We’ve already seen what happens to a Big Tech company when a hype cycle goes bust.

[atomicpoet@atomicpoet.org]

We’ve already seen what happens to a Big Tech company when a hype cycle goes bust.

The Metaverse was supposed to be the next big thing—a brave new world where we’d all be telecommuting through VR headsets. Instead, VR ended up mostly for gaming, and even that’s niche.

Meta went all in on the Metaverse. They even changed their name for it.

So what happened? They didn’t go bankrupt—but the Metaverse never delivered. The Oculus Quest still exists, but the real money keeps coming from ads. Just like before. And now, like everyone else, Meta’s chasing AI.

Here’s the cycle: Big Tech sits on mountains of cash, burns through it chasing the next big thing, and usually lands right back where it started.

If they weren’t betting on AI, that cash would just sit idle or go toward buybacks.

Should they be pouring this much into AI? Probably not. Big Tech’s too fixated on one trend and too slow to find new frontiers. Real breakthroughs usually come from small, hungry start-ups.

So if you’re building something new—don’t follow the herd into AI. Go where nobody else is looking.