The dot-com bubble peaked in 2000 before the NASDAQ crash began.
The technology-heavy NASDAQ Composite reached its intraday high of 5,132.52 on 10 March 2000. Many internet companies had attracted enormous valuations despite limited revenue, continuing losses, or untested business models. The peak marked the end of an extraordinary rise in technology shares during the late 1990s.
After March 2000, investors became more skeptical about internet-company earnings and business prospects. The NASDAQ then fell sharply, losing roughly 78% of its value from its peak to its October 2002 low. Numerous startups failed, while some surviving firms eventually became major businesses.
The dot-com crash is sometimes confused with the broader technology sector’s later growth. The crash did not show that the internet lacked economic value; it showed that market prices had raced far ahead of many companies’ fundamentals. The NASDAQ’s 2000 peak was not surpassed until 2015.