With all the consumer Internet, video sharing, Web 2.0 hype in Silicon Valley, it’s easy to forget lots of money still gets made investing in the less sexy nuts and bolts stuff. This past week, the Wall Street Journal published a piece summing up the effect of technology IPOs over the past 18 months. It seems not only is the market for initial public offerings improving since the doldrums of post the 2000 hangover, but investments in software, telecom and data storage are leading the way making money for entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and public market investors willing to look again at young technology companies.

Is infrastructure the new sexy?

Let’s look at the numbers. In the past 18 months, 45 IPOs backed by VCs raised more than $10.2 billion. A good part of the money raised in these offerings has come from the “oh not too sexy” infrastructure companies selling software, telecom gear and storage systems for other businesses. And these new companies are smarter, stronger and more profitable than their bubble brethren. Not only were a number of these companies profitable when they floated public stock, but a number of them are already at market capitalizations of more than $1 billion.

As the Wall Street Journal points out,

last month alone, four software, telecom and data storage companies — Starent Networks, Limelight Networks, Infinera Corp. and Data Domain Inc. — launched initial public offerings. Another telecom company ShoreTel Inc., debuted early this month. The shares of all five have risen at least 30% since the IPOs.

So what about all those consumer deals? I mean come on YouTube was bought by Google for $1.7B recently. Well it turns out only a handful of the technology companies that have gone public recently are focused on serving consumer markets. But YouTube and MySpace seem to get all the attention. And they seem to be getting more of the venture capital dollars too.

Venture capitalists in the first quarter poured nearly $1.4 billion into Internet companies, broadly defined, up 46% from $956 million a year earlier. Meanwhile, the amount of money that venture investors are putting into networking-gear and telecom companies, while still large, is declining. These financiers invested $655 million in communications and networking companies in the first quarter, down 22% from about $844 million a year earlier.

Yes we in America and it seems Silicon Valley love the latest trend. One VC was quoted saying, “It’s sort of like five-year-old kids playing soccer: they all swarm around the ball.” Of course over time this will sort itself out. Either these consumer, Web 2.0 investments will make money or the VCs and firms that made those investments will find other jobs. But from one geek’s perspective it sure is nice to think about being sexy. Again.