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Building a portfolio with Fidelity Basket Portfolios is kind of like making a sandwich. It's as simple as picking your stocks and ETFs, sort of like your meats and other topics and managing it as one big juicy investment. Mmm. Now that's pretty good. Learn more@fidelity.com baskets Investing involves risks, including risk of loss. Fidelity Brokerage Services, LLC Member NYSE SIPC.
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Member.
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C
Oh, could this vintage store be any cuter?
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B
Right. And the best part, they accept Discover.
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C
Except Discover in a little place like this? I don't think so. Jennifer.
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D
Oh, yeah, huh?
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B
Discover's accepted where I like to shop. Come on, baby, get with the times.
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C
Right. So we shouldn't get the parachute pants.
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D
These are making a comeback, I think. Discover is accepted at 99 of places that take credit cards nationwide. Based on the February 2025 Nielsen report.
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B
It's Jim Cramer here. You're listening to the opening bell of cnbc. Squawk on the Street. Don't miss a minute of the action in Kentucky.
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E
We've worked with our partners at Corning to build the world's largest and most advanced smartphone glass production line. And I'm pleased to announce that very soon, this is for the first time ever, every single new iPhone and every single new Apple watch sold anywhere in the world will contain cover glass made in Kentucky.
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F
That was Apple CEO Tim Cook back in August at the White House. Good Friday morning. Welcome to Squawk on the Street. I'm Carl Quinton here with David Faber of Post nine of the New York Stock Exchange. Kramer is in Harrodsburg, Kentucky at the Corning plant which is making glass for all of Apple's iPhones and watches. Meantime, the premarket is mixed. S and P has put together a near perfect week so far for all time. Highs yields coming off the lows of the week ahead of the Fed decision next week. Let's get to Jim in Harrodsburg, Kentucky. Morning, Jim.
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B
Well, I've got to tell you something, guys. This is one of the most exciting shoots I have ever done. David, great that you're here because I know we've got a ton of new news. This is the place where I think that Tim Cook's answer to what's going on around the world and at the White House is alive and well. We are at the place that I think we build the best ever. I've got the new one, but more importantly, it's all coming here. This is made all over the world for this and for this. And that's going to end. It's going to be all made right here. $2.5 billion commitment. And I've got to tell you, David, the excitement of having Tim Cook here with us with Wendell Weeks, CEO of Corning, I think it's worth marveling over.
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D
For a minute, you know, without a doubt. And an important week for Apple. Not that they aren't all important, but certainly this one in terms of the introduction of the new phones. So what are we expecting here?
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B
Well, look, I mean, we're going to learn about the pre. The pre orders, which started at 8 o' clock today. We're going to focus on what's different, at least initially, with this phone versus others. I think Wall Street's got it wrong. I think there are a lot of amazing things in this one, say, versus this one. And then of course, we're going to talk about the situation of how do we revitalize American manufacturing, invest in America, and then the idea of what it takes to make it happen. 600 billion from one company over four years. Is that reasonable? David, I know you've often talked to me about the idea that, well, what can, what can we really do to bring back manufacturing? So I think all these things are going to matter. And I want you to take a look at who stopped by this very morning.
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E
We've got a whole new design. Check this out.
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B
Gorgeous. Gorgeous. Oh, my.
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D
Killer color.
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E
Killer color. And it's available next Friday.
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B
Okay.
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E
And so we're taking pre orders today. We've also got the air. It's so thin, it may not show up on the camera. Hold it.
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B
You can't tell. It's in your hand.
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E
It's so light. It's like you're holding the future in your hand. And it's the thinnest iPhone ever. It's so incredibly light and it's pro performance in that smaller package.
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B
So. But I would presume, and most of our viewers would presume, that the battery life must be much shorter. Too tiny.
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E
The battery life is great. You're going to love the battery life.
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B
How is it possible?
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E
Well, it's because we engineered it from the inside out. It's ESIM only. And so we were able to take the battery and extend the battery to areas that previously had the physical sim. And so it's incredible innovation.
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B
Now, a lot of this is in response to what I think you. I know you've always been in touch with customers better than they are the CEO. I know this. You think these are things that people demand and you just, you create it.
