Mad Money w/ Jim Cramer 6/30/26

Summary

Mad Money w/ Jim Cramer — June 30, 2026
Podcast Summary

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Main Theme

This episode centers on a dramatic shift in the stock market, particularly the reversal of fortunes for the famed "Magnificent Seven" big tech stocks. Jim Cramer dives into the causes of their decline, highlights the surge among tech suppliers and chipmakers (notably Micron and memory stocks), discusses a potential M&A (mergers and acquisitions) boom under a newly deregulated environment, and features in-depth interviews with Sanjay Mehrotra (CEO of Micron) and John Gibson (CEO of Paychex). The Lightning Round features classic stock picks and quick-take analysis.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Market Shift: The Magnificent Seven Down, Suppliers Up

[00:38] – [11:35]

• Market Recap:
  • The Dow, S&P, and Nasdaq all had solid performances for the day, but Jim focuses on the last month’s dramatic underperformance by the once-mighty Magnificent Seven ("Mag7").
  • The "changing of the guard" is clear: tech suppliers (chip makers, memory manufacturers) are powerhouses, while their biggest customers (the Mag7) are floundering.

Detailed Breakdown of Mag7 Performance:

• Microsoft (-17%)

  • Lost over half a trillion in market cap, mainly due to Wall Street’s lack of interest in traditional software.
  • “If Microsoft wants to reverse its fortunes, it needs to do something bold, like acquiring AI…Or it can break itself up into extremely lucrative parts.” [02:20]

• Amazon (-12%)

  • Suffering from negative sentiment despite strong advertising and AWS growth.
  • Wall Street only cares about free cash flow, and Amazon's huge CapEx for AI infrastructure is worrying analysts.

• Meta (-11%)

  • Viewed as just an ad business, punished for international exposure and heavy spending.
  • Cramer’s advice: go into cloud computing, "Meta Web Services," to instantly unlock value.

• Apple (-7%)

  • Hit by surging component prices, especially memory.
  • "Your phone is going up in price because the data center companies are bidding up the price for many of the chips." [05:12]
  • Needs U.S. government help to buy cheaper memory and navigate the chip shortage.

• Alphabet/Google (-6%)

  • Massive spending on data centers, little credit from investors for Youtube, Cloud, or even Search.
  • Capital expenditures are now hurting free cash flow.

• Nvidia (-5%)

  • Still fundamentally strong but not rewarded by the market.
  • Facing pushback from major customers (Google, Amazon, Tesla) who claim to have better chips, plus competition from Broadcom.
  • “I’m sticking with my view that you need to own Nvidia, not trade it. That would be a lot easier if Jensen Huang and his fabulous team declared a much, much bigger buyback…” [08:18]

• Tesla

  • Cramer jokes Tesla will be bought by SpaceX; not a focus of today’s episode.

• Key Insight:
  “The Magnificent Seven ain’t what they used to be. Investors fell in love with these companies for their impressive free cash flow…Now they’re spending all that cash on a race for AI supremacy.” [09:05]

The Winners: Tech Suppliers & Memory

• Suppliers to the data center boom are now market heroes:
  • Micron and Sandisk have tripled in three months, driven by the insatiable demand for high-end memory chips.
  • Intel is staged for turnaround with three big growth drivers: CPUs, chip packaging, and manufacturing.
  • Marvell gets a major shoutout: “Next trillion dollar company, says Jensen Huang.”
  • AMD cited for strong leadership in CPUs and GPUs.

Key Takeaway:
“Wall Street is now rewarding tech companies with products in high demand and punishing their customers because they’re spending too much and we don’t know how it’s going to be profitable.” [11:20]

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2. Lightning Round: Stock Quick-Takes

[35:21] – [39:46]

• Cramer fields rapid-fire calls on individual stocks with his trademark high energy. Example judgments:
  • Ultra Clean Technology: “[Take] a quarter of it off, get some of that cost basis out and then let the rest run for another 15%.” [36:01]
  • TE Connectivity: "I think this [is a] terrific stock...I want to buy that stock for the trust. You got a good one there." [36:25]
  • Voyager Technology: "This company is losing so much money, it may take a lifetime before they make money." [36:55]
  • Sybotic: "The company is making money. I think it’s a very good spec. I reiterate that I am not against Sybotic." [37:27]
  • Enphase: "No, it's too erratic, too episodic...one of the hardest stocks in the world to own." [39:06]
  • GE Vernova: "Of those [big stocks], is my favorite—very big position. I say still buy GE Vernova." [39:24]

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3. M&A Boom: Supreme Court, Presidential Deregulation, and Industry Shakeups

[13:25] – [17:53]

• Deregulatory environment is heating up the M&A market; $1.2 trillion in U.S. M&A in five months.
• Supreme Court decision allows the President to remove agency commissioners (except the Fed), pointing to less antitrust enforcement.
• DOJ is shying away from complex antitrust trials.
• Cramer expects a "holiday" for dealmaking—a "wave" of takeovers in banks, pharma, tech, oil and gas, retail, and telco.
• Banks, especially regionals and M&A advisors (Goldman, Morgan Stanley), will benefit the most.
• “You need exposure to this group because the banks making these acquisitions can make fortunes from cost cutting.” [14:43]
• Big Pharma’s going to bulk up, oil megadeals likely, and retail could see a consolidation rush—especially to counter Amazon.
• Telcos may merge to face down Starlink’s dominance.
• Takeover speculation is now a bona fide upside driver for stocks.

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4. Micron Deep Dive: The Memory Shortage & U.S. Semiconductor Renaissance

Full Interview: [19:28] – [34:52]

Micron’s Trillion-Dollar Moment

• Stock up 300% YTD, now part of the "trillion dollar club."
• Memory chips, once “commodity,” are now proprietary, high-value, and in short supply.
• Blowout quarter: $41.5B revenue versus $36B expected; 74% growth Q/Q; 85% gross margins. [20:28]
• Cramer: “One of the biggest beats I’ve ever seen…practically printing money…” [20:28]
• Strategic agreements locking in supply for major customers, indicating strong future demand.

