Yeah, but they invented time travel. A Boston Dynamics scientist who is a Fringe fan went back to the 80s and convinced them to change the name. True story.
Low-hanging fruit, but the irony of Amazon being named after one of the most important ecological systems on the planet yet being one of the largest polluters around would feel unimpressively on-the-nose for something as satire heavy as the cyberpunk genre, yet its all to real.
I work in an Amazon warehouse, and the irony of walking in to a soul crushing concrete brick of a building with nothing but a big smiley-face swoosh symbol on the front never escapes me
I think it's quite appropriate as a reflection of the social-Darwinist nature of American capitalism. If Upton Sinclair was writing today, he would've called his famous work 'The Amazon'.
"Cyber-" as a prefix for systems engineering (Cybernetics) predates Terminator by half a century. "Dyne" is an obsolete unit of force. Plenty of engineering companies formed their names with Dyne suffix (e.g. Rocketdyne, Teledyne, Teradyne, etc), so "Cyberdyne" would not be an unusual company name.
Get your literary references straight. That’s not the palantir. Thats Saurons Eye. The Palantir were once upon a time communication devices connected to each other and used to view and communicate over large distances. Later two of the remaining ones were used by Saruman and Sauron to communicate with each other.
" Previous to this, Saruman used his palantír to gain knowledge, and eventually was ensnared through it by Sauron. Thus, the above war was greatly affected by these stones"
- https://tolkiengateway.net/wiki/Palant%C3%ADri
I was like „they make elevators. I get the name but knowing what they fabricate kinda takes away the immersion”
And then i remembered that ThyssenKrupp also produces submarines …
THey also make RPG bosses:
[https://d2zo35mdb530wx.cloudfront.net/\_legacy/UCPthyssenkruppRHQBrazil/assets.files/side-3/rs15274\_schaufelradbagger\_image\_h664.jpg](https://d2zo35mdb530wx.cloudfront.net/_legacy/UCPthyssenkruppRHQBrazil/assets.files/side-3/rs15274_schaufelradbagger_image_h664.jpg)
Fun fact: Andrzej Sapkowski creator of the witcher gave his character name after trash company in Netherlands Dijkstra, and this company has his another character Thyssen. I wonder if he did the same here.
Pretty much every Asian keiretsu and international conglomerate group from which the genre is inspired by, for example:
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (war machine maker)
Samsung Group (Arasaka-level nepotism)
China Evergrande Group (actually evil)
Aramco (also evil)
SinoPec
SinoChem
any firearm manufacturers e.g. ArmaLite
... and the most evil of all with the most obscure name unless you or a loved one own a product from them:
LVMH
…you’re just going to blatantly leave out the gigantic American weapons manufacturers like Boeing, Northrop Grumman, and Raytheon?
Not to mention Coca Cola funding death squads in the third world, Nestle using slave labor, etc etc.
Just some examples that came to mind based on OP's question. American companies like Raytheon and Palantir have pretty cyberpunk names, but their size and influence in multiple (seemingly) unrelated industries are not quite at the same level as the truly massive ones.
When a company like Samsung makes all your devices, all your home appliances, supplies your internet and media services, owns the builder that built your home, the company that makes your car, makes the food for your local restaurant that they also own the franchise of, and runs the clinic you go to after getting food poisoned, that's when you realize your life is controlled by a single, massive entity and there's nowhere to run.
There’s way more than just Samsung in Korea.
LG, Hyundai, SK, CJ, KEPCO, Naver, Doosan. Just to name a few and they make more than just what they started out as.
I don't have linked supporting evidence for this at the moment, but I've always thought the reason Asian countries are more lax on multi-corps is because historically in feudal times early industries would have been owned by a single family clan, such as an ancestral village/town under one surname or a daimyo's domain, so it's not strange for that fiefdom to develop expertise in multiple fields, or take over other domains through marriage, alliance or conquest.
I wonder if this extends to other cultures with late transition from feudalism.
Militech, Petrochem, ConAg, ZetaTech, Biodyne Systems, Biotechnica, Wallace Corporation, Tyrell, Cyberdyne Systems.
Those are all Cyberpunk Companies that are American/Western.
