Cisco’s stock closes at record for first time since dot-com peak 2000
Cisco’s CEO Chuck Robbins participates in a Bloomberg interview at the World Economic Forum on January 17, 2024 in Davos, Switzerland.
Stefan Wermuth | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Few companies were this hot in the early 2000s CiscoNetworking hardware formed the backbone of the internet boom.
On Wednesday, Cisco’s shares broke through the dot-com peak for the first time. Shares rose nearly 1% to $80.25, topping the previous split correction record ($80.06 reached on March 27, 2000). same day passed by Cisco Microsoft To become the world’s most valuable publicly traded company.
At the time, investors saw Cisco as a way to bet on the growth of the web, as companies looking to get online relied on the hardware maker’s switches and routers. But after a half-decade of ascent, the dot-com bubble burst just after Cisco reached its peak; this crash destroyed more than three-quarters of the Nasdaq’s value as of October 2002.
While the market swooned, eliminating the number of internet high flyers, Cisco survived the turmoil. It eventually began to grow and expand, diversifying through a series of acquisitions such as a set-top box manufacturer. Scientific-Atlanta Software companies such as Webex, AppDynamics, Duo and Splunk followed in 2006.
With its gains on Wednesday, Cisco’s market value rose to $317 billion, making it the 13th most valuable technology company in the United States. In recent years, the stock has tracked poorly the tech megacaps that are at the center of the new boom surrounding artificial intelligence.
The AI market has reached a level of enthusiasm that many analysts compare to the dot-com era. The winner of modern infrastructure is not Cisco NvidiaAI chips are at the heart of model development and are relied upon by other major tech companies building AI-focused data centers. Nvidia’s market cap is $4.5 trillion, nearly 14 times Cisco’s current value.
But Cisco is trying to capitalize on the AI craze, with CEO Chuck Robbins announcing in November that it would order $1.3 billion in quarterly AI infrastructure from major web companies. Total revenue approached $15 billion, up 7.5% from the previous year. 66% growth In 2000.
Cisco’s shares are up about 36% so far in 2025, outperforming the Nasdaq, which has gained about 22% in the same period.
WRISTWATCH: Cisco CEO in the latest quarter: AI demand from hyperscalers is accelerating
