it green or renewable hydrogen.

Renault’s hybrid is expected to use green hydrogen, although most hydrogen production is currently based on fossil fuels.

Renault’s hydrogen-hydrogen concept illustrates how car companies are looking for ways to develop low- and zero-emission offerings that can compete with the range of petrol and diesel vehicles.

“Several systems in addition to electric motors are being studied today to meet the requirements of long-distance driving,” said Renault. “Hydrogen technology is one way to make electric vehicles more comfortable.”

In the field of hydrogen mobility, the Renault Group has already set up a joint venture with Plug Power called Hyvia. Among other things, it focuses on hydrogen fuel cells in light commercial vehicles and the implementation of hydrogen refueling facilities.

Renault’s idea to develop a passenger vehicle using hydrogen technology is not unique.

Toyota, for example, began working on fuel cell vehicles – where hydrogen from a tank mixes with oxygen to produce electricity – back in 1992. In 2014, the Japanese business launched the Mirai, a hydrogen fuel cell sedan.

Other large companies such as Hyundai and BMW are also considering hydrogen, as well as smaller companies such as the UK-based Riversimple.

While the above companies are looking at the potential of hydrogen, some high-ranking figures in the automotive sector are not so sure. In February 2021, Herbert Diss, CEO of the German Volkswagen Group, weighed in on the topic. “It’s time for politicians to embrace science,” he tweeted.

“Green hydrogen is necessary for steel, chemicals, aviation and should not be found in cars. Too expensive, inefficient, slow and difficult to deploy and transport. After all: no #hydrogen cars are visible. ”

Despite the unveiling of the Scenic Vision concept on Thursday, even Renault CEO Luca de Meo seems cautious when it comes to hydrogen prospects, according to comments released by Autocar.

Elsewhere, in February 2020, the Brussels-based Transport and Environment campaign group highlighted how much competition hydrogen will face in the transport sector.

T&E pointed out that green hydrogen will not only have to “compete with gray and blue hydrogen”, which are produced using fossil fuels. “It will compete with petrol, diesel, fuel oil, kerosene and, of course, electricity,” T&E said.

“Wherever batteries are a practical solution – cars; vans; urban, regional and perhaps long distance trucks; ferries – hydrogen will face a tough fight due to its lower efficiency and, as a result, much higher fuel costs.

Mercedes-Benz on Tuesday teased its new EQS SUV, the first all-electric SUV to be built locally for the US market.

The car is the sister to the EQS sedan, released last year, but with seating for up to seven people and a longer, more bubbly stance. It is expected to rival the Tesla Model X and BMW iX, according to Mercedes-Benz.

Like the sedan, the EQS SUV features a clever interior design that includes three screens that cover almost the entire dashboard. The 56-inch curved glass surface covers the screens, one of which is a passenger screen that is invisible to the driver.

“With the EQS luxury sedan and EQE executive sports sedan, Mercedes-Benz has entered a new era of all-electric vehicles in the upper market segments,” the company said in a statement.

The company said that the SUV is expected to go into production at the Mercedes-Benz plant in Tuscaloosa, Alabama in the coming months and will reach US showrooms in late 2022. The US production is part of the German carmaker’s plans to produce eight new electric cars Fully in seven locations on three continents.

Mercedes-Benz hasn’t released pricing for the EQS SUV, but it’s likely to exceed $100,000. EQS sedan models start at around $102,000 and $126,000.

Like the sedan, the EQS SUV will be offered in two initial models, including the “580 4MATIC” version that features two electric motors capable of 536 horsepower and 633 pound-feet of torque.

Mercedes-Benz has not released the EQS SUV’s expected electric range for the United States, but the sedan version can reach 350 miles on a single charge, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

The EQS SUV is equipped with many safety and convenience features, including the latest Mercedes-Benz driver assistance system that can control parts of the vehicle such as acceleration and braking when enabled.

Like the sedan, the EQS SUV has its own optional air freshener, called “No. 6 Mood Mimosa.” Mercedes-Benz says it’s an “earthy fragrance with a touch of gravity” that has been specifically designed for cars.

Honda plans to invest about 5 trillion yen ($39.9 billion) in electrification technologies and software over the next 10 years, as the Japanese auto giant aims to launch 30 electric vehicle models worldwide by 2030.

Nearly 3.5 trillion yen will go to research and development expenditures, with 1.5 trillion yen focused on investments, the company said in a statement on Tuesday.