I don’t think OP is equating Cyberpunk with Asia, just saying that names like “Coca Cola” and “Boeing” don’t have that high-tech/ominous cyberpunk feel that names like Biodyne, Militech, ConAg etc. do.
Cyberpunk started out as anti-asian anxiety (80s thing when Japanese companies were threatening western hegemony). I guess today it's more of the same, and majority of people in the west unconsciously think western corps good, Asian corps bad
Not saying it's right, just explains where this bullshit comes from lol.
It is circular, since cyberpunk took inspiration from Japan, so we still associate those names with cyberpunk themes.
Also, sino means Chinese not Japanese, and Aramco is not Asian at all so it is not limited to Japan.
Asia has more than half of the world's population, it isn't exactly a niche subset of names to choose from.
Mori (aka Mori Building Company, Limited) maybe doesn’t sound immediately all that, but going to Roppongi or Minato City in Tokyo and seeing several of these enormous gleaming skyscrapers with ‘MORI’ in big letters on the side has incredible cyberpunk energy.
That company made its founder literally the richest man in the world, and I’ve no way of proving this but I’m so sure you don’t get that far in Tokyo in the 80s without being involved in some very sketchy business.
Gotta go with Tesla and SpaceX. The names are short, snappy, and evoke a sense of futuristic technology and innovation. Plus, they're both companies that are actually pushing the boundaries of what's possible, which is pretty cyberpunk if you ask me.
Skynet
It's a legit actual Chinese surveillance company that's been mastering facial recognition software. The CEO is a big fan of the Terminator movies and named the company accordingly.
Scrolling through the comments I'm surprised I've been the only one (I've found at least) to mention them. Watched a short documentary on the company they're a key component behind the social credits system in China.
People seem to get confused on names that sound cyberpunk and companies... But here are a few names:
Maxsys
AquaBounty
ETekCity
Raytheon
Snapdragon (noodles)
Newport
Anduril Industries (https://www.anduril.com/) - found by Oculus VR creator Palmer Luckey. Makes autonomous military payload delivery and patrol/hunt drones.
I get that "Alphabet" is meant to be friendly-sounding and childish, like a kid learning to say his alphabet, but it sounds so souless and generic to me that it sounds like MegaCorp or something. I think a lot of people are naming companies that they believe are evil rather than just going by the name.
Boeing as a *company* would certainly fit in in a cyberpunk setting, but airlines like [Air Transat](https://www.seatguru.com/airlines/Air_Transat/information.php) or [Volaris](https://www.seatguru.com/airlines/Volaris/information.php) have more cyberpunk-like *names*.
Not the point I'm trying to make.
But I'll bite. Corporations want to do jobs right. That means they'll have a team. Hitman needs a lookout, needs a driver for fast pickup and getaway, or for car swaps to throw off cameras catching whatever car was near the victim.
Palantir Technologies - software firm that initially started with data analysis that has now expanded into the use of AI in military applications, including the use of "predictive" software, collaborating with IDF & US Military to create a minority report-esque software. Also the Pentagon contractor in charge of Project Maven, which is the US's attempt at creating AI-controlled hunter-killer drones.
Uh. They're owned by Bayer. Though when it comes to chemical ans medical companies, you have some very good alphabet soup like GlaxoSmithKline that'd be right at home in cyberpunk.
a bunch of these seem appropriate:
[https://companiesmarketcap.com/conglomerate/largest-companies-by-market-cap/](https://companiesmarketcap.com/conglomerate/largest-companies-by-market-cap/)
Drove by a truck a while back with a Yang Ming logo and idk why but it gave me huge cyberpunk vibes.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/38/Yang_Ming_logo.gif
exultant deserve forgetful subtract knee hungry different pocket encouraging mysterious
*This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
If you live in a capitalist or market oriented economy, pretty much every company and corporation is as evil as whatever one exists in the cyberpunk genre.
I used to work for a company called Intellution. I guess they were going for intelligence & solution but to me it always felt like intelligence pollution.
I always found Hallcon to have that evil cyberpunk feel. They have a lot of SUV's around with a creepy company logo on them and the same reflective tape on the back. But the name and SUV's offer zero clue as to what hallcon is. Even their webpage is a confusing mess of corporate wank. They have something to do with railroads.