CEO Sanjay Mehrotra on Investment and Growth:

• Micron investing $200B in U.S. manufacturing and R&D, creating 90,000 jobs.

• "The industry needs greenfield capacity. That means new construction of clean rooms…that’s where Micron is investing heavily." [27:40]

• Fabs in Idaho and New York will ramp in 2028 and beyond; semiconductor tightness likely to continue "beyond 2027."

• Micron is also investing $300M in workforce training and talent pipelines.

• On overcoming SK Hynix and Samsung, Mehrotra says:

  • "Today, Micron, when it comes to DRAM as well as NAND technology, we are a clear technology leader." [33:27]
  • "We are the only ones investing in R&D and manufacturing [in the US]…memory and storage leader." [34:33]

Inflation and Data Center Demand:

• Data centers are driving up component prices for consumer technology (e.g., more expensive smartphones).
• Micron attempts diversification—40% of business is in autos, smartphones, and industrial markets to smooth out profit cycles.

Memorable Moments

• “Your phone is going up in price because the data center companies are bidding up the price for many of the chips that go into smartphones. But Apple is the best AI at a very cheap price thanks to its deal with Google.” — Jim Cramer, [05:12]
• "This is not your grandfather's memory. This is extremely advanced memory, complex stuff, lot of intellectual property. Micron has patents that are now approaching 65,000 patents." — Mehrotra, [29:24]

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5. Paychex: AI in HR, Small Business Sentiment, and Compliance Automation

[39:58] – [46:44]

• Paychex CEO John Gibson joins to discuss:

  • AI-powered “WISE” intelligence engine (already powers 600+ features), transforming their HCM solutions.
  • "What it really does is it’s turning all of the 50 years of expertise and, and interactions we have with our clients and knowledge we have about compliance and taxes. It's turning that into a data of actionable intelligence for our employees..." — Gibson, [42:14]
  • Launching new compliance tools (650) leveraging AI, offering actionable insights and automated HR compliance for small businesses.

• Small business job creation is healthy:

  • “No signs of layoffs, no signs of recession. I actually see more resilience and more acceleration in small business growth.” [43:39]

• New regulations coming July 1; Paychex's 650 product will help businesses stay compliant.

  • “The thing that puts most businesses out of business isn’t interest rates, it isn’t demand, it’s not complying with the law.” — Cramer, [46:27]

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “After a 17% loss in a month, these guys would be crazy to keep doing what they’ve been doing.” — Jim Cramer on Microsoft [02:20]

• “Investors fell in love with these companies for their impressive free cash flow...Now they're spending all that cash on a race for AI supremacy.” — Jim Cramer [09:05]

• “We need to talk about the biggest story in this market, the memory chip shortage that’s propelled Micron into the trillion dollar club…” — Jim Cramer [19:28]

• “Memory has become today a key enabler in AI era...AI is in very early innings. There is a lot of opportunity ahead…” — Sanjay Mehrotra, CEO Micron [21:45]

• “All technology revolutions…have evolved jobs. They’ve not destroyed them. And I think that we’re going to see a boom of creativity and, and innovation going on in the workforce.” — John Gibson, CEO Paychex [43:05]

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• Market & Mag7 Overview: [00:38] – [11:35]
• Lightning Round: [35:21] – [39:46]
• M&A Environment & Takeover Boom: [13:25] – [17:53]
• Micron & Semiconductor Shortage (Sanjay Mehrotra Interview): [19:28] – [34:52]
• Paychex & AI in HR (John Gibson Interview): [39:58] – [46:44]

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Summary Flow & Takeaways

• The 2026 market is witnessing a major leadership rotation: mega-cap tech customers (Mag7) are out of favor, suppliers and chipmakers are in the spotlight, led by the likes of Micron, Intel, and Marvell.
• M&A’s about to go wild thanks to deregulation and a Supreme Court decision, with banks and pharma set to be especially active.
• Micron’s memory boom isn’t a bubble—massive, secular demand and proprietary technology make it the “new” American tech export success.
• AI is now about practical application: Paychex shows how AI powers HR for small business, rather than destroys jobs.
• The Lightning Round features classic Cramer optimism and skepticism, guiding callers on how to deal with market wild swings.
• Throughout, Cramer maintains his signature, high-energy, no-nonsense delivery—fired up after vacation and full of real-time reactions.

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For listeners: This episode is a crucial snapshot of a market in flux, a playbook on the new winners (and what ails the old), and a roadmap for investors eager to capitalize on shifting tides, M&A booms, and AI’s real impact on business. If you missed it, you’re now in great shape to know what—and who—to watch.

Transcript

[A]

