The AI trade is no longer just about the usual mega-cap winners. According to Cathie Wood, some of the biggest surprise beneficiaries of the artificial intelligence boom are companies many investors had long written off as relics of earlier tech cycles.



&#34;These are blasts from the past,&#34; Wood said, arguing that the AI spending frenzy is now lifting a group of older infrastructure and networking names.



<h2>Old Guard Revival</h2>



Among the “bubble-era stocks” Wood highlighted were Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC), Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO), Corning Inc. (NYSE:GLW), Flex Ltd. (NASDAQ:FLEX) and Akamai Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:AKAM).



The common thread is AI infrastructure.



Intel has been trying to claw its way back into relevance through foundry ambitions and AI chips. 



Cisco has increasingly positioned itself around AI networking demand. 



Corning's fiber and connectivity products are benefiting from data-center buildouts. Flex has quietly emerged as a manufacturing and supply-chain player tied to AI hardware deployment.



Akamai may be the most surprising inclusion on the list. Wood noted that the company, which had spent years as a low-growth cloud and edge-computing player, recently secured a hyperscaler order. A sign that AI demand may be reaching far beyond the usual semiconductor giants.



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<h2>AI Spending Broadens Out</h2>



The bigger takeaway is that the AI boom is starting to behave less like a narrow software trend, and more like a full-scale infrastructure cycle.



That matters because infrastructure cycles tend to pull in older industrial and networking players that already have manufacturing capacity, enterprise relationships, and technical expertise.



For investors, Wood's comments suggest Wall Street may be underestimating how broad the AI ripple effect could become — especially for companies many assumed had already peaked years ago.



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Image: Courtesy Ark Invest

INTC

AKAM

CSCO

Cathie Wood identifies five "bubble-era stocks"—Intel, Cisco, Corning, Flex, and Akamai—as beneficiaries of the AI infrastructure spending wave. She argues that these companies, previously overlooked, are now gaining relevance due to the AI boom, which is expanding beyond traditional tech giants. Wood emphasizes that the AI trend is evolving into a broader infrastructure cycle, potentially benefiting older industrial and networking firms with established capabilities. This suggests that Wall Street may be underestimating the impact of AI on these companies, which many believed had peaked.

- Cathie Wood argues that the AI boom is benefiting older tech companies, once considered outdated, such as Intel and Cisco.  
- Companies like Corning and Flex are gaining from AI infrastructure development, with Akamai surprising investors by receiving a significant AI order.  
- The situation indicates that the AI trend is evolving into a broader infrastructure cycle, potentially impacting various established industrial players and challenging assumptions about their growth prospects.

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Cathie Wood Picks 5 Bubble-Era Stocks That Are Riding The AI Wave: 'Blasts From The Past' She Says