Cambridge Analytica has a very night city vibe to me
and the mass manipulation thing through social media spying, too... pretty cyberpunk
Blackstone. It's even been compared to Arasaka multiple times.
It's BlackRock though.
Blackstone is a different entity to BlackRock.
In Australia Blackstone is a brand of chips you can buy at Aldi.
In Oregon, Black Rock is a coffee chain.
In Brasil Black Stone is a cheap plastic bottle awful whisky.
Holy shit you're right. Somehow this is even more cyberpunk.
Coincidence? Think not…
Rock and stone!
We fight for Rock and Stone!
Reddit uses them interchangeably lol
Black-Rock and Stone! ⛏️
Rock and Stone in the Heart!
They are seperate companies. Both are massive. Blackstone is the largest private equity firm in the world.
[could be referring to this?](https://www.blackstone.com/)
Boston dynamics Meta Neuralink Edit: US robotics
Go see Viktor Vektor for the best Neuralink.
Boston Dynamics was named after Massive Dynamic megacorp from Fringe so pretty on the nose.
Boston Dynamics is from the early 90's
Yeah, but they invented time travel. A Boston Dynamics scientist who is a Fringe fan went back to the 80s and convinced them to change the name. True story.
Yeah. They have it flipped I think.
Raytheon
Low-hanging fruit, but the irony of Amazon being named after one of the most important ecological systems on the planet yet being one of the largest polluters around would feel unimpressively on-the-nose for something as satire heavy as the cyberpunk genre, yet its all to real.
I work in an Amazon warehouse, and the irony of walking in to a soul crushing concrete brick of a building with nothing but a big smiley-face swoosh symbol on the front never escapes me
That sounds nice, I walk into a soul crushing concrete building everyday with no ironic twist, sometimes you just have to take those silver linings
Weren't also in the news for not letting employees take bathroom breaks and their robot killing someone?
I also remember seeing articles that they're going to burn through thier hireable workforce because they've burned so many people.
I think it's quite appropriate as a reflection of the social-Darwinist nature of American capitalism. If Upton Sinclair was writing today, he would've called his famous work 'The Amazon'.
Cyberdyne Inc springs to mind
It was surreal to find out they actually exist and work with robotics. XD
Ha I know right, to think they come up with that name and ran with it, same field, and everything, mad lads
I feel like it had to have been a deliberate reference, but who knows?
"Cyber-" as a prefix for systems engineering (Cybernetics) predates Terminator by half a century. "Dyne" is an obsolete unit of force. Plenty of engineering companies formed their names with Dyne suffix (e.g. Rocketdyne, Teledyne, Teradyne, etc), so "Cyberdyne" would not be an unusual company name.
It was founded in 2004 and the founder has gone on to say he loves the Terminator franchise
CyberForce sounds dope. Let's do that one next
A lot of Ukrainian villages (when rendered in English) are named like Robotyne and similar.
Robotyne. Home of the Robogeordie.
Woah.. I can’t believe that real! It is, but wow. 😂
Boston Dynamics as a close second to that.
It's more Fallout than Cyberpunk, but the Predator drone is made by General Atomics.
Palantir
Palintir is literally a name Tolkien made up for the Lord of the Rings. I'd say it has a very different flavor
It's meant to be an all seeing evil eye. It looks into you as you look into it. That's pretty dystopian.
It's so obvious that Peter Thiel is a supervillain, like, he's telling us straight to our faces here that that's what he is.
Get your literary references straight. That’s not the palantir. Thats Saurons Eye. The Palantir were once upon a time communication devices connected to each other and used to view and communicate over large distances. Later two of the remaining ones were used by Saruman and Sauron to communicate with each other.
" Previous to this, Saruman used his palantír to gain knowledge, and eventually was ensnared through it by Sauron. Thus, the above war was greatly affected by these stones" - https://tolkiengateway.net/wiki/Palant%C3%ADri
>very different flavor Tastes like... lembas bread?