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E
Yeah, we try to listen Very carefully to what customers want, what they desire, and also sort of look around the corner and give them something they don't know they want. Center Stage is a great example of that. Live translation is an example.
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B
You got to talk about that because we ever. It's impossible. This would be the first thing I heard when I thought of it.
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E
The new AirPods Pro 3, in addition to hearing help, which is incredible. I need that in addition to having this just unbelievable audio quality and active noise cancellation. It's four times better than the original AirPods Pro, which were already.
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B
I was gonna say, how is that possible? I never heard the crying babies. So now what I don't hear now you're not gonna hear anything. All right, I'll take it.
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E
You're not gonna hear anything at all. So live translation, if you're talking in one language and I'm talking in another, it will translate for us so we can communic. And it's absolutely incredible. I'm getting so many notes about this from people who travel the world and you know who, if you're in a foreign country, you may want to ask for to order something off a menu or ask to buy something, or maybe you just want navigational instruction or so. But now it's so simple.
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B
Well, it's amazing because I think all of us are used to trying. Let me show you my phone. And it's got some written and it's in their language, but not really because it doesn't work. You've got phrases that are captured.
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E
That's right.
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B
So, Carl, what we're talking about here, obviously there's great wonderment about this and it has to do with the glass recording, it has to do with this. This is the side that really matters. It has to do with filming, it has to do with selfies. But at six o', clock, we're going to get into what it has to do in terms of the world, in terms of the White House, in terms of jobs, in terms of tariffs, in terms of. Yes, earnings per share. Because you know me, I'm still a dollar sign represented by a man, even though I want this phone and I've already placed my order. It's very, very exciting down here. We're going to talk to Wendell Weeks to see you of Corning. Talk about a hot stock. That one is one that I think could be a rocket ship.
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F
It's really interesting. I was just thinking, Jim, watching that remarkable piece of tape, one of the foremost supply chain experts in the world, literally walking through a factory. We've Been through a lot of upgrade cycles together, the three of us watching these things happen, but rarely has it coincided with a push for domestic manufacturing like the one we're in right now.
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B
No, it's amazing. I mean, look, you're talking about putting far more people to work in this story town, this place, always this. People forget this was from the Cold War. We had to have the best glass. We had to have glass that could do remarkable things. And then it just speaks to generations of a town that has kept producing and producing, producing great things. A lot of that is because that's the Corning way as it is up in Corning. If anyone's ever visited there, you know that It's a wonder of engineering, David. What it, what it speaks to is if American management does a great job, instills in a community the ability to do better than anywhere else. I got to tell you, with or without tariffs, David. With or without tariffs. Because we know that some things are done so well in a level playing field, they're going to win. I don't know. Do you see? Do you sense it, Dave? You sense it, David?
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D
What am I sensing, Jim? Sorry, maybe sensing.
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B
What are you sensing? Are you sensing that. That. That Amazon would pay 35 for Warner Brothers, There'd be a bidding war with Apple and I'll ask Tim. Hey, Tim. Hey, Tim. Are you at about 37? How about. There's 39? About 42.
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C
42.
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I keep those off.
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D
Yeah, I mean, the biggest deal they've ever done is Beats. It's not clear they're interested in doing much else. Warner Brothers does make some important shows for Apple. I think Shrinking Ted Lasso are both out of the Warner Brothers studio, so that's not unimportant. Why don't you ask me? They're going to buy Disney. But no, I, I got a lot to say on that. But this is. Listen, I remember when Corning, Remember fiber optics. That was obviously, well, 25 years ago when they were making all the fiber.
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B
Yeah, I talked about that with Wendell Weeks, the CEO, this morning. The amazing thing is, and this place is so important for people who are involved with, with data centers right now. When you go into a rack of data in the data center, you're going to find so much by Corning, but it could triple. This is what connects the, the Vera Rubin, what connects the current Blackwell. They are partners within video, so they're partners with much more than just glass for iPhones. And we're going to get into that too. Carl, I think this is a Remarkable place. And I think Corning's a remarkable stock because it is deep into the data center and yet people rather own every other thing, the plumbing, the air conditioner. They maybe should own Corning for the data center. We're going to talk about that later.
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F
Any, any discussion, Jim, about what this does to pricing. We didn't see them pull a lot of levers this week on, on these devices, but are the input costs higher here than they would have been otherwise?
