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The whole world seems to be slowing down. Rising oil prices, fewer hires in the office, lack of new construction, tariff trade, waning hopes for a deal with Iran. These are the things I hear about. Each day has its own set of horrors. Today, Shake Shack got crushed after missing the quarter — burgers too expensive. Whirlpool got annihilated as it talked about recession levels of appliance demand and suspended its dividend. Even Planet Fitness told you people aren't paying up for memberships like you used to.
It seems the average Dow lost 314 points, the S&P slipped 0.38%, and the Nasdaq declined 0.13%.
Yet, despite these negative headlines — most of which I disagree with, by the way — the market can't seem to give up the ghost. On days like today, it feels like all we're doing is taking a breather from the miraculous upturn. It has so many people puzzled, while others keep castigating the rally as something from the bad old days of the dot-com boom. I'm getting tired of that one. When the whole internet edifice burst, then collapsed under its own weight, where were they when that happened? I was underneath it.
I want to use this day, a down day, to explain what people are getting so wrong about this market. Now, don't get me wrong. It wouldn't shock me to have more than one down day, given that there's been so many stocks that are parabolic. We need a little rest. We want stocks to cool off.
In the end, I can't deny that this market shares some traits with the end of the dot-com year, the lead-up to the crash in 2000. The most obvious of which is the velocity of these rallies. There are so many stocks that have traveled straight up, which is why we've been reluctant. I can tell you, if you remember the Cramer Investing Club, you would know some things are too hot. We've actually been taking a bit off the table because we don't want our stocks to go parabolic and then go down. Instead, though, we've been focused on what's zoomed too much and wondering if it might be not a bad idea to do some selling.
Do we trim some CrowdStrike after it jumped 8% today? I thought about it. Is it time to part with some Microsoft after it lifted its head into the low 40s? It came to mind. But even though I want to take some profits for the trust, I absolutely don't believe that this market's going to roll over and play dead, stay down — at least not anytime soon.
And that's not because I'm counting on the war with Iran ending. Doesn't seem like that's about to happen soon. I'm not counting on lower rates either. If we get a strong employment number tomorrow, I don't know how Kevin Marsh, soon to be Fed chief, can convince his compadres to cut rates.
No. My faith in this market comes down to the opportunity to get you involved in what one of our guests is building tonight. And I'm talking about Nvidia. Jensen Huang, preeminently and correctly, the man who called the fourth industrial revolution — artificial intelligence.
Right now, my sense is that the average person in this country has very little idea that there's a revolution going on. The idea probably just seems laughable if they learn about it, just like most people originally didn't notice the implications of the steam engine or the power loom when those inventions started to transform the entire global economy. They were dismissed, often. The way I hear this revolution dismissed now, the way I hear it myself dismissed.
Jensen, the first to see the possibilities of AI and accelerated computing, is an amazing teacher to demonstrate the sheer size of his revolution. He likes to talk about it as a five-layer cake. So before we talk to Jensen and Wendell Weeks, the visionary CEO of Corning, which just entered into a gigantic partnership with Nvidia, I got an idea. Let's go eat some cake — or at least study its layers — to help you understand why AI is big enough to pull the entire market and the economy higher. Despite the price of gasoline and the erosion of consumer confidence and all that other stuff that I'm sick of hearing about. All right, y'all. Get this now. Not for the first time, I'm taking my cue from Marie Antoinette. Let them eat cake. Although she called it gateau.
The first layer of the AI cake is power. All right. We currently don't have enough electricity to light up all these data centers. They need energy like any other business. Some of the biggest and best spenders in the country are the utilities. They have the capacity to spend hundreds of billions of dollars to build power stations and turbines and so much else. Just this evening, Jensen gave $2 billion to a company called Iren. I am not kidding. They're part of this. But you know who else is part of it? Take a look at these. These companies are hiring like mad because they know the demand for electricity is rising consistently for the first time in decades. Utilities are a jobs program themselves. Let a hundred Tennessee Valley Authorities bloom. Look at this, Bloom Energy. Oh my god, that non-combustible energy. The stock was down today. Might want to get some Gnova. How many times do I have to love that? You're going to plug right into the natural gas: EQT, Vistra, Constellation. Amazing companies.