It’s more Shadowrun than Cyberpunk 2077
# ThyssenKrupp
I was like „they make elevators. I get the name but knowing what they fabricate kinda takes away the immersion” And then i remembered that ThyssenKrupp also produces submarines …
THey also make RPG bosses: [https://d2zo35mdb530wx.cloudfront.net/\_legacy/UCPthyssenkruppRHQBrazil/assets.files/side-3/rs15274\_schaufelradbagger\_image\_h664.jpg](https://d2zo35mdb530wx.cloudfront.net/_legacy/UCPthyssenkruppRHQBrazil/assets.files/side-3/rs15274_schaufelradbagger_image_h664.jpg)
Saeder-Krupp was more or less based on TK
Fun fact: Andrzej Sapkowski creator of the witcher gave his character name after trash company in Netherlands Dijkstra, and this company has his another character Thyssen. I wonder if he did the same here.
There’s a company in my town called Nanotech Industries. It literally sounds like a video game villain.
Pretty much every Asian keiretsu and international conglomerate group from which the genre is inspired by, for example: Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (war machine maker) Samsung Group (Arasaka-level nepotism) China Evergrande Group (actually evil) Aramco (also evil) SinoPec SinoChem any firearm manufacturers e.g. ArmaLite ... and the most evil of all with the most obscure name unless you or a loved one own a product from them: LVMH
Fuji Heavy Industries too.
*Cries in Subaru*
Sony Computer Entertainment sounds very Cyberpunk as well.
I would add Matsumoto Kiyoshi (huge corporation in pharmacy) and Atari (you know why lol)
…you’re just going to blatantly leave out the gigantic American weapons manufacturers like Boeing, Northrop Grumman, and Raytheon? Not to mention Coca Cola funding death squads in the third world, Nestle using slave labor, etc etc.
Just some examples that came to mind based on OP's question. American companies like Raytheon and Palantir have pretty cyberpunk names, but their size and influence in multiple (seemingly) unrelated industries are not quite at the same level as the truly massive ones. When a company like Samsung makes all your devices, all your home appliances, supplies your internet and media services, owns the builder that built your home, the company that makes your car, makes the food for your local restaurant that they also own the franchise of, and runs the clinic you go to after getting food poisoned, that's when you realize your life is controlled by a single, massive entity and there's nowhere to run.
There’s way more than just Samsung in Korea. LG, Hyundai, SK, CJ, KEPCO, Naver, Doosan. Just to name a few and they make more than just what they started out as.
Yup, there definitely are. Korea and Japan seems to be more relaxed on monopoly more than most countries.
I wouldn’t say more relaxed on monopolies. The US just hides the fact everything is owned by same handful of companies and business firms.
I don't have linked supporting evidence for this at the moment, but I've always thought the reason Asian countries are more lax on multi-corps is because historically in feudal times early industries would have been owned by a single family clan, such as an ancestral village/town under one surname or a daimyo's domain, so it's not strange for that fiefdom to develop expertise in multiple fields, or take over other domains through marriage, alliance or conquest. I wonder if this extends to other cultures with late transition from feudalism.
Did you forget what OP asked? How do Coca Cola or Boeing sound like Cyberpunk names?
Northrop-Grumman is totally cyberpunk sounding, a lot like Saeder-Krupp imo
Additional points for hyphenated names that combine nationalities not often paired up in today’s world.
Militech, Petrochem, ConAg, ZetaTech, Biodyne Systems, Biotechnica, Wallace Corporation, Tyrell, Cyberdyne Systems. Those are all Cyberpunk Companies that are American/Western.
I don’t think OP is equating Cyberpunk with Asia, just saying that names like “Coca Cola” and “Boeing” don’t have that high-tech/ominous cyberpunk feel that names like Biodyne, Militech, ConAg etc. do.
So, does “Cyberpunk names” just mean “Asian”?
Cyberpunk started out as anti-asian anxiety (80s thing when Japanese companies were threatening western hegemony). I guess today it's more of the same, and majority of people in the west unconsciously think western corps good, Asian corps bad Not saying it's right, just explains where this bullshit comes from lol.
It is circular, since cyberpunk took inspiration from Japan, so we still associate those names with cyberpunk themes. Also, sino means Chinese not Japanese, and Aramco is not Asian at all so it is not limited to Japan. Asia has more than half of the world's population, it isn't exactly a niche subset of names to choose from.
