Tessa Barton
Nvidia has moved markets and become the bedrock of the AI boom. Its brand power is now so strong that it's inspiring fashion, too.
In the process of turning Nvidia into a multi-trillion dollar company, CEO Jensen Huang and the company have gained star-like status and, with it, a cult following.
From stock traders to memelords, the chipmaker has attracted a tsunami of fans. Earlier this year thousands of people showed up for its GTC conference, dubbed the "Woodstock of AI", and Huang was even asked to sign a woman's chest in the summer.
But Nvidia has now transcended swag — the company was selling a Stanley Cup with its logo for $50 at its GTC conference in March — to couture fashion.
Tessa Barton, a research scientist at Databricks, started designing GPU purses last year. The 29-year-old has made 10 to date and gifted most to her friends and fellow researchers.
"I love Nvidia so much as a company, despite their software drivers sometimes being difficult to install," Barton told Business Insider.
She added, "I think about Nvidia all the time; I go to GTC every year and I'm obsessed with their aesthetic and innovation. My dream date would be in an Nvidia Datacenter seeing all the GPUs in their natural environment."
Tessa Barton
Barton was inspired to create her own purses after seeing a hot dog
encased in epoxy, a type of adhesive glue, on Reddit. She sells them for $1,024 on Shopify, the price of which honors her favorite GPU model dimension.
"The first time I saw a circuit board, I thought it was shockingly beautiful," she said. "I don't get why devices like TVs and phones have cases. The GPU purse is an excuse to look and appreciate how pretty logic elements are."
A photo of one of the purses Barton made went viral on X earlier this month and garnered more than 14,000 likes. She said she's since had interest from high-profile celebrities, which can come with "a lot of pressure" to make something people will wear.
Tessa Barton
"The virality forced me to stop procrastinating and make a website to sell. I have a bunch of orders," Barton said. "I have totally sold out of the limited quantity I was making. I haven't sold out of the H100 version, which was only designed with a single specific celebrity buyer in mind."
Barton said she uses a diamond blade cutter and expensive laser to get the "perfect" adhesive to create the purses, which in the current design takes about 2 hours to make and 36 hours to dry.
She said: "I view it as an art piece commemorating a specific moment in time. Realistically, it cannot be an "it" bag because of the margins on the business and the making process — it's not like leather or fabric that you just have an infinite supply of. GPUs are super expensive and getting it cheap enough is a limiting factor."
Barton now plans on improving the purse as she thinks it is lacking some features she wants for herself.