Next layer are chips and semis. We know them as Nvidia, Intel, AMD and manufacturer Taiwan Semiconductor. But it takes machines to make chips too, and it takes copper and now fiber to link them together, which is why we also have Corning's Wendell Weeks on tonight. Corning partnered up with Nvidia yesterday, and some would say they're now joined at the hip. Stick around. I hope to make some news about that relationship later in the show. Layer three. Oh boy. Infrastructure.
Now here you're dealing with everything from Caterpillar to Dell, Amazon Web Services, data center builder CoreWeave, more sales, more losses on tomorrow morning with me. Again, these are all deep-pocketed employers spending hundreds of billions of dollars on people, plant, materials. This is where the everyday American opportunity to get a job is — in this layer. Okay, I know it's going to be hard to go work for Jensen. I mean, smart fellows there, you know, but they got these jobs. You go to school — you finish high school, you get a job. Finish college, get a job. I think it's okay with me.
Fourth layer, Jensen calls them models. Google, Meta, OpenAI, Anthropic, SpaceX, AI. The amount of money these companies are spending is insane. It's like they're rebuilding the interstate highway system like when Eisenhower was president. Maybe it's bigger.
Not kidding. Finally, the last layer, applications. These include products made by Palo Alto Networks or Databricks or CrowdStrike or Palantir. People don't like Palantir anymore. What's that all about? There are thousands of applications, most of which seem to be expanding. Look at this. This is just a giant wave of jobs. People say that this industrial revolution is going to wipe out jobs. I give you these creators of jobs.
Now, let's consider the cake as a whole. We hear that the state of the consumer is weakening, right? Confidence waning. To me, that has nothing to do with the AI cake. Every one of these layers I just mentioned is like a giant American jobs program. Not overseas — here. They all collectively have the power to keep the country's economy humming. Everybody's focused on AI as a technology. But when you look at everything behind it, this is like the WPA and CCC on steroids. Even if you don't believe in the tech like I do, this is enough make-work to give us a real boost. That's why my bottom line is that as the averages go down, you need to get ready to eat a piece of cake. Despite interest rates, despite the gloom, despite the war...
...because you have to ask yourself, what do any of these have to do with the price-to-earnings multiples of Nvidia or Corning?
Joe in Florida. Joe,
Good day, Professor Cramer. I'm a student of Cramer America and I am here to learn. My question is...
Following their strong Q1 earnings report, this company reaffirmed its full-year outlook based off its software-first and quantum computing initiatives. However, management remained prudent with their forward projections due to the uncertainty of the global economy. My stock is IBM. Do I buy, sell, or hold?
I want you to buy IBM. I do not understand why it's all the way down here. I thought the core was actually really good. I think it's been caught up with this idea that it's got some software that people don't like. That's nonsensical. I think that Arvind Krishna is doing a remarkable job. And yes, I'll give you the quantum. I'll throw that in for free.
All right. Look, despite all the negativity out there, I think the AI revolution has enough layers to keep the economy humming right along. You remember the old days when I would throw this? Well, no. I got wiser or more stupid. I can't tell. We've got a big episode of Mad Money coming up. Nvidia and Corning announced a major new partnership yesterday to accelerate the AI buildout across the country. And I'm learning more about it from the CEOs of both companies. Then I'm going to sit down with Corning's top brass to dig deeper into how a 175-year-old company has transformed itself into a leader in the AI infrastructure space and what the road map is for the years ahead. That smells good. And they say every dog has its day, including Datadog, which shot up more than 30% today. I'm going to break down what's behind that move higher. There's so much going on. Hey, it's a jam-packed show. I hear all the other shows say that, that's why I decided to throw it in. Cramer.
