Cisco at the dot-com peak (March 2000)
Cisco Systems briefly became the most valuable company in the world at $555 billion market cap. It supplied the routers and switches building out the commercial internet. Within two years its stock fell roughly 86% as telecom and dot-com customers cut capex.
Carriers and startups stopped ordering. Cisco took its first major inventory writedown and laid off thousands.
Cisco survived and remained profitable, but never regained its 2000 valuation in real terms. The infrastructure cycle ended faster than supplier guidance suggested.
Cisco's customers were funding a real, lasting build-out — the internet — but pulled spending forward and overshot demand. Nvidia investors watch this parallel because the buyer concentration and capex acceleration look similar.