Fundamentals differ dramatically:Dot-com era: Many companies (e.g., https://t.co/lpaJrR2cYX) had little to no revenue, profits, or sustainable models. Cisco (a common Nvidia parallel) traded at extreme multiples (~200x P/E at peak) with hype around the internet that was real but over-extrapolated.
Today (2026): Leaders like Nvidia have massive real revenues/profits from actual AI demand. Hyperscalers (Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Meta, etc.) are spending hundreds of billions on data centers/capex. Earnings growth has been strong, driving the broader market (S&P 500 up ~7-11% YTD as of mid-June 2026, with records). Valuations are elevated (Nvidia forward P/E in the 30-60x range in recent comparisons, far below Cisco's peak).
Economic and tech context:Dot-com crash hit amid broader excesses + rate hikes. AI today is backed by tangible infrastructure demand, productivity potential, and corporate spending (not just retail speculation). Semiconductor growth forecasts remain robust (20%+ in recent years).
The market isn't purely "AI semis"—breadth has varied, and the overall economy has shown resilience.
🚨 SOUTH KOREA JUST PROPOSED TAXING UNREALIZED GAINS.
And this is one of the major reasons behind today's massive selloff in the Korean market, now being called BLACK TUESDAY in Korea.
At a forum hosted by South Korea's ruling Democratic Party, lawmakers called for comprehensive taxation that would treat unrealized gains on stocks and real estate as taxable income, even before the asset is ever sold.
The ruling party has pushed escalating wealth tax measures throughout 2026, including a February forum proposing to lower the real estate capital gains exemption threshold from 1.2 billion won to 800 million won, and an April push to abolish the long term holding tax deduction entirely.
Today is the first time this campaign has explicitly extended to taxing unrealized stock gains.
Under current law, investors are taxed only when they sell a stock and realize a profit.
Under this proposal, investors could owe tax on paper gains they have not sold or collected, simply for holding a stock that went up in value.
The Netherlands tried almost this exact policy four months ago.
On February 12, 2026, Dutch lawmakers passed a law taxing unrealized gains on stocks, bonds, and crypto at a flat 36% every year, whether or not anything was sold.
The backlash was immediate. A petition against it gathered more than 61,000 signatures, and Shopify CEO Tobi Lutke called it "the dumbest thing any government on planet earth is pursuing right now."
Just 13 days after the bill passed, the Dutch finance minister announced the government would scrap the unrealized gains portion entirely, admitting the law "cannot pass as is."
This lands directly on a South Korean market that just ran up nearly 95% over the past year, built largely on heavy retail buying with borrowed money.
A tax on gains that exist only on paper is a direct threat to the exact rally that created that exposure in the first place.
Elon just created 4,400 millionaires in a single day.
400 of them are now worth over $100 million.
These aren't VCs. They're SpaceX employees, and the list includes welders, technicians, and cafeteria staff, because for two decades the company paid every level of the workforce in stock instead of higher salaries.
Juan Hernandez immigrated from Mexico and took a $28 an hour contractor welding job in 2015. He says he didn't even know what SpaceX was. The company gave him a $10,000 equity grant and let him buy more shares through payroll deductions. That stake is now worth $880,000.
Trevor Hise's parents wanted him to take a stable job at General Electric. He picked SpaceX instead, stayed 12 years, and accumulated over 100,000 shares. At the $135 listing price that's $13.5 million. He's 37 and semiretired. His words: "The magnitude of this has been ridiculous."
The most telling detail came before the listing. Over 100 employees quietly banded together and negotiated a group wealth management deal covering up to $5 billion, because none of them had ever needed a wealth manager before.
Software IPOs have minted millionaires for 30 years. This is the first one where the money went to the factory floor.