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Investing involves risk, including risk of loss. Fidelity Brokerage Services LLC Member NYSE SIPC My mission is simple, to make you money. I'm here to level the playing field for all investors. There's always a bull market somewhere and I promise to help you find it. Man Money Start now. Hey, I'm Kramer. Welcome to Mad Money. Welcome to Kramer Friends. I'm just trying to make you some money. My job, not just to entertain, but to educate. Context. Call me 1-800-743-CBC. Tweet me at Jim Cramer. The world turned upside down this quarter. We had huge gains in tech, but not the stocks you know and love. We had a resurgence. Health care, but not big pharma. We caught a huge move in the industrials and in real estate. Two groups we aren't used to seeing as winners. And then there's the magnificent seven, which collectively shed over $2 trillion in market cap just in the month of June. A collapse that calls owning the stocks of many of this market's long term gainers into question. Basically, we've witnessed a changing of the guard. People from the MAG7 to the companies that supply that supply to the MAG7 as the former group spends fortunes on data centers and and the latter coins money from the demand that the data centers bring. So in a decent day where The Dow advanced 1 in 36 points, S&P gain point 79%, Nasdaq jumped 1.52%. We need to go over what tech happened to these losing stocks in the month of June. Then we'll review all the winners for the quarter. Some of these Mag 7 declines, they are just hideous. The stock of Microsoft, for example, shed over 17% of its value this month, losing over half a trillion dollars in market cap. Even though it has a decent cloud business, that's not enough to make up for its core software exposure. Wall street is no use for the software right now. Put aside this false narrative so far is a real good business. If Microsoft wants to reverse its fortunes, it needs to do something Bold like acquiring AI. If that company can't come public because of its severe losses, Microsoft has a stake in the company. It can make the trade happen. That would allow it to scrap Copilot and replace it with uber popular chat cbt. Or it can break itself up into extremely lucrative parts. Yes, Azure, the cloud, the cloud computing business. Microsoft business to business software. Microsoft consumer software. Microsoft cybersecurity, video games, LinkedIn. All best in field. Listen, after 17% loss in a month, these guys would be crazy to keep doing what they've been doing. It ain't crazy. Second worst performer, Amazon off 12% for June. My trust owns is Amazon. This is a tough one because the company's doing so much right. But they're not getting credit for their advertising business or the prime offerings. Wall street only seems to care right now about Amazon Web Services, which is actually doing much better than expected. But it isn't pleasing buyers. Nobody seems to have any interest in what could be a potentially $50 billion semiconductor business that's under the same roof. Investors are worried here. Yes, they are. They are worried. Why? Because they want free cash flow. Amazon used to have it. They need to start making money with AI next year no matter what. Or else. Otherwise you can't justify the extreme capital expenditures. We need to see a bountiful return or the declines will continue and the stock could be punished. Third matter, down 11% this month. Matters going out of style because it's now viewed as nothing more than a pure advertising play with a lot of gross international product exposure. Again, false view. But right now that does not matter. People do not want to own this stock. It is spending too much money and we don't know why. It hasn't been explained. Well, what can better do? It has and is building a ton of data center power. I think Meta simply needs to say it's going into the cloud computing metal web services business. This can give you an instant 100 point gain, maybe more than that. Fourth, Apple was down over 7% in June thanks to the skyrocketing cost of components, especially memory chips. I think it's vital that the US government allows Apple to buy low end memory from China. Oh, and your phone is going up in price because the data center companies are bidding up the price for many of the chips that go into smartphones. But Apple is the best AI at a very cheap price thanks to its deal with Google investors. See, this is typical, right? I mean in the middle of the show I got it saying sos. Stop it. Thank you. All right. Anyway, higher Prices mean lower sales. That's what people think. We need to see the quarter and hear what they say in their forecast. And we need to get this to stop. Thank you very much. This is a real show. This is what happens. Speaking of Google, parent company of parent company Alphabet was able to do a giant fundraise not long ago. That way it can spend all at once on data centers. Again, terrific news on one hand, but like Amazon that and Microsoft that spending is a real blow to free cash flow and and you get a pause buyback thanks. Hence 6% decline. That said, Apple's getting very little credit for YouTube, Google Cloud or even search. It's absurd, but it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter because of the seemingly profitless cap x6 Nvidia. Nvidia down just over 5% this month. these levels, the stock sells an incredibly cheap 22 times earnings. Nvidia's got an insane amount of business. So what's keeping a little the stock? Well, the company is some powerful detractors. Mainly clients that feel they charge too much. Like Google and Amazon and Tesla. Hey, by the way, their customers, the first two claim that they have better chips than video even as they use Nvidia. Plus there's Broadcom, vicious competitor and CEO Hawk Chance out there saying it can compete, it can take share from Nvidia. So how can it change the stock's trajectory? Historically, I say they need to keep reporting breathtaking results. The problem is the spectacular results haven't driven the stock higher. Investors say it can't continue and that it needs to get many more clients away from the Magic 7. Like sovereign wealth funds, they should be buying more. And it needs to buy back stocks hand over fist, mimicking Apple during its historic run. The stock is that cheap. In the end, I'm sticking with my view that you need to own in video, not trade it. That would be a lot easier if Jensen Huang and his fabulous team declared a much, much bigger buyback than they had. They got the cash. I repeat though, the issue is the narrative. And Nvidia is at the heart of the data center. Almost every company with any component data center saw its stock soar this month. I know in video stock is the biggest in the world, but it needs to show it. By telling us its stock is the best value of anything, it keeps buying share of other companies by itself. That will change the direction the price it did for Apple. Do it for Nvidia father's Tesla. No issues here. I think it'll be bought by SpaceX. Sooner rather than later. But in the end, the Magnificent seven ain't what they used to be. Investors fell in love with these companies for their impressive free cash flow. That's what drove for their profits. Now they're spending all that cash on a race for AI supremacy. And by the way, always lurking of course is anthropic and open air powerful new finance competitors. The spend can only be defended by profitability not press release. All right, now let's talk about the winners. I can probably take my phone back, my watch back now let's leave it off. The winners for the for the quarter. The biggest gainers are the exact opposite of the Mag 7. They make products that are in short supply with demand. That's off the charts. The two biggest winners in tech for now of second quarter paired memory copy. Sandisk and Micron. We have Sanjay Morocco, CEO of Micron on later tonight. Last week they put one of the biggest beat in race quarters I've ever seen. Memory prices going through the roof. Sandisk has done well too. Both stocks have more than tripled in the last three months. Next is intel, currently my favorite stock CEO Lip Bhutan has turned this company around. Intel has three major growth opportunities. First, semiconductors leader in CPUs Central for agent Agentix. Second, chip packaging bundling semis carries very big margins. Lip who came from that industry, he knows it. Finally Intel's building foundries to actually manufacture chips. It could be the company to solve the memory shortage one day. National treasure Marvell tax. Next it got optical networking. And most important as the endorsement of video CEO Jensen Huang who predicted it'll be the next trillion dollar company. If he's right, there's a lot more upside. Marvell is just a $260 billion company. Finance AMD has both CPU and GPU make it essential for the data center. CEO Lisa Su has done a remarkable job. I recommend you watching her recent commencement address at mit. Here's the bottom line. Wall street is now rewarding tech companies with with products in high demand and and punishing their customers because they're spending too much and we don't know how it's going to be profitable. Some of you may think that's unfair, especially toward Nvidia and Apple. But the market has spoken and I don't know if it'll learn any lang other language this next quarter, let alone the rest of the year. My trust owns a lot of these. Go look them up. This is, this is pain. I too am in the house of pain with some of these. Let's go to rich in New York. Rich.

