# @benzinga on YouTube

- **Type:** Video
- **Original URL:** https://youtube.com/watch?v=CfsMb280ZxY
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/71296073-benzinga-youtube
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/postThumbnails/63dab545c4.jpg
- **Posted:** 2026-09-28T14:42:28.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** Benzinga | News That Moves (@benzinga) — https://gondola.cc/benzinga

## Caption

Is the AI boom just the dot-com bubble all over again? The numbers say the setup looks very different. In 1999, the seven largest companies in America traded at roughly 66 times earnings, a group led by Microsoft, Cisco, Oracle, Intel, Lucent, Dell and Sun Microsystems, based on Fidelity and FactSet data. Behind them, most of the hot internet names had little or no profit at all. About 78% of IPOs during the 1999 to 2000 bubble were unprofitable, according to University of Florida professor Jay Ritter's IPO data.
Today, the Magnificent Seven driving the AI trade, Nvidia, Microsoft, Apple, Alphabet, Amazon, Meta and Tesla, trade at around 23 to 27 times earnings depending on the measure. Goldman Sachs put the group at 26.8 times forward earnings versus 52 times for the tech leaders of 2000. And these companies generate real cash. Alphabet, Amazon, Meta and Microsoft alone produced about $200 billion in free cash flow in 2025, while Apple has topped $129 billion over the trailing 12 months.
Why it matters for investors: valuations are stretched but not at bubble-peak extremes, and the AI buildout is largely funded from cash flow rather than hype. The risk to watch is spending. Free cash flow across the group has been shrinking as AI capital expenditures surge, so the real test may be whether that investment turns into returns.
This clip is from our long-form breakdown of the AI bubble debate. Watch the full video on my channel.
Sources: Fidelity Investments, FactSet, Goldman Sachs, Jay Ritter IPO data (University of Florida), Roundhill Investments, CNBC.
#AIBubble #DotComBubble #StockMarket

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- **Comments:** 4

## Tags

dotcombubble, stockmarket, aibubble

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