The LISP machine collapse

The hardware side collapsed suddenly.

Those specialized AI computers had been expensive to buy and expensive to run. By 1987 there were companies building nothing else, selling millions of dollars' worth of equipment every year. Then cheaper, general-purpose computers caught up. Ordinary workstations could do the same work for a fraction of the price.

The market for AI-specific hardware evaporated almost overnight. Companies that had staked everything on it went bankrupt within a few years. The industry that had felt inevitable in 1985 was mostly gone by 1990.