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Oh boy, this is a big week for Corning, the iconic American glass maker. Rung the closing bell here today to celebrate its 175th anniversary. But even though it's old, the company is more relevant than ever. They make everything from iPhone screens to the kind of optical fiber that's used to tie everything in the data center together. Just yesterday, Nvidia announced a major new partnership with Corning to expand their optical connectivity manufacturing capacity by a factor of ten. Basically, Nvidia is taking a big position in Corning to fund that expansion, which is why the stock shot up 12% yesterday. And this is something that's already quadrupled over the past 12 months. Big win for my charitable trust, by the way, for both. Now, let's take a closer look at this partnership with Wendell Weeks, the chairman and CEO of Corning, who's here with us at the New York Stock Exchange, and Jensen Huang, the founder and CEO of Nvidia, who's joining us from Motley.
Gentlemen, welcome back to Mad Money. Gentlemen, welcome.
Thanks for having us. Thank you.
Great to see you guys. Okay, so I want to get right to it. Wendell, tell me what this investment will do. The partnership with Nvidia — to explain, this is a major, major commitment for you guys. What it will do to be able to help get tenfold optical — that's your number — optical capacity. And what does the tie-up do now that you couldn't do before? You've got a great balance sheet, Wendell.
Well, two things. First, I really thought Jensen said it great on what the purpose of all this is. What he said is about inventing the future of computing with advanced optical technologies, building the foundation of AI infrastructure where intelligence moves at the speed of light. And finally, and both he and I, I think most importantly, building on the tradition of made in America.
Right. I want to get right to that with Jensen. We're talking about a lot of jobs, great facilities here, and an amazing tie-up. What is the return on investment for Nvidia shareholders and the return on investment for our country?
Well, you know, we're going through the single largest infrastructure buildout in human history. Artificial intelligence is going to become fundamental infrastructure all over the world and surely here in the United States. It is just an incredible joy to partner with the great American company Corning and just an incredible CEO, Wendell. Wendell Weeks, as you know, has really — he grew up in Corning and now he's taking it to the next generation.
The partnership is really about inventing a next-generation data center where the amount of interconnects, the number of GPUs, the amount of interconnects, the speed of the interconnects and the scale of the computing is just utterly gigantic. And this is such an extraordinary opportunity because we can use these market dynamics to reinvest, revitalize American manufacturing the first time in several generations. We can also use this market dynamic, this incredible investment that's coming in from the market to revitalize, to upgrade our energy grid to bring in sustainable energy. And so simultaneously, we're building a new infrastructure. We're revitalizing American technology and American manufacturing. And we get the opportunity also to revitalize the energy grid. And so all of that is simultaneously happening. And our partnership with Corning here is really about the next generation of our data center architecture where silicon photonics, optical technology is going to be a very, very big part of it.
Okay. So, Wendell, right now I feel like when I go into a big data center it's copper. It's copper everywhere. Now look, copper does good things, but I always think of fiber as next generation. You taught me that and your company taught me that. Can you replace all of it, or is it right now just going to start with the connect, and then ultimately maybe the two miles of copper that is in a Vera Rubin goes away and it's replaced with what you make.
Well, where we're starting is in Jensen's current architecture. We maintain the copper that's within the server rack, and then it's — and as it creates these very large, low-latency AI nodes. But you got the right guy on the screen to ask.
Well, I know. Look, there's one thing, Jensen — I know you can't do it overnight.
Well, Wendell's got it right. We're going to scale up these systems so incredibly. It's absolutely — so we're going to scale up copper incredibly. We're going to scale up optical at a scale that, quite frankly, no optical companies have ever enjoyed. Which is the reason why Wendell mentioned earlier, we're going to increase the amount of optical capacity in the United States by a factor of 10. It's going to create thousands of jobs. He's going to build brand new factories. We have the privilege of being a shareholder in the company and I'm really excited about that. And of course, a big part of our commitment to them is a multi-billion-dollar prepayment that wasn't discussed in the press release, but it's something that I'm very happy to do.
Right. So why do you need to do this, Jensen? What are the implications for the ecosystem, and what does Nvidia get that maybe its competitors won't be able to get because of the tie-ups?
