What Is the NVIDIA Logo?
The NVIDIA logo is a spiral swirl inside a green square, known as the NVIDIA eye, set above the NVIDIA name. NVIDIA calls the symbol the eyemark and the name the wordmark, and this logo has been in use since 2006. It belongs to NVIDIA Corporation, the graphics chip and AI computing company.
Jensen Huang, Chris Malachowsky and Curtis Priem founded the company in Sunnyvale, California, on 5 April 1993. NVIDIA lays the logo out in two ways.
- A vertical version, with the eye above the name.
- A horizontal one, with the eye beside it.
The vertical version is available as the NVIDIA logo SVG.
NVIDIA Logo Facts
| Introduced | In use since 2006 |
| Symbol | A spiral swirl, known as the eye or eyemark, inside a square |
| Logo type | Combination mark: eyemark and wordmark |
| Owner | NVIDIA Corporation |
What the NVIDIA Logo Means
The eye ties back to the company name. When the three founders could not agree on what to call the business, they labelled their files "NV", for "next version". They then looked for words containing those letters and settled on invidia, the Latin word for envy.
Priem and Huang have both claimed credit for the name. Priem's working title was GXNV, which Huang shortened by telling him to drop the GX.
Envy is traditionally green, and NVIDIA has played on that, using the line "green with envy" for some of its graphics products. In the full two-colour logo the eye sits on a green field.
Press coverage of the logo links the eye to vision. Huang returned to that theme in talks about how NVIDIA saw the potential of consumer graphics chips early. The company has not given a formal explanation of the swirl, though.
The mark also has a personal side. Huang has the eye tattooed on his arm, as Fortune reported in 2017.
NVIDIA Logo History
This version of the logo, with the eyemark and the NVIDIA wordmark, dates from 2006. NVIDIA started in 1993 with the aim of bringing 3D graphics to gaming and multimedia. In 1999 it introduced what it calls the first GPU, the graphics processing unit.
In 2006, the year of the logo, the company also unveiled CUDA, the architecture that opened its GPUs to science and research. NVIDIA's brand guidelines treat the eyemark and wordmark as a single unit.
- It is set either stacked or side by side.
- A two-colour version is the first choice.
- A one-colour version goes on what NVIDIA calls its green background.
For more brands like NVIDIA, browse our tech logos.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does the name NVIDIA mean?
It comes from invidia, the Latin word for envy, chosen because it contained the letters NV the founders had used to label their files.
Why is the NVIDIA logo green?
Green is the colour of envy, which links the logo to the company name. NVIDIA has used the line "green with envy" for some products.
What is the NVIDIA eye called?
NVIDIA's brand guidelines call the symbol the eyemark and the name beside it the wordmark.
Does Jensen Huang have the NVIDIA logo as a tattoo?
Yes. Fortune reported in 2017 that the NVIDIA co-founder and chief executive has the eye tattooed on his arm.