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A trader monitors market conditions on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) on November 19 (local time). / Photo via AFP, Yonhap News

U.S. stock markets, including the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq composite, are hitting fresh all-time highs. While some investors warn of overheating, drawing parallels to the dot-com bubble, market enthusiasm is projected to endure, bolstered by high-profile initial public offerings (IPOs) scheduled for giants like OpenAI and Anthropic.

The S&P 500 index closed at record highs a total of 11 times in May alone, the Financial Times (FT) reported on May 31 (local time). Year-to-date, the S&P 500 has advanced 11 percent, while the Nasdaq has jumped 16 percent.

The semiconductor index has plummeted upward by 81 percent this year, marking its strongest performance since 1999. Share prices of artificial intelligence (AI) related firms have also skyrocketed, with SanDisk surging a staggering 600 percent, while Micron, Dell, Intel, and Western Digital logged gains of 200 percent.

A broad swath of investors anticipate that advancements in AI, paired with capital-intensive investments in chips and data centers, will fuel U.S. economic growth and accelerate corporate earnings.

"We are not in a bubble," said Steve Chiavarone, Chief Information Officer (CIO) at U.S. global asset manager Federated Hermes. "Secular bull markets can last for 20 years or more."

Conversely, a segment of the investment community raised alarms over market overheating reminiscent of the dot-com era. Hedge fund managers Michael Burry and Paul Tudor Jones noted that "the AI craze mirrors the dot-com boom," comparing the current market climate to the tail end of 1999 when the dot-com frenzy reached its peak.

Nevertheless, the consensus maintains that the bull market will sustain its momentum, driven by robust corporate earnings and the premise that AI investment remains in its infancy. Mike Wilson, Chief U.S. Equity Strategist at Morgan Stanley, emphasized, "Within the AI-driven stock rally, bubbles will only manifest in select names," adding that "the broader market will continue to ascend, backed by solid corporate fundamentals and growth prospects."

Ben Snider, Chief U.S. Equity Strategist at Goldman Sachs, expressed optimism for the continuation of the current rally, stating, "The classic conditions that signal the demise of a bull market—such as speculative mania, contracting profit margins, and Federal Reserve interest rate hikes—have yet to materialize."

The substantial pipeline of upcoming mega-IPOs for AI-related enterprises further reinforces this positive outlook.

Elon Musk's SpaceX, OpenAI, and Anthropic are all gearing up for IPOs in the second half of the year. Given that these firms are anticipated to command trillion-dollar valuations, Wall Street's investment fervor is poised to carry forward.

                                                                                                             Park Jin-sook