[D]

Hi, Jim.

[A]

First time, long time on Netflix. Yeah, sure. Stochastics low below the 2050, 200 day moving average. Not overpaying for Time Warner. Raise their prices. Is there something fundamentally wrong with. People think the business is slowed. People think the business slowed. I disagree with that analysis. But you know what? The market has turned against the Fangs has turned against the Mag Sevens. It's caught up in that negativity, and it can't seem to shake the fact that it was trying to buy time, you know, trying to buy Warner Brothers Discovery. They can't seem to shake it. And that's all. That's all she wrote. Let's go to Greg in California. Greg. Hey, Jim. How you doing, Greg? I'm doing well. How about you? Oh, I'm doing great. Hey, big fan of the show. Been watching for a few years. My mom got me into the show. She's been watching since day one, man. So big shout out. Big shout out, big boy. I'm shouting out to your ma. I'm shouting out to your ma. Okay. Tell her I love her, all right? I mean it a lot. What's your mom's name? What's her name? Oh, her name's Kyle. Huh? Her name is Kyle. Kyle. Wait, what the hell? Why not? Kyle. Yes. Yes. Shout out to Kia. Booyah from Kyle. So, anyways, I'm calling about Corning. You know, it's obviously been doing really well the past few days. You know, I got in a few months ago and I'm seeing a steady growth. It still just seems to be doing massive swings. Listen to me, Greg and Kyle, Craig and Kyle. Okay, here's the deal. We actually sold some for the trust today. It's been a big win. I just castigated myself over Microsoft, over Nvidia, over Apple, over Meta. What else? How about Amazon? Yeah, I'm the biggest city in the world, but we own a lot of Corning, too. Kyle knows that. She's a member of the club. I'm sure. I mean, like, I'm sure.

[C]

All right.

[A]

Okay. This script. I'm sorry I'm so fired up, but I've been on vacation. What did you expect? The script is flipped in the tech trick. The suppliers are winning right now, and the old leaders have to earn their way back. New tricks work when your stocks down on that money tonight, forget earnings. Could the next big catalyst in this market be M and A? I'll tell you why. The takeover wave is just getting started. How you can profit from it. That after massive run fuel by the AI trade. Can Micron stock keep delivering? I'm sitting down with the CEO to discuss last week's blockbuster earnings. Plus I'm getting the state of small business with the CEO of Paychex. I suggest you stay with Kyle and stay with Kramer.

[D]

Don't miss a second of Mad Money. Follow im kramer on X. Have a question? Tweet Kramer hashtag madman. Send Jim an email to madmoneynbc.com or give us a call at 1-800-743-CNBC.

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[D]

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[A]

SIPC what if your drive was fueled with more like more protection for more time on the road? Shell V Power Nitro plus provides more protection for longer lasting engines, so it helps keep your engine running like new for whatever drive is ahead. Shelby Power Nitro plus engine performance that lasts compared to minimum detergent gasoline with continuous use of Shelby Power Nitroplus and gasoline direct injection engines, actual effects and benefits may vary. See shell us/more dash protection for more information. When we look at what's behind much of this year's gains, we often miss arguably the biggest driving force outside of tech in the data center. I'm talking about the takeover boom. $1.2 trillion in US M&A activity through the first five months of this year, almost double what we saw in the same period last year. And it's only going to get more heated because of a big change in the regulatory environment. The Supreme Court just came out with a shocking decision that allows the president to fire any commissioner of any independent agency aside from the Federal Reserve. Given that President Trump seems to love takeovers, he can now ensure they happen by fully staffing the Federal Trade Commission and other regulatory agencies that have been anti combinations with his own people. Plus, the Justice Department's antitrust division just let the media know that it clearly wants to avoid complex, expensive trials on the M and A front. It almost seems like a multi year Holiday from antitrust enforcement. Doesn't it impact simple. I think we're about to see a wave of takeovers in banks, pharmaceuticals, tech, oil and gas, retail and telecommunications. Something akin to the double deal activity we already saw in the first several months of the year. Probably more. So let's start with the banks. For years there's been an informal rule that no bank can have more than 10% of the nation's deposits. We have thousands of banks in this country. I think we're going to see a wave of takeovers in this group as that informal rule will most likely fall by the wayside. That's what's driving the incredible run the regional banks that you've been seeing lately. Plus, with this wave of mergers, we're going to see some spectacular returns from Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, both of which have huge M and A advisory businesses. You need exposure to this group because the banks making these acquisitions can make fortunes from cost cutting. Second, Big Pharma used to buy little pharma like biotechs by the boatload. But that ended under the Biden administration, which was extremely hostile to virtually all murders, particularly this kind. Now, beginning this last quarter, we're seeing not just a reversion of the old days, but the possibility of a dramatic increase in deals. I expect Big Pharma will buy all sorts of biotechs, but I also think that they're going to start buying each other again. It's just too easy to create wealth by making acquisitions and then using AI to bring down costs. I know the President was blasting the oil companies about high prices today, but given the administration's regulatory appointments, we should see a gigantic number of deals not just between the biggest companies buying smaller companies, but even mergers among the giants. That's right. To rationalize drilling and oil services and increasing diminished state of reserves about retail. We have way too many stores in this country as retailers have resisted takeover for the last couple of decades. Before that, retail deals with the staples of M and A used to see one every five weeks. The opportunity to consolidate, especially in grocery and hard goods, will be irresistible. Especially at a time when Amazon, so dominant its rivals, need to join forces if they want to stay relevant. Hey, memo to some of these guys who were turned down by the previous administration. Try it again. Finally, the specter of Starlink could cause a rethink of entire industries. From cable as we saw Comcast split up yesterday, to satellite, entertainment, telecommunications. You cannot compete against Elon Musk Starlink unless you have a colossal amount of scale, much more than any of these companies has right now. Telco mergers that would have been unthinkable for decades could easily get the green light under the Trump anti antitrust regime. You need to be able to compete with Starlink. Look, I still love tech. Later tonight we're going to hear from one of the greatest wealth creators of all time, Sanjay Marocha, CEO of Micron. This year I see no end of Micron's rising profits, which should translate into a rising stock price. But the bottom line, it won't just be earnings driving stock prices higher the second half of the year. It'll be an extremely robust M and A pipeline. Takeovers are a terrific reason to stay long stocks, especially when the White House has very little interest in blocking these deals in any trust grounds. Put these poops on your shopping list and prepare to buy them when the market takes one of its typical second half swooves. Mad money's back after the break.

