In Bandwidth*, I tallied the fiber companies by what they were worth at the top and what was left at the bottom. This is the same roll-call for the companies in this book. Every figure comes from the chapters, with the date it was reported. Where the record shows a rise from a low point rather than a fall from a high one, the row reads in that direction, and the note says so. Market Values for the AI-era companies move daily; these are the figures as of the first week of November 2026.*
The First Bust#
| Company | Peak value (date) | Trough or exit (date) | Chapter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Electronic Data Systems | About $1.65 billion at the open (April 22, 1970) | About $1.1 billion at the close the same day; sold to GM for about $2.55 billion (1984) | I |
| University Computing Company | Valued above Western Union at more than 100 times earnings (1968) | A $38.9 million loss in one quarter, on $26.4 million of revenue (1972) | I |
| GE's computer business | $411.6 million of revenue (1969) | Sold to Honeywell for about $237.5 million in notes and stock (1970) | I |
The Hosting Bust#
| Company | Peak value (date) | Trough or exit (date) | Chapter |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Nasdaq | 5048.62 (March 10, 2000) | 2117.63, down 58 percent (March 2001) | III, IV |
| The fiber leaders of Bandwidth | AT&T, Qwest and WorldCom each near $100 billion; Global Crossing and Level 3 each past $50 billion (the Boom) | About $15 billion combined (the Bust) | III |
| Exodus Communications | More than $20 billion (February 2000) | Twenty-eight data centers sold for $560 million (February 2002); 15 of them resold for $155 million (January 2004) | III, IV, V |
| Exodus shares | 52-week high of $69 (2000–2001) | $4.15 (June 2001); 65 cents (September 2001) | IV |
| GlobalCenter | Valued by Global Crossing at $8 billion (2000) | Global Crossing's 17 percent of Exodus worth $1.8 billion (January 2001), then basically worthless (end of 2001) | III, IV |
| Global Crossing | About $50 billion (the Boom) | About $600 million, as valued by ST Telemedia (after its January 2002 bankruptcy filing) | IV |
| Digex | $5.3 billion, with an Exodus bid the press valued at $8.5 billion (August 2000) | "Worth maybe $50 million," in John Sidgmore's estimate (June 2002) | III, IV |
| PSINet | Enterprise value of $10 billion (the Boom) | U.S. business sold to Cogent for about $10 million (February 2002) | III, IV |
| Genuity | IPO raised $1.91 billion (June 2000) | Sold to Level 3 for $60 million in cash plus $77 million of prepayments (June 2003) | III, IV |
| Metromedia Fiber Network | $10 billion (the Boom) | Estimated enterprise value of $230 million to $330 million on emerging as AboveNet (2003) | IV |
| Globix | Almost $1 billion (1999) | $5.87 million (January 2002) | III, IV |
| Data Return | Nearly $450 million at its IPO price (October 1999) | Sold to Divine for about $31 million (November 2001) | III, IV |
| Equinix shares | $12 at the IPO (August 2000) | 30 cents (October 2002) | III, V |
The Phoenix and the Cloud#
| Company | Low point (date) | Peak or exit (date) | Chapter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Equinix | 30 cents a share and a Singapore rescue (2002) | Market Value of about $100 billion (November 2026) | V, IX |
| Digital Realty | 25 unwanted buildings bought with $280 million of equity (2002–2004) | Market Value of about $6 billion (2009) | V |
| Switch | Former Enron building bought for $930,000 (2002) | Sold to DigitalBridge and IFM for about $11 billion including debt (2022) | V, VII |
| Savvis | Paid $155 million for the remains of Exodus (2004) | Sold to CenturyLink for about $2.5 billion of equity (2011) | V |
| Terremark | Stock at $4.69 after a failed sale (November 2008) | Sold to Verizon for about $1.4 billion of equity (2011) | V |
| DuPont Fabros | $1.93 a share, down from a $21 IPO (November 2008) | Merged into Digital Realty at about $7.6 billion including debt (2017) | V, VI, VII |
| zColo | Seeded by the $104.1 million purchase of FiberNet (2009) | U.S. and U.K. sites sold to DataBank for about $1.2 billion (2020) | VI |
The Reconsolidation#
| Company | IPO or low point (date) | Exit (date) | Chapter |
|---|---|---|---|
| CoreSite | $16 IPO (2010) | $170 a share, about $10.4 billion including debt (2021) | VI, VII |
| CyrusOne | $19 IPO (2013) | $90.50 a share, about $15 billion including debt (2021) | VI, VII |
| QTS | $21 IPO (2013) | $78 a share, about $10 billion including debt (2021) | VI, VII |
| Zayo Group | $39.35 peak (July 2018) and $20.46 low (before March 2019) | $35 a share, about $14.3 billion including debt (2019) | VII |
| Digital Bridge Holdings | Sold to Colony Capital for $325 million (2019) | Colony renamed DigitalBridge Group, with Ganzi as chief executive (2021) | VII |
The AI Gold Rush, So Far#
| Company | Peak value (date) | Latest figure (date) | Chapter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nvidia | First company to close above $5 trillion, at $5.03 trillion (October 29, 2025) | About $4.5 trillion, after losing about $374 billion in one session (November 6, 2026) | VIII |
| CoreWeave | $40 IPO (March 2025); record close of $183.58 (June 20, 2025) | Down 57.6 percent from May 8 to November 4, 2026; bonds yielding above 15 percent | VIII |
| Oracle | Stock up about 36 percent in a day on a $455 billion backlog (September 10, 2025) | Debt of $130.1 billion and credit-default-swap prices at their highest since 2009 (2026) | VIII |
| Anthropic | Valuation talk of up to $2 trillion (October 2026) | Talk of $1.2 trillion to $1.3 trillion (November 6, 2026) | VIII |
| The Nasdaq | Record high (October 6, 2026) | More than 10 percent below it after its worst day in 19 months (November 5, 2026) | VIII |
Not in the Roll-Call#
Several companies in this book appear without both ends of the pair in the sources. Akamai was worth more than $13 billion at the close of its first day of trading (October 29, 1999), but the chapters record no trough. Level 3 passed $50 billion, and Bandwidth tells the rest. The trough for University Computing's stock is also missing: the last quote in the sources is 24 3/8, on May 1, 1972.