One day the bust will be the big one, but for now the pullback in AI-related stocks has been almost completely offset by gains elsewhere.

Boom‑bust cycles now happen in the blink of an eye. The memory‑chip bubbleambara inflated and popped, complete with wild volatility and an imploding hedge fund, in just 4 months. Trillions of dollars were created out of thin air and then eviscerated. Here’s the thing: For the rest of the market it just didn’t matter.

The S&P 500 is only 1.6% below its record, and the equal‑weighted version—a measure of the average of all stocks in the index—hit a new high this past week. Students…it just didn’t matter.

Why do these mini (and in the case of semiconductors, not so mini) bubbles keep happening, and why aren’t they more damaging? The post‑financial‑crisis era of easy money has led to repeated booms and busts in small, and sometimes not‑so‑small, parts of the market in the past 15 years. None of them stopped its relentless rise.