[D]

Coming up, Micron has emerged as one of the stock market's biggest winners this year. But can the company keep building even greater gains? Kramer's asking the top brass next.

[C]

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[A]

Your pet won't.

[C]

They don't know what insurance is.

[A]

We need to talk about the biggest story in this market, the memory chip shortage that's propelled Micron into the trillion dollar club with its Stock up more than 300% year to date. Now, in the old days, Micron was widely seen as a commodity chip maker. No more. There's so much demand for high end memory for the data center and the company's chips are much more proprietary. So proprietary that they're practically printing money these days. And I think they deserve to. Last week, Micron reported a blowout quarter. One of the biggest beats I've ever seen in my whole Life. Racking up 41.5 billion in revenues when Wall street was only looking for 36 billion at 74% growth, just versus the previous quarter they earned $25.11 per share, more than four bucks ahead of expectations. Gross margins 85%. Staggering for tech. And the current quarter is on track to be even better because Micron keeps signing up what are called both strategic customer agreements with businesses that are desperate to lock up supply of the chips. There seems to be no end to the line of sight here for demand. But even after this incredible run, the stock sells for less than 8 times earnings. Can it keep running? Let's check in with Sanjay Mehrotra, the chairman, president, CEO of Micron to find out. Ms. Broacher, congratulations. The quarter. And welcome back to Man Buddy.

[B]

Thank you, Jen. It's great to be back on your show.

[A]

Well, first I want to start with something that just occurred that I think is really a sign of what you want to do with our great country. This $250 million investment in Trump accounts reaching 1 million children families in the future workforce. Why did you do it, Jim?

[B]

We are very excited as part of America's 250th celebration to announce today that Micron will be investing $250 million to support 1 million children in seven different states where Micron operates 21 different counties. And we are doing this with the seed money for 200 with $250 into Trump accounts of children. And this is really to build the future of America. The children are the future of America. Micron is not a company just about technology and business. We are very much about people and about communities.

[A]

I know that about you and I know that to be the case for many, many years now. This is your trillion dollar moment, Sanjay. So tell us what you think, how that come about and whether you think it's sustainable.

[B]

You know, very pleased with the work that our 55,000 team members worldwide have done. Micron is firing on all cylinders. It is based on the value of memory. Memory has become today a key enabler in AI era from data center to edge. From servers to smartphones to PCs to automobiles, industrial and consumer applications. Every AI system, regardless of the device it is in, requires more memory at higher performance in order to really bring out the full potential of AI capabilities. So of course memory has always been valuable in the past. But the value of memory is not like it ever was. It's continuing to increase. Memory today has really become essential. Its role in this ecosystem is elevated. And you know, Jim, AI is in very early innings. There is a lot of opportunity ahead for our customers to transform the world with their solutions, drive economic growth globally. It all needs memory. So the demand trends, our long term secular, strong demand trends, supply. We have talked about the constraints and that environment of demand and supply is such that we see it going beyond tightness, going beyond 2027.

[A]

You use the keyword secular, secular growth. People always associate your company with cyclical growth. Still, even with this eight times earnings P E multiple, there are a lot of people who think it has to come down. But you have strategic agreements that would indicate that it doesn't have to. And you keep saying no end line of sight, can't find it.

[B]

You know, we have signed these strategic customer agreements with customers addressing data center, automotive and consumer markets. So these are very important. And of course when you look at the data center market, yes, it's become the largest market for memory and storage. But other markets are large too. Micron has 40% of its revenue coming from consumer automotive and industrial markets. So these are very important markets. These strategic customer agreements reflect the confidence that the customers have across the end markets in their plans for products to address the AI opportunity. So this is really the best reflection of how customers value our memory.

[A]

Okay, so how is it possible, I know talk with you quite a bit that most of the companies in your end, the, the suppliers to the data center, Lam kla amat really didn't see it coming. Almost no one saw it coming because I think a lot of people say, wait a second, are these guys hoarding? Is it an oligopoly? Is the oligopoly pricing? But I think that it was impossible to see this demand.

[B]

You know, certainly even our customers could not forecast this demand. And you know, certainly when we were coming out of the 2023 time frame, which is when actually the industry, certain customers drove pricing significantly down in our industry. And that of course resulted in significant negative gross margins, you know, for certain customers, certain products. And that really impacted the investment capability of the industry.

