Are AI Companies Entering the Fashion Business? They Have Already Started Selling Clothes

[Financial News] NVIDIA, OpenAI and Anthropic, along with other companies leading the global AI and advanced technology markets, are drawing attention by selling products such as their own branded apparel.
On the 17th (local time), the BBC reported that a woman in New York was wearing a $178 (approximately 240,000 won) sweater featuring a character depicting NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang. The report noted that IT companies are pursuing fashion-marketing strategies centered on scarcity. The woman, who is not an NVIDIA employee but is a fan of the company, said, "It's the same feeling as wearing a jersey for and cheering on your favorite sports team," adding that she wears the sweater with pride.
NVIDIA sells limited quantities through pop-up stores at conferences and its own online store. OpenAI, the developer of ChatGPT, normally offers clothing only to employees but occasionally sells it to the public for just a few days. Anthropic, the developer of the AI chatbot Claude, also opened a pop-up store in New York for a week and handed out free hats bearing the word 'thinking.'
Hazel Clark, a professor at Parsons School of Design, said, "Big Tech companies are actively using the marketing strategies of traditional luxury brands, which increase products' value and consumers' desire to own them by limiting quantities and sales periods."
The revenue Big Tech companies generate from apparel sales is negligible compared with their overall sales. Experts view the initiative as a strategy for building brand fandom and enhancing corporate images rather than generating revenue.
Palantir Technologies, which has faced controversy over supplying software for military and police use, and defense-drone manufacturer Anduril Industries are also attempting to redefine themselves as 'lifestyle brands' through product sales.
An employee at a New Mexico law firm explained that they had bought Palantir Technologies and Anduril Industries apparel because, unlike large brands such as Nike, the companies are seen as developing technologies with tangible impacts, including defense, AI, infrastructure and decision-making systems.
Greg Epstein, author of *Tech Agnostic*, interpreted the trend by saying, "The tech industry is evolving into a kind of religion or fandom," and adding, "Wearing Big Tech merchandise is a cultural phenomenon in which people symbolically identify themselves as members of the mainstream or elite of technological innovation."
[email protected] Yoon Jae-jun Reporter