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B
Well, that's what we're going to discuss tonight. We've got to nailed down how much it costs. How is it economic to do all these things? Wasn't it more economic to be able to make glass in the other places? We got to figure out as if you were a shareholder. Do you like this? Or is it how much of it is done for the White House, how much it is done for the community, how much it is done for the shareholder? Our viewers are shareholders. They want to know whether this is what we're doing. If you're spending 600 billion, is that right? Is that right? And they deserve to know because they own shares. And we're going to find out.
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D
Jim, we'll be obviously getting a lot more from you as we go along, but you're not going anywhere. And you did bring up Warner Brothers. I did want to get to that. Now, in terms of really what was, you know, I can't say it was stunning news because in some ways, I think based on what I've learned at this point, it wasn't. It was a surprise to Warner Brothers, but perhaps not a complete surprise in the sense of, yes, you've seen what's happened to the stock price. This after, of course, reports that Paramount is preparing a bid to buy all of Warner Brothers. And as I confirmed later yesterday, that is the case, said bid could be coming as soon as next week. Don't expect it this weekend. But in the near term, of course, the key question is going to be what is the bid and how is it structured? At this point, there is no doubt in my mind, based on at least what I've been hearing, that it will have to comprise largely, if not almost solely cash from Paramount. Because the Warner Brothers board at this point, probably not that interested in something that includes a good amount of stock of Paramount. A price. Well, I mean, you can see what's happening in the market place, in what's happened over the last day, obviously, given that enormous rise in the stock price yesterday, what seems to be followed today by another significant accretion of Value in Warner Brothers, could it be in the low 20s? Is that something that will get the attention of Warner Brothers board? Certainly would seem to be if it is largely cash. But I've also had conversations that listen, even if it was 25, but it was 5050 which is not, I don't think going to be the case. It's a no go. So cash has to be the key here. Based on what I've at least heard, that would indicate that it is largely going to be composed of cash. Interesting move in Paramount shares though, because if it's going to be cash, that's got to come from somewhere, doesn't it? And you're talking about two companies that are fairly highly levered. Three times at Paramount, three plus times at Warner Brothers. So really how many turns of leverage could you add? Not that much. Meaning Larry Ellison most likely and maybe some of his partners. Redbird, of course, one of the key ones. They're going to have to come up with a lot of cash. And how does that work? Well, you actually put the cash into Paramount, you get something for it, don't you? Either common or some sort of preferred. Either way you are diluting Paramount shareholders significantly. Something that maybe was lost on. People were buying the stock yesterday. I don't know, perhaps they're simply buying into the overall strategy here. But it would be potentially significantly dilutive given the amount of cash that would have to come into Paramount to pay for a bid that would get the attention, if not get approved by Warner Brothers board. Remember, Warner Brothers is moving forward right now with a split into its global networks business which by the way will own as much as 20% of the other part of the business, namely streaming and the studio. That split expected to take place, let's call it April of next year. There's no forcing function here by the way. We're Paramount to come with a bid that Warner Brothers didn't like. There's no vote, there's no annual meeting so they can say no without a seeming forcing function. Another key question would be, well, if you're Warner Brothers, don't you really have to at least go to what we call an auction if you get this bid, as seems highly likely in let's call it the next week or so, do you have to check with Netflix? Do you have to check with Tim Cook at Apple, do you have to check with Amazon and see guys have any interest in buying the entire company right now? We think there might be a lot of interest in you buying studios and streaming once it's A separate company six or so months from now. But would you really want to take on the cable networks right now? Unclear that that would be the case. And that may be one key reason why Paramount's moving now as opposed to waiting where it might have to compete for with the big tech companies in terms of that. So a lot of moving parts here, guys. I would defer as well to David Ellison, who I sat down with only a few weeks ago when they closed the Paramount transaction at Skydance and his discussion about creating long term value. Take a listen. What we're going to do is restructure our business to run significantly more efficiently and then we're really going to invest into our growth areas like studios and streams means in sports, right? And so, and I think what's important between my family and our partners with Jerry Cardinal and redbird, we own 70% of the economics of this business. So we are focused on one thing which is truly long term value creation. Jim, you know, listen, with Larry Ellison's money, I mean, he's not a sentimental guy. You don't get as rich as he is by not caring about making good economic decisions. But you know, we'll see where they end up here.