[A]

Losing money, they couldn't. You couldn't afford it.

[B]

Exactly right Couldn't afford it. However, Micron absolutely invested. Even with the headwinds of the industry pricing driven by certain customers in our industry, really impacting our profitability and the balance sheet. We invested even in 2023 timeframe, $10 billion towards leading in memory technology as well as memory supply. Of course, those investments were significantly cut back from the year prior. Jim, in 23, our prices came down to one third of what they were in.

[A]

People need to know that customers drove

[B]

those prices to these unproductive levels. Yet Micron had the vision of investing in the future.

[A]

You had the vision because I remember trying to pin you down. You told me I was a little too optimistic, but you're going to have to spend anyway. But you didn't have the cash flow. Now you got the cash flow. What are you going to do with it?

[B]

So I have to tell you that those that time frame definitely impacted the supply capability in the industry. Of course, now we are investing, we are investing $200 billion investments right here in the U.S. investments globally across where Micron operates, has manufacturing plants. And these investments are very much geared toward trying to bring on supply. But it takes considerable period of time because that requires greenfield supply. And of course, we will invest in the business, we'll invest in R and D, we'll invest in manufacturing, we'll invest in innovation, product leadership and bringing that supply in line with the market demand and excess cash we will return to shareholders.

[A]

All right, we'll keep that thought. We're going to have more with Sanjay Mehrotra, CEO of Micron, after the break. While we've got Sanjay Merotra, CEO of Micron with us, we need to talk about when, if ever, we're going to resolve this memory chip shortage. Right now Micron is investing heavily in semiconductor manufacturing and R and D in the United States Plan to spend 200 billion. Just heard that across the United States, creating more than 90,000 jobs in the process. Although it's going to take years before we see any output. Maybe one of the largest peacetime job creators in history of our country. So let's get back in. It was Sanjay Merchant, Chairman, presidency of Micron. Because this is becoming a huge issue for the entire economy. Sanjay, how can we solve this?

[B]

So Jim, we have talked about the value of memory in the AI era and we have talked about the secular demand trends. Now let's talk about supply constraints. The industry needs green field capacity. That means new construction of clean rooms. That's where Micron is investing heavily in. And those clean rooms take long Time from shovel in the ground to first wafers out. We had the vision of investing way back when and President Trump and his administration actually have helped us accelerate our plans, accelerate our investments. We are very much focused on investing as well as accelerating the investments. Our Idaho Fab will have first wafers out in the middle of next year. And production after qualification by customers will start ramping up in 2028 timeframe. Primarily second Idaho fab, you know, planned with Trump administration also will come about by end of 28 timeframe. We have in New York groundbreaking occurring earlier in the year and that will begin concrete pour later this year. And it will follow our Idaho Fabs in terms of ramping supply. We are investing globally as well in order to bring supply as fast as possible. So one aspect that's important to consider is that fab capacity, new capacity that is now required across the industry. It takes a long time to build. That's why we say tightness continues beyond 27. But the second fact is that the technology, memory technology is very complex.

[A]

It's not like the old days. Right. HBM is hard to make.

[B]

This is, you know, some have called it a technical marvel. Some have called it a combination of magic and science. This is not your grandfather's memory. This is extremely advanced memory, complex stuff, lot of intellectual property. Micron has patents that are now approaching 65,000 patents. HBM, high bandwidth memory that you just talked about, it takes a lot more wafers to produce than the standard memory. And that's putting a lot of pressure on the supply as well.

[A]

Okay, but Sanchez, we know that Morris Chang, a man we all respect, the founder of tsmc, does not trust our country to make it in a reasonable logical matter, 50% higher cost than in Taiwan. Listen to this. It'll be a very expensive exercise in futility doing what you're doing. What do you have to say to that?

[B]

What I will tell you is that Micron has tremendous expense experience operating across the globes over the years in some of the most advanced semiconductor manufacturing that is out there. We of course, have been manufacturing right here in Manassas, Virginia, products for long, what is called long lifecycle memory products that go into automotive, defense, medical, aerospace. By the way, the Trump administration, we have increased our investments there as well. So Micron has strong experience here in

[A]

the US On a dagger. I mean, are there enough people you need to hire a lot of people? I don't see the people with the qualifications that you need. How are you going to change that?

[B]

Micron has world's most Advanced R and D fab in Boise, Idaho, which is where Micron started. That's where the headquarters are. That's where the most advanced R and D is developed for memory. And now we are doing manufacturing, bringing it to Boise, Idaho in the future to New York and then Manassas, Virginia. In addition to the 250 million into Trump accounts we talked about, I want to point out Micron has committed to invest $300 million in developing the pipeline of talent apprenticeships, junior colleges, curriculum for semiconductors in universities, but and reaching out to the talent, training the talent. This is very important. And that talent investment in that talent is essential. We are focused across the country in developing the talent.

[A]

All right, let's think about this in a little more existential, philosophical way. The data centers are bidding up a lot of things. I could say that they're causing a wave of inflation. My cell phone is going up dramatically. I could say that it's because of Micron, or I could say that the data centers are bidding up. Maybe they should be offering some sort of stipend surplus to people to make it so that our phones don't get too expensive. What do we do? Things are going up too quickly in cost.

[B]

So I will point out that data centers and AI and US leadership in AI is of course critically important for our economic interests here in the country as well as national security. Advancement of AI in the data center capability is really critical. Ultimately enabling the consumers, users of phone devices to have the kind of experiences that in the past either were not possible, were too difficult, or were too costly now is creating opportunities across the board. Second, I would tell you that for our critical markets like automotive, we of course sell at lower prices compared to the data center. I'll also say that in smartphone, our products sell for less compared to the data center products. So of course diversification is important. That's why I was pointing out to you earlier that 40% of our business is pretty much towards consumer markets such as automotive and smartphones and PCs.

