Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins speaks to Bloomberg at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on January 17, 2024.
Stefan Vermes | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Few companies were this hot in the early 2000s. Cisconetwork equipment served as the backbone of the Internet boom.
On Wednesday, Cisco stock exceeded the dot-com market high for the first time. The stock rose nearly 1% to $80.25, surpassing its previous split-adjusted all-time high of $80.06 on March 27, 2000. That’s the same day the Cisco stock transfer took place. microsoft To become the world’s most valuable listed company.
At the time, companies looking to go online relied on hardware manufacturers’ switches and routers, and investors saw Cisco as a bet on the growth of the Web. But after a five-year boom, the dot-com bubble burst shortly after Cisco reached its peak, and by October 2002 more than three-quarters of the Nasdaq’s value had been wiped out.
While the market weeded out many Internet high flyers, Cisco survived the upheaval. Eventually, the company began to grow and expand, diversifying through a series of acquisitions such as set-top box maker Scientific-Atlanta in 2006, followed by software companies such as Webex, AppDynamics, Duo, and Splunk.
Wednesday’s gains gave Cisco a market capitalization of $317 billion, making it the 13th most valuable U.S. tech company. In recent years, the stock has been largely outpaced by the megacaps of tech companies at the center of a new boom in artificial intelligence.
The AI market has reached a level of euphoria that many analysts compare to the dot-com era. Who wins modern infrastructure instead of Cisco? NvidiaThe company’s AI chips are central to model development and are relied on by other major technology companies building AI-focused data centers. Nvidia’s market capitalization is $4.5 trillion, about 14 times Cisco’s current value.
But Cisco is looking to benefit from the AI boom, with CEO Chuck Robbins touting $1.3 billion in quarterly AI infrastructure orders from major web companies in November. Total revenue approached $15 billion, an increase of 7.5% year over year, compared to 66% growth in 2000.
Cisco stock is up about 36% so far in 2025, outpacing the Nasdaq, which is up about 22% over the same period.
WATCH: Cisco CEO on latest quarter: AI demand from hyperscalers accelerates
