🕰 Cisco in 2000:
Fueled by the internet gold rush.
Every business was getting online; Cisco sold the critical hardware.
Its market cap peaked near $555B in March 2000.
Valuation metrics (like P/E ratio) became stretched.
After the dot-com crash, revenue slowed and the stock collapsed ~80%.
Cisco remained a strong company but stopped being seen as "transformational."
Nvidia in 2025:Central to the AI gold rush, especially with LLMs (ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini).
Nvidia chips power everything from cloud AI to robotics to autonomous vehicles.
The company has built a full stack: hardware (GPUs), networking (Mellanox), and software (CUDA, Nvidia AI Enterprise).
Valuation is high (~$3 trillion+), but backed by huge revenue and profit growth.
Risks: over-reliance on hyperscalers, rising competition, AI capex normalization, geopolitical supply chain issues.
ConclusionNvidia in 2025 resembles Cisco in 2000 in that:
Both were/are seen as essential tech enablers of their era.
Each rode a massive macro tech trend (Internet for Cisco, AI for Nvidia).
Each hit massive valuations as a result.
But Nvidia may be more defensible due to:
Stronger margins (software leverage).
Greater vertical integration (hardware + software).
More diverse use cases (beyond just cloud).
