The result is a measurement “of the reputations of companies most on the minds of Americans,” Axios wrote on Wednesday. Market research firm Harris has used this methodology since 1999, the report added.
Here are the top 10 companies on the list:
- Nvidia
- 3M
- Fidelity Investments
- Sony
- Adidas
- USAA
- Honda Motor Company
- Patagonia
- Apple
- Samsung
Nvidia’s No. 1 ranking shows how quickly it has jumped into the public consciousness: The tech giant, which currently boasts a market capitalization above $2.5 trillion, didn’t even make last year’s list of 100 most-visible U.S. companies.
The company was founded at a Denny’s breakfast booth in 1993, and has been led ever since by co-founder and CEO Jensen Huang. Amazon, Google, Meta and Tesla all use Nvidia’s computer chips, which include chip models built specifically for AI development.
Nvidia’s success has turned Huang into one of the 20 richest people in the world. His estimated net worth is just above $90 billion, according to Forbes.
Both Nvidia and second-place 3M — a multi-industry conglomerate based in Maplewood, Minnesota — were the only two companies on the list to score an “excellent” reputation. 3M sells a wide variety of consumer products, from Command strips and Scotch tape to hard hats and face masks, and currently has a market value north of $55 billion.
The ranking marks somewhat of a changing of the guard: Patagonia, last year’s top company, is now eighth. Other consumer brands from last year’s top five — Costco, Trader Joe’s and Chick-fil-A — rank 11th, 13th and 21st, respectively. They all have “very good” reputations now, down from “excellent.”
John Deere, No. 3 on last year’s list, didn’t qualify as one of the country’s most-visible companies this year.
The low end of the ranking shows more consistency: This year’s bottom five, which have the worst reputations among American companies, all ranked similarly poorly last year. The Trump Organization finished last for the fourth year in a row, followed by social media platform X, Spirit Airlines, Meta and Fox Corporation.
Notably, X, Spirit Airlines and Meta’s reputations were all downgraded from “poor” to “very poor” this year, according to the ranking.
Multiple tech companies on the list had middling-to-poor scores in one specific metric: “citizenship.”
The metric refers to how consumers perceive a brand’s social, economic and environmental responsibilities. Even Apple, which generally has a stronger reputation on issues like data privacy than many of its rivals, scored 56th on citizenship.
The trend could be a sign of consumer pressure on companies to use their money more intentionally on social issues, from workplace inclusion to ecological sustainability. Climate change, for example, is Gen Z’s top personal concern, ahead of topics like unemployment and health care, according to a 2021 Deloitte survey.
A growing number of workers are even quitting their jobs if their employers’ environmental values don’t align with theirs, CNBC Make It reported last year.
“Employees are asking themselves ‘Do I want to work for an organization that is not responsible, that doesn’t have a purpose or meaning?'” Tom Lakin, global practice director at recruitment company Robert Walters Group and an expert on the future of work, told Make It.
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