[A]

Okay?

[B]

So maintaining this diversification is extremely important for us.

[A]

Last concept, last question. You and I have talked for a long time about the notion of Korea being dominant. Have you with your R and D, have you with your fabs past SK Hynix, Are you better than Samsung right here? Tell me.

[B]

I'll tell you that today, Micron, when it comes to DRAM as well as NAND technology, we are a clear technology leader. We have.

[A]

That's not always been the case under, under previous CEOs, that is so over

[B]

the Course of last few years we have established four successive generations of technology leadership in dram. Today we are a technology leader in NAND as well. Not just technology, product leadership as well across DRAM, across HBM, across NAND. We just announced in our earnings call that our HBM4 product again the most complex product in the world in terms of memory to produce Micron shipped. At the time of our earnings call we said we have already shipped to date more than $1 billion. And I can tell you Jim, our technology position, our product position, our momentum on products such as data center SSDs as well as these HBM shows micron momentum today. We are extremely competitive, well positioned.

[A]

And you're the only one who's doing this in our country, right?

[B]

Absolutely. We are the only ones investing in R and D and manufacturing. We are the memory and storage leader, the only company here in the U.S. investing as we said earlier, $200 billion across America in manufacturing and R and D and creating 90,000 jobs.

[A]

Excellent. I want to thank Sanjay Mehrotra, Chairman, President, CEO of Micron technology symbol mu. Be proud of our country. I'm proud of what you guys have done. That money's back after the break.

[D]

Coming up, he's the fastest mind on Wall street. So we're putting him to the test with your help. Bring on the lightning round next.

[A]

It is time. It's time for the lightning round. Crypto and best friend Roger Golden. He's hitting this. Talk attended. Bye bye. Soul soldiers know the calls crest around my stepfather's equipment to the planet sound and then the lightning round is over. Are you ready? Ski Dagon on the right. I'm coming up by the storm with Karen in Kansas. Karen, hi. Hi Jim. Hey Kara, how you doing? Oh, great.

[C]

It's really hot in Kansas right now.

[A]

In the 90s and over a hundred. Over 100. Feel like temperature.

[C]

Yes.

[A]

Wow. Suzleen.

[D]

Yes.

[A]

What I want to talk to you

[C]

about is ultra clean technology.

[A]

That's one of the hottest stocks in the world. And as long as the data center stays hot, that stock is going to continue to make money. But it is expensive. Here's what I would do. I would take a quarter of it off, get some of that cost basis out and then let the rest run for another 15%. Now we're going to Robin in California. Robin. Hi, Jim.

[C]

Hey Rob.

[B]

About TE connectivity.

[A]

Yeah. I think the stock should be higher. I don't understand why the multiple is so low. It should be a market multiple. I think this terrific stock, I remember it was I remember when it was created, it was always terrific. I want to buy that stock for the trust. You got a good one there. I've been thinking about. I've been mowing. Let's go to Jackson in Iowa. Jackson. Hey, how are you, Jim? I'm doing well. Jackson, how about you? I'm amazing. So I turned 23 tomorrow.

[B]

I'm young.

[A]

I'm not looking to sell right now.

[B]

With that being said, what do you

[A]

think about Voyager Technology? Okay, I'm going to tell you that only because you told me that can I encourage you to buy it. Because this company is losing so much money, it may take a lifetime before they make money. Oh, and by the way, happy birthday. I mean, let's have one moment in this show that I'm not angry. Happy birthday. All right. I'm angry because I just got back from vacation. Just so you understand that. Barry. Isn't that. Isn't we supposed to. Please don't be angry. I hope you have a good time, Barry. And Florida. And I'm not mad at Barry. I'm not mad at Barry. Barry, what do you have that's a good thing?

[C]

Okay.

[A]

Founding member of the club, I think. Third time I've called. I'm calling about a spec that I made about a year ago pretty much on your comments. And I purchased about a half a position at the time. And around June, I got a little antsy and I sold off half of it. So I have about a quarter of a position now. The stock actually did quite well today, up about 7%. I'm curious to know what you would do at this point in time with my sybotic asym. Symbolic. I have to tell you, the company is making money. I think it's a very good spec. I reiterate that I am not against symbol. Look, symbolic. There are so many losing money companies out there that people buy. This one is not. I think it's a decent spec and too low. Now we're going to go to Mark in Wisconsin. Mark. Dr. Kramer, thank you for taking my call. Oh, it's my pleasure. I got a. I got a stock for you in solar and semiconductor. I own it. It's way off its past ties. Should I be adding to my position at these prices? The ticker enph. Enphase and face. No, it's too erratic, too episodic, too. Frankly, there is. As far as I'm concerned, this thing is one of the hardest stocks in the world to own. I'm gonna have to say ixnay on that one. Now we're gonna go to Michael in Illinois. Michael, Jimmy. Jimbo, thank you. Second time caller. Just want to say it's a privilege talking to the man, the myth, the legend. You know something, Michael? It's right back at you, Michael. Right back at you. Booyah, buddy. And Kyle. Kyle too. Booyah. Booyah. So my question is, you got chevron, Microsoft, Caterpillar, GE Renova, all in that little 20 year bid, right? What do you think about GE Vernova? GE Vernova of those is my favorite. It's one that the capital trust is a very big position. I believe it's Scott Trac. I think it is a terrific situation held up very well. I say still by GE for Nova and that, ladies and gentlemen, conclusion of the Lightning round.

[D]

The Lightning round is sponsored by Charles Schwab.

