Gee, You Think?

Why yes, the headline, "Nvidia’s Ascent to Most Valuable Company Has Echoes of Dot-Com Boom," does reflect the feels.

They include comments from the former head of Cisco Systems, John Chambers, whose company briefly had the greatest market capitalization in the world in early 2000.

He says, "It's different this time," which are the 4 most alarming words in human history:

………

Nvidia’s chips have been the workhorses of the AI boom, essential tools in the creation of sophisticated AI systems that have captured the public’s imagination with their ability to produce cogent text, images and audio with minimal prompting.

The last time a big provider of computing infrastructure was the most valuable U.S. company was in March 2000, when networking-equipment company Cisco took that spot at the height of the dot-com boom.

Cisco was riding the wave of a different revolution—the internet—where its products powered that budding industry. Like Nvidia, Cisco also surpassed Microsoft to become the most valuable company.

John Chambers, who was chief executive of Cisco during the dot-com boom, said there are some parallels, but the dynamics of the AI revolution are different from previous ones such as the internet and cloud computing. Chambers, now a venture investor, has made big bets on AI in cybersecurity and other arenas.

“The implications in terms of the size of the market opportunity is that of the internet and cloud computing combined,” he said. “The speed of change is different, the size of the market is different, the stage when the most valuable company was reached is different.”

So let me get this straight, the former president of the formerly most overvalued company in the world, one who is now investing in the current most overvalued company in the world, is saying, "It's different this time."

Well, knock me over with a Cybertruck on autopilot, that's a surprise.  (Not)