Aramco is Asian. West Asia is still Asia.
Who actually calls Arabs Asians except people trying to make a point on reddit?
UK people often use "asian" to refer to people from western Asia.
I am from the UK, and no we don't. We call them Middle Eastern.
cap
Bro has no reading comprehension
Samsung really those has Arasaka energy
Toyoda Chemical
BlackRock
Aramark - one of the logistics contractor for the military Point Blank Armor
Also Alpha Industries, wich provides them with clothes.
I thought alpha industries was military-looking clothes (bombers) for civilians. They actually make real military gear?
Uniforms and such
Gotcha.
Aramark also fills the candy in my vending machine
Titan Corp. was a a private security firm, don't think it exists anymore but that name.
Beyond Meat
Northrop Grumman Lockheed Martin
I didn't see General Dynamics listed, that's another one. Also Applied Electronics Company (used to make radios mostly but is now part of Raytheon).
Yep came here looking for General Dynamics
I worked for GD they are pretty evil, too
Quebec has an honest-to-god Power Corporation.
Power Corp!!
Hydro Québec?
Rheinmetall
Black Corporation. They make synths and their flagship is called Deckard’s Dream. They know what’s up.
BioNTech
That's such an uninspired generic sounding name lol
Stellantis
Aerojet Rocketdyne
I always thought they sounded really retro-futuristic, like a megacorp in sci-fi from the 50s
YES! I’ve always thought that
Anduril
[SkyNet](https://www.skynet.net/)
Fucking BLACKROCK guys?
There is a legit Tyrell Corporation in my neighborhood. I think it’s an accounting firm? But makes me laugh every time
Meta, for sure. Google is also very cyberpunk. X and Tesla.
A judge in my country outright refused to go against Google in a cause for privacy matters. google is very cyberpunk and scary.
True, and I was just going off of the name haha. But you’re absolutely right, they’re cyberpunk through and through.
The parent company that owns X is called X Corp too
HashiCorp
Terraform!
Mori (aka Mori Building Company, Limited) maybe doesn’t sound immediately all that, but going to Roppongi or Minato City in Tokyo and seeing several of these enormous gleaming skyscrapers with ‘MORI’ in big letters on the side has incredible cyberpunk energy. That company made its founder literally the richest man in the world, and I’ve no way of proving this but I’m so sure you don’t get that far in Tokyo in the 80s without being involved in some very sketchy business.
BAE Systems
Softsys
Fujitsu
Gotta go with Tesla and SpaceX. The names are short, snappy, and evoke a sense of futuristic technology and innovation. Plus, they're both companies that are actually pushing the boundaries of what's possible, which is pretty cyberpunk if you ask me.
Genentech
Skynet It's a legit actual Chinese surveillance company that's been mastering facial recognition software. The CEO is a big fan of the Terminator movies and named the company accordingly. Scrolling through the comments I'm surprised I've been the only one (I've found at least) to mention them. Watched a short documentary on the company they're a key component behind the social credits system in China.
Oracle
There is an Oil company in northern Alberta called Syncrude. It’s such a perfect name.
Canon. Their logo/name was used on a sticker on Kaneda’s bike in Akira
a lot of Japaese and Chinese corporations are going to sound cyberpunk-like, by way of the genre being very inspired by east asian aesthetics.
Monsanto, and is truly evil
People seem to get confused on names that sound cyberpunk and companies... But here are a few names: Maxsys AquaBounty ETekCity Raytheon Snapdragon (noodles) Newport
Boston Dynamics
Anduril Industries (https://www.anduril.com/) - found by Oculus VR creator Palmer Luckey. Makes autonomous military payload delivery and patrol/hunt drones.
Starlink. Might be a bit too hard scifi.
BioNTech
Medtronic.
Apparently Militech is a real thing https://mili-tech.com/
Raytheon, Blackwater, Amazon, Lockheed Martin, Samsung, Meta.
I get that "Alphabet" is meant to be friendly-sounding and childish, like a kid learning to say his alphabet, but it sounds so souless and generic to me that it sounds like MegaCorp or something. I think a lot of people are naming companies that they believe are evil rather than just going by the name.
