The craziest moments of the longest tech boom (so far)

It was a singular year for tech, one that marked the apparent end of a heady, crazy boom that changed the way we think about the industry.

Over the past dozen years, a tidal wave of money has poured into a range of technologies – from cloud computing and artificial intelligence to smartphones and two-sided markets – that have transformed industries whole and changed many aspects of the way we live and work. Great companies have been born or have grown into global giants, proving the durability of Silicon Valley’s underlying inspiration: that ideas that seem crazy or unachievable at first can still prevail.