Well, it's not so much that. It's just that as we're creating this new AI future and we're building out AI infrastructure all over the world, one of the things that has really happened is we enjoyed the first surge. And of course, everybody realized that Nvidia is growing incredibly fast, but it's really important that we bring the entire supply chain along with us. We now have the world's largest supply chain. The scale by which we manufacture this AI infrastructure is unlike anything that's ever happened before, which is the reason why Nvidia is so large today. We also need the support and the partnership of the world's best companies in our supply chain to help us create and realize this future, and silicon photonics and optical technology is a very big part of that, which is the reason why our partnership with Corning is such an incredible pillar in that. I'm just so pleased with that.
Okay. And Wendell, what would you say to a short seller who says, 'Listen, why do you need that dilution? You've got the company doing so well — 175 years but young. I mean, everything's been going great. Why do you have to have the partnership?'
Well, the partnership is fundamentally about technology and manufacturing here in the US. But as it comes to the financial side, as Jensen just shared, they're making a direct sort of multi-billion-dollar investment in the capital that it takes to build these plants. And then also, Jensen wanted to be a long-term investor in Corning. And when someone as smart as Jensen wants to be one of my shareholders, the right answer is yes, please.
Well, look, you've been through 1983. I remember — you remember 2000. It was just such a tough time. Is this in the back of your mind to be sure that never happens again?
Totally. It is. Totally. So, you know, one of the things about being 175 years old is...
You look younger than me.
I look old. I feel older. So that means you have to build for the bad times as well as the good. And so, when we partner with Nvidia, that is one of the great times. We're going to grow, but as we grow, we want to also make sure we keep the place safe for the generations to come.
Okay. So, I do need to ask Jensen — a lot of people are feeling, and you and I have talked about it, but I got to reference it. It's going even louder. The doomers are saying AI is going to kill the jobs. I keep saying what you said, which is that there's never been an industrial revolution that didn't create many more jobs than it eliminated — we're many more times the jobs as before. Could you just refresh the American people that this is not a jobs killer? Ultimately, it's going to be one of the greatest creators in history.
AI is driving the largest infrastructure buildout. AI is, of course, market-generated economics coming into our country at a scale nobody's ever seen. It's creating jobs across the entire stack. It's creating jobs at the energy level — all the utilities companies, power generation companies, investing in sustainable energy companies. It's just creating tons of jobs. It's creating jobs at the chips level. For the first time, we have an opportunity to revitalize American manufacturing, bringing in chip plants and chip jobs, packaging plants and packaging jobs, computer manufacturing, computer manufacturing jobs. And every one of those manufacturing jobs creates six other jobs that support them. And not to mention all the AI data centers. This is the first time in history that the amount of manufacturing jobs being simultaneously created across all of these different sectors is growing incredibly fast. Electricians, plumbers, construction workers — their salaries have gone up by some 30%. The number of shortages that we have and the demand for all of these skilled craft experts are just incredibly high. People talked about how AI is going to eliminate software coding jobs because it codes automatically. Absolutely. The latest generation AIs can generate code automatically. But unsurprisingly, the number of software engineering jobs is skyrocketing. Every company is hiring more software engineers. People talked about how new college grads, their jobs will be eliminated by AI. Completely false. Completely wrong. We're in great demand. We see great demand for new college grads who are expert at using AI.
And so the most important thing to take away here is that AI is creating jobs. People who are expert in AI are highly sought after. AI is not going to take your job. Someone who is expert in AI will compete for your job. And so I would recommend that every single layer — from construction, infrastructure, energy, software company — and all of the startup companies that are being funded right now. This is just creating so many jobs. Engage AI, you know, get excited about it.
Right. So we were out at Amazon earlier this week. Amazon's talking about how they want to build out, and Google's building out. And I got the sense this is a lot of growing competition. Are you ready for it? Do they have an edge, as they claim, or does the total cost of ownership still seem to be favoring you? Maybe I'm wrong.