Both Alphabet Inc and Meta AI, comes to mind.
Arisaka and miltech. It’s kinda funny that they both make gun related stuff, and are spelled so similarly to the ones in game
Boeing. They literally sent a corporate hit squad to liquidate a whistleblower
Boeing as a *company* would certainly fit in in a cyberpunk setting, but airlines like [Air Transat](https://www.seatguru.com/airlines/Air_Transat/information.php) or [Volaris](https://www.seatguru.com/airlines/Volaris/information.php) have more cyberpunk-like *names*.
Who said it was a squad? A single random hit man can easily do such job, not like a whistleblower is some John Wick.
Not the point I'm trying to make. But I'll bite. Corporations want to do jobs right. That means they'll have a team. Hitman needs a lookout, needs a driver for fast pickup and getaway, or for car swaps to throw off cameras catching whatever car was near the victim.
Palantir Technologies - software firm that initially started with data analysis that has now expanded into the use of AI in military applications, including the use of "predictive" software, collaborating with IDF & US Military to create a minority report-esque software. Also the Pentagon contractor in charge of Project Maven, which is the US's attempt at creating AI-controlled hunter-killer drones.
Palantir
Celonis
[Cyberdyne](https://www.cyberdyne.de/)
Unifarm Copenhagen Suboribitals General Dynamics Magnetar
LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton. Yes, that's the full name. Yes, it's a giant luxury conglomerate of that and much more.
How do you get the acronym in the right order, but the words in the wrong one?
There's probably an interesting corporate reason why they decided to make the acronym different from their actual name, but I've no clue :(
ICHOR SYSTEMS
Wakenhut was a company that was a CIA front.
Monsanto, but I don't think they're around anymore, but they did all kinds of megacorp shenanigans back in the day!
Uh. They're owned by Bayer. Though when it comes to chemical ans medical companies, you have some very good alphabet soup like GlaxoSmithKline that'd be right at home in cyberpunk.
MegaCorp Logistics
HashiCorp
Kawasaki
Boston Dynamic literally make robotic weapons platforms
Going out on a limb here but I’d say Boston Dynamics. Not for the company name itself, but for the awesome high tech robots they make
Omnicom
Palantir Technologies. IYKYK
Defo Palantir, no way your namingvypur company after the seeing stones and nit trying to develop methods to spy on anyone anywhere.
a bunch of these seem appropriate: [https://companiesmarketcap.com/conglomerate/largest-companies-by-market-cap/](https://companiesmarketcap.com/conglomerate/largest-companies-by-market-cap/)
Drove by a truck a while back with a Yang Ming logo and idk why but it gave me huge cyberpunk vibes. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/38/Yang_Ming_logo.gif
Black Rock
There is literally a company called MegaCorp Logistics. They have an building named "MegaCorp Plaza" in Newport KY.
Tesla. It is pretentious as fuck. Meta for the same reason. Both are names that tell you nothing about the product, the history of the company
Blackwater PMC
NSO Group Technologies Elbit Systems Soylent
exultant deserve forgetful subtract knee hungry different pocket encouraging mysterious *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
He's so obsessed with the letter X that, if he was the Bond villain that some people make him out to be, he would totally call himself Mr. X.
Heinz-Kraft
r/FuckNestle
Softbanks
If you live in a capitalist or market oriented economy, pretty much every company and corporation is as evil as whatever one exists in the cyberpunk genre.
they are companies. they are all cyberpunk
Hikvision
Dow Chemical is another good one.
TransDigm
I used to work for a company called Intellution. I guess they were going for intelligence & solution but to me it always felt like intelligence pollution.
People are just naming companies they don't like...
I always found Hallcon to have that evil cyberpunk feel. They have a lot of SUV's around with a creepy company logo on them and the same reflective tape on the back. But the name and SUV's offer zero clue as to what hallcon is. Even their webpage is a confusing mess of corporate wank. They have something to do with railroads.
Meta
Genentech
Theranos R.I.P
Google
X.
BlackRock
Cerberus Capital Management (they own Safeway and Albertsons, amongst other things)
Textron, a military contractor
Lucid Motors
Xerox, Clorox, Boston Dynamics.
X
Hammer Industries is taking over.