Honda has said it will target electric vehicle production of more than 2 million units annually in 2030. It said its total budget for research and development expenditures in that time frame will come to nearly 8 trillion yen, or roughly $63.9 billion.

When it comes to production, Honda said it would look to set up what it called a “dedicated electric car factory” in the Chinese cities of Guangzhou and Wuhan. The company said it is also planning a production line for electric vehicles in North America.

On the battery front in North America, the company will “purchase Ultium batteries from GM. Separately, apart from GM, Honda is exploring the possibility of creating a joint battery production company.”

Just last week, Honda and General Motors announced that they would develop a series of affordable electric vehicles based on a new global platform.

With many major economies looking to reduce the number of diesel and petrol cars on their roads in the coming years, Honda and other automakers are trying to develop electrification strategies to enable them to keep up with new regulations and stay competitive.

Last month, for example, Ford outlined plans to roll out three new passenger electric vehicles and four new commercial electric vehicles in Europe by 2024, with the company saying it expects to sell more than 600,000 electric vehicles annually in the region by 2026.

In March 2021, Volvo Cars said it planned to become a “all-electric car company” by 2030.

Elsewhere, the BMW Group has said it wants fully electric cars to account for at least 50% of deliveries by 2030.

These goals will put these companies in competition with Elon Musk’s Tesla, which produced more than 305,000 vehicles in the first quarter of 2022.

Another car company with electrification plans is Mercedes-Benz, which previously said it would “be ready to go fully electrified at the end of the decade, market conditions permitting”.

On Monday, the company held an ESG Conference for Analysts and Investors. Among other things, it said it wants to cover more than 70% of its energy needs with renewables by 2030.

It said it would achieve this by “introducing solar and wind energy” on site as well as entering into further power purchase agreements.

In an interview with CNBC’s Annette Weisbach this week, Ola Kallenius, CEO of Mercedes-Benz Group, laid out some of the ideas behind his company’s strategy.

“The good thing about investing in renewables, especially renewables in high-yield areas, is that if you look at the cents per kilowatt-hour once it goes live, many of these options are actually less expensive than fossil-based,” he said.

Kallenius added that investing in renewables is a “good job”.

Ford has laid out plans to roll out three new electric passenger cars and four new commercial electric cars in Europe by 2024, with the company saying it expects to sell more than 600,000 electric vehicles annually in the region by 2026.

The auto giant also wants all car sales in Europe to be zero-emissions by 2035.

In a statement on Monday, Ford said the ramp-up will begin with production of a mid-size electric crossover in Cologne, Germany, in 2023.

After that, another electric car will begin to be manufactured in Cologne in 2024, while an electric version of the Ford Puma, produced in Romania, will be available in the same year.

Ford said planned electric vehicle production in Cologne is now set to reach 1.2 million vehicles over a six-year period. The investment in electric vehicles planned for Cologne will reach $2 billion.

On the commercial vehicle front, four new electric versions will also be produced in Ford’s Transit range, starting in 2023.

In remarks on Monday, Ford Europe President, Stuart Rowley, said electricity represented “the most transformative change in our industry in more than 100 years.”

Ford also said it has signed a non-binding Memorandum of Understanding with South Korea’s SK On. and the Turkish Koç Holding Company. The MoU relates to the establishment of a joint venture centered on the development of a commercial facility for electric vehicle batteries near the Turkish capital, Ankara.

If all goes as planned, it is hoped that production will start at the plant by the middle of this decade. Ford said the joint venture has the support of the Turkish government and will have a capacity of 30 to 45 gigawatt-hours per year.

All of the above comes at a time when the European Union is looking to reduce the environmental impact of transport.

The European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, aims to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 100% from cars and trucks by 2035. Turkey, where the battery facility will be set up, is not part of the European Union.

The UK, which left the European Union at the end of January 2020, wants to stop selling diesel and petrol cars and vans by 2030. From 2035 it will require all zero-emission cars and vans.

Monday’s announcement follows Ford’s announcement last week that it will separate its electric and internal combustion engine business into different units.

Ford is one of several major auto companies trying to expand their electric vehicle offerings and challenge Elon Musk’s Tesla.

In March 2021, Volvo Cars said it planned to become an “all-electric car company” by 2030. Elsewhere, the BMW Group said it wanted all-electric cars to account for at least 50% of deliveries by 2030.

in February. In 2022, Nissan’s chief operating officer, Ashwani Gupta, explained that his company had decided to move away from developing new internal combustion engines in Europe once a more stringent set of emissions standards, known as Euro 7, came into force.