[A]

Is it finally safe to circle back to some of the stocks that I think being crushed by a displacement worries. But while there are real victims of competition from artificial intelligence out there, a ton of proverbial babies got thrown out with the bathwater. Take Paychecks. That's America's second largest payroll processor. It's focused on small and medium sized business, but it's going large to the major outsourced human capital management division. Here's a stock that peaked at $161 a little over a year ago, plunging to $85 and change this April rebound to 98 as of today. While Patriots kept reporting solid numbers the whole time, Wall street just didn't seem to care. But after bottoming in April, the stocks found its footing of late. Didn't hurt that when Paychecks reported last week they delivered a good quarter with a strong full year forecast. So can this one keep rebounding? Let's dig deeper with John Gibson. He's the President CEO of Paychecks. Mr. Gibson, welcome back to Mad Money. Jim, it's great to be back with you. Thank you, John. One of the things I want to get get them right off the top is it is remarkable to me that people felt you should be displaced by AI when I think you're using a very complicated, difficult, but I think you've mastered it. AI powered intelligence engine that I think can't, can't be beaten. Just tell us about whys.

[D]

Yeah, I will, Jim. And you're absolutely right. I think all this has been overplayed. Now let's talk about. As you know, we've been investing in data and AI infrastructure for decades. I always remind people in 2022 we won the best use of AI in human capital management. Technology in the industry. Now who was talking about AI in 2022? So fast forward, we just announced WISE. WISE stands for Workforce Intelligence Strengthened by expertise. And what it is is the AI powered intelligence engine. Now that's empowering all of our built for purpose HCM solutions across the enterprise. It leverages a patent pending AI knowledge knowledge mesh network which we designed and developed. It has over five decades of our expertise in it. That's more than 26 trillion data elements and it's already powering over 600 AI features and AI agents across our entire company.

[A]

And what it really does is it's

[D]

turning all of the 50 years of expertise and, and interactions we have with our clients and knowledge we have about compliance and taxes. It's turning that into a data of actionable intelligence for our employees to use to support our clients and a growing number of digital workforce agents that we're deploying each and every day. I really believe no one else in the industry is delivering this level of AI powered autonomous execution for small businesses than paychecks.

[A]

Okay, so John, tell, tell, tell me because you're, you're actually your boots on the ground on this. There is fear of course around the country of job loss. You know small business better than anyone. You have your own small business index that everybody uses in this country. Are more jobs being created by AI than are being destroyed by AI?

[D]

Jim, I will continue to tell you that all technology revolutions that we've had have evolved jobs. They've not destroyed them. And I think that we're going to see a boom of creativity and, and innovation going on in the workforce. You mentioned the index. Let's, let's check in with some facts, not hyperbole. Okay, so we just released our index this morning. For the fourth consecutive month, we've seen improvement in the pace of job growth amongst our clients under 50. That's the first four month consecutive increase we've seen since November of 2020.

[C]

Wow.

[D]

But in addition to that, we look at our 50 and above clients and they're even having stronger growth. So I see not only no signs of layoffs, no signs of recession, I actually see more resilience and more acceleration in small business growth. And what was interesting, Jim, in this report, it was broad based, it was every region, it was every industry. So quite frankly, I look at the setup and I say with the rebounding small business, the resiliency of small business, you look at the momentum we had coming out of our last fiscal year that just ended May 31, Paychex has never been better. Positioned to take, take advantage of this new era in human capital management.

[A]

Okay, so John, when I look at Chachi Beat when I go into Claude, if you put in that you want a business plan to start a new company, it tells you how to do social, how to set it up, how much money it'll cost, even what risk it will have. Are you seeing people, seeing clients with 3, 4, 5 people that started like that with a business plan that they got from Claude?

[D]

Well, Jim, I think all businesses start with an owner who is an entrepreneur who's willing to take risk and has an idea. Now they need the tools and support to be able to execute on that idea. And what I think you'll find is a lot of these tools are going to create a nice little checklist for you to do. What we believe is the real power of this is coupling this with our expertise where we can actually then assist you to get it done. And now we're building autonomous agents to actually do it for you so we can actually help file to get your business started. Let me give you an example. On July 7th, we're going to launch a set of new releases leveraging AI in our H R compliance product called 650. Now 650 tracks every law in every state, every county, every city. It has all of our compliance data in it. It helps businesses create documentation that they need to create a business and start a business and hire people legally and compliantly. What's even more amazing about this, Jim, we've been using this internally with our HR people that are giving the advice. We've now embedded it into all of our platforms and we are now starting to offer it on a standalone basis to any small and medium sized business that wants to use our Compliance Wise database to be able to help them support their compliance with employees. And so you Tomorrow is a big day of new regulations across the country. It's a day that most states execute new employment laws. Every municipality is doing that. So we're going to have a regulation day on the first Independence Day on the 4th and on July 7th, with our 650 product, we're going to give businesses the freedom to succeed with compliant hr.

[A]

Well, I think small, medium sized businesses are going to need that help is when the regulations change. The thing that puts most businesses out of business isn't interest rates, it isn't demand, it's not complying with the law. That is John Gibson, President CEO of Paychex. Thank you John. Great to see you.

[D]

Thank you, Jim.

[A]

I like to have a great holiday. Thank you. You too. I like to say there's always a bull market somewhere. I promise you, I find just for you. Radio Man Money. I'm Jim Cramer. See you tomorrow.

[C]

All opinions expressed by Jim Cramer on this podcast are solely Kramer's opinions and do not reflect the opinions of CNBC or its parent company or affiliates, and may have been previously disseminated by Kramer on television, radio, Internet, or another medium. You should not treat any opinion expressed by Kramer as a specific inducement to make a particular investment or follow a particular strategy, but only as an expression of his opinion. Cramer's opinions are based upon information he considers reliable, but neither CNBC nor its affiliates and or subsidiaries warrant its completeness or accuracy, and it should not be relied upon as such. To view the full Mad Money disclaimer, please visit cnbc.com madmoneydisclaimer say you've always

[A]

wanted to have a backyard oasis. Here's the thing. If you get smart with your money, you can do things like that. With Empower, you can start making the

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[C]

Com.

[A]

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