Well, we're all growing. This market is growing so incredibly. It's a great growth opportunity for all of us. However, Nvidia's architecture, as you know, is much more versatile. We're the only AI architecture that runs every AI. And so we're delighted that recently Anthropic has decided also to join the Nvidia platform. And yesterday, some big announcements with Anthropic contracting out a very large number of Nvidia GPUs. And that's just a lot more to come from that story. And so this is from OpenAI to Gemini to XAI to Meta Llama to now Anthropic. We're — just because of the versatility of our platform — we're seeing tremendous growth. We also have the opportunity to address the segments of the market that are not related to large language models. Maybe it's related to physics, proteins, fusion reactors, chemicals, exotic materials — the work that we do with Wendell and his team on material sciences. We engage AI in every single domain, from language all the way to physics to biology to chemistry to manufacturing. And so our reach of AI is substantially larger than someone who is just focused on large language models. So the combination of the versatility, the fact that we build everything end to end, and the fact that we address every field of AI — it gives us a really unique exposure, and that's the reason why we're growing so fast.
Right now we're going to be speaking to Wendell at length about some of the things that we just talked about. I do want to ask you, Jensen, because it's in the news and I heard it today: Will you be going with the president of the United States to China?
Well, I think that first of all, we should let the president announce whatever he decides to announce. But if invited, it would be a privilege. It would be a great honor to represent the United States and to go to China with President Trump.
Excellent. Well, I want to congratulate you on your partnership with Wendell. If you do go, of course, I wish you the best of luck and a safe trip. If you don't, okay, well, always good to have you. And Wendell, will you stay with me for a second and we're going to go over some of the fantastic things that Jensen just talked about? I'm very excited about this partnership. I really — I mean, it's just a big deal. Thank you, Jensen. Great to see you.
Congratulations, Wendell. Thank you.
Thanks, Jensen. Thank you, Jim.
175 years. Not bad. Uh, that's just Marcio of Indidia. Stick around for more from the Corning CEO, Wendell Weeks. After the break, you will learn something. I like learning. I don't know about you. Never mind, we'll be back.
Coming up, Corning's new deal with Nvidia isn't the only thing going on at the great American glass maker. So stick around because Cramer's got more to discuss with CEO Wendell Weeks next.
Before the break, we heard from Wendell Weeks, the CEO of Corning, and Jensen Huang about the new partnership that will create thousands of jobs right here in this country. It's a long-term bet on the comeback in American industry. As America marks its 250th anniversary, these are exactly the kinds of companies we want to highlight — businesses betting on innovation, manufacturing, the future of American industry. And that's not the only big news out of Corning this week. On top of the Nvidia deal, they also held an investor day yesterday. Management issued some very bullish long-term financial targets. The glass maker, with major exposure to the data center via its optical fiber, said it's now targeting an annual revenue run rate of $20 billion by the end of this year, $30 billion by the end of 2028, possibly $40 billion by the end of 2030. Good luck finding another 175-year-old company with that kind of growth. With so much going on here, let's get right back into it with Wendell Weeks, the chairman and CEO of Corning.
Wendell, before we go into all this great stuff — including a letter from Edison, a bill from Edison — I need to know something. I think I heard Jensen Huang break news about the structure of the investment that wasn't in any release that I read.
I heard the same thing. What Jensen basically explained is that he's actually helping us with the capital for these major new US plants. And then in addition to that, he wants to be a long-term investor in Corning. So he was explaining both aspects of our arrangement on the commercial side.
That means beside the $500 million investment, he's going to be spending, maybe side by side with you.
Yes. He's going to be helping us invest in these great factories in the US. And then as well as that, he's got an option to build about a $3 billion position in our equity.
He obviously feels the stock is very cheap right here and going to go higher. He wouldn't have a $180 strike.
Well, I would say that Jensen has pretty good judgment.
I would say that, too. And he also knows that you have a deal with Meta for six billion and two other companies of which you said they have to disclose it. But those are big pieces of business, maybe some of the biggest pieces in America right now.
I'd actually say probably the biggest commercial arrangement ever in my career we just entered into with Nvidia. And then these other two major ones are larger than the Meta deal that's been public on, and I'm sure some of those customers will want to be more open about that over time.
Well, this is — you work at a very storied company, and whether it be storied with something involving Steve Jobs or whether it be storied with what looks to be a $311 bill to Thomas Edison.
