In 1999 Google was dismissed as 'selling air' — a timely reminder for the AI boom
MParakhin · x · 2026-09-15
Former Microsoft advertising chief Mikhail Parakhin quotes Michael Lewis's 1999 account of the dot-com bubble: "With companies called Google going for $75 million… everyone else was already selling air."
His point: what was dismissed as "selling air" then became the biggest winner of the era — a cautionary framing to keep in mind amid today's AI valuation debates. Predictions are hard.
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