March 28, 2025· 28 min

The Last Time Investors Really Got Excited For Tech Infrastructure

Orality
Model
69%
Oral-dominant (speeches, podcasts, storytelling)

Speaker Breakdown

HostJoe Weisenthal(663 words)
M:29%
HostTracy Alloway(999 words)
M:28%
GuestBlair Levin(2,626 words)
M:28%

Oral Indicators

Agonistic28%
literally, completely, absolutely
Engagement62%
you, our, your
Memory Aids100%
listen, now, like
Repetition100%
about (40x), like (36x), what (35x)
Parallelism76%
But recently, underneath the f..., But innovation comes at a pric..., But how do you find out who th...
Sound Patterns68%
37 question(s), alliteration: "markets move", alliteration: "barclays brief"
Formulaic Phrases4%
i mean

Literate Indicators

Hedging10%
may, could, probably
Passive Voice8%
is when, was involved, was then
Abstract Nouns18%
investment, recommendation, community
Subordination9%
because, until, while
Sentence Length31%
Avg: 12.9 words/sentence
Word Complexity48%
investment, analyze, anticipate
Academic Markers0%
Impersonal Style38%
334 personal pronouns found
Descriptive Style90%
literally, completely, apply

Description

One of the biggest questions hanging over the market right now is whether or not the seemingly unlimited appetite for more AI data center spending is slowing down or not. This type of tech infrastructure has been a massive sectoral winner over the last few years. But of course, this isn't the first time investors have gotten excited about this type of trade. The late 1990s and early 2000s are often remembered as being the time of a "tech bubble" or "dot-com bubble," but one specific aspect was the buildout in broadband infrastructure, or what became known as the telecom bubble. So what was that all about? Why were investors so optimistic? And how did it end? At our recent live episode in Washington DC, we spoke with Blair Levin, policy adviser to New Street Research. He was the chief of staff at the FCC during the telecom deregulation of the 1990s, and in the early 2000s went to work on Wall Street. He tells us about differences and similarities between then and now, plus the signs of when the ride is coming to an end. Read More: What It Felt Like When Everyone Was Hopeful, Happy, and Rich Only Bloomberg.com subscribers can get the Odd Lots newsletter in their inbox — now delivered every weekday — plus unlimited access to the site and app. Subscribe at bloomberg.com/subscriptions/oddlots See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.