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What speculative sectors of today will lead to the next generation of bagholders/community members?
The current AI bull run is the most hated one of all time, with mainstream financial analysts and non-market participants joining permabears in calling for a bubble. And while certainly there are pockets of euphoria and questions remain to be answered about the durability of the capex cycle, it remains the case that the most profitable AI companies generate billions of dollars of net income per day.
However, what other segments of the current economy remind you of the 2021 bubble? As a reminder, this era defined by pandemic revenge spending, easy-money, and sketchy SPAC mergers saw unprofitable companies which included:
- EV companies which remain unprofitable to this day.
- Rivian (RIVN) at its peak was worth $153 billion, more than all the legacy auto makers besides Toyota. It's fallen more than 95% since it's all time high shortly after IPO.
- Lucid (LCID) at its peak was worth $90 billion, more than Ford. It's also fallen more than $90 billion.
- Nikola (NKLA) was a scam from the get go and was delisted in 2022 after drawing down by >99%. However, owner and founder Trevor Milton, who was pardoned earlier in 2025, has plans for future ventures.
- Pandemic stay-at-home darlings:
- Peloton (PTON) shot up about 500% in a year, but has since given all that back plus more. It's now down >98% from its all-time highs. Overexcited investors extrapolated years of hypergrowth from two quarters of profitability in 2021, but instead, it turned in disastrous years of losses and hasn't bene profitable since.
- Teladoc Health (TDOC) shot up about 400% in a year as well, but has also surrendered everything, down nearly 98%. Unlike PTON, TDOC was never profitable and TTM net income losses peaked at nearly $14 billion in 2023.
- Roku (ROKU) investors saw about a 500% return in a year, as it turned some highly profitable quarters in early 2021 with impressive growth, but investors got ahead of themselves and assigned it a PE ratio of 370, assuming this would go on forever. They've given back all these returns as ROKU is only starting to recover from a nearly 92% drawdown.
- Speculative tech and science:
- Gingko Bioworks (DNA) had a relatively modest 40% post-SPAC merger bump, but remains in a >99% drawdown relying on reverse splits to avoid delisting.
- Plug Power (PLUG) saw a nearly 450% spike after its IPO, although is currently the subject of multiple class-action lawsuits for securities fraud. It remains unprofitable and is in a >96% drawdown.
- Virgin Galactic (SPCE) successfully grew revenue when they were able to complete a series of seven space flights between June 2023 to June 2024 after nearly two decades of delays. However, they were never profitable, and they have not flown any commercial flights since. SPCE is currently in a a ~95% drawdown.
Currently hot sectors include space (with some of the unprofitable publicly traded companies trading at ~1000 price to **sales**), nuclear, quantum, and cr-pto. Some of these may pay off, but it's difficult to separate the crap from the real companies.