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Okay, so David, I'm looking at the Warner WarnerMedia Holdings. I'm looking at all these different pieces of debt. They're all horrendous. If I were Amazon, I would say, well, you know what, we could really do a kill or Apple. We've got the best balance sheet in the world. We just pay off that debt. We immediately become the number one entertainment company. We don't really know how to do entertainment. We're using, we're using Time Warner for a lot of the things anyway. David, can't these companies pay much, much more and just decide, you know what, we want this and we love Ellison, he's perfect guy, but he can't be in our league.
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D
Well, they could, of course. But at the same time, you are buying a company with cable networks right now as opposed to waiting perhaps when the split occurs and you get what you really want, which is the pseudos and streaming business. If they actually want that, you don't want the cable networks, do you move immediately to spin them off, you know, or announce a spin maybe, but even there you're, there's value that you're losing over the period of time to close the deal and then, and then do a spin of said cable networks as well. So, you know, it could be difficult to pull off.
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There's no things long term.
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D
They do they do. Listen, there's a lot of synergies, a lot of costs that will come out as a result of putting together Paramount and Warner Brothers, not to mention the streamers as well. There's a lot of money that can be saved. So there is some financing they can add even though they're over three times levered, let's call it as a combined company. They could maybe add internal leverage, but there's a lot of cost synergies coming out as well. You're not going to see that as much with the Apples or the Amazons or, or maybe even the Netflix is, and that's the interesting name here as well.
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B
Paramount moving while it has their number one and everything. They're number one in everything right now. We know that. That's why you can steal. Yes, you can.
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D
Still the studio is turned, it's having great year. Their production for TV is very strong right now. They would say that, you know, but what, what represents the steel now? I mean really, you know, low 20s, all cash, mid 20. I mean, we'll see. This board's going to have a lot to think about, you know, Anthony Noto, Anton Levy, Faisal, I mean all of these guys, not to mention Malone's, you know, not on the board anymore, but he's sort of emeritus. But he talks to Zaslav every day. He's still going to have influence here. He owns only about 1% of the overall stock of Warner Brothers. It's going to be fascinating. My questions continue to be where are we going to end up in terms of price? It's got to be a lot of cash, I can tell you that right now because something with a lot of stock in it is a no go from what I'm hearing. Secondly, do they go to an auction? And actually to your point, Jim C. Is there interest in buying the whole company from the likes of the names you just mentioned?
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B
Well, I got to tell you, Carl, how many? A couple of weeks ago we thought all these were worthless, right? Then we have Echo Star, we have this. I mean, what about Discovery is one of the greatest shorts of all time, right? I mean you just shorted forever. The cows come home, bad balance sheet. Who knows what's going to happen with TV and then suddenly maybe it's worth 25, Carl.
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F
Well, there's the financing part, guys, and then there's the regulatory part. And David, there's so much discussion about Colbert's cancellation and the 60 minute settlement and an ombudsman new interview policies that face the nation and whether that's trying to grease the wheels a little bit.
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D
Bit, no doubt. I think there is a belief, Carl, frankly that were this deal to actually be accepted by Warner Brothers Discovery again an offer that is yet to be made. But let's assume that they were that you would get the antitrust and regulatory approvals that you need for this deal. That's different than for example the expectations perhaps our parent company for at least a few more months. Comcast in a very difficult position can't really do this. It would seem by the way, you're going to what you're going to make a bid for, for Paramount when you're spinning off your cable networks that that just doesn't seem to work. And then others, you know, it's more of a question Jim, in terms of the regulatory. But here it would seem that there is an expectation if they in fact make a bid that is accepted by the Warner Brothers board that they would be able to get it done. CBS and CNN come, you know, there, I mean there'd be a lot of pain to, to, to Carl's point as well in terms of where things end up given those two news organizations as Paramount shares around a bit. Yeah.
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B
Can a family company, can a family company move faster than an Amazon, move faster than an Apple, move faster than Netflix? This is a family company.
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D
Yeah, it is. You're right. It's controlled as David Ellison just said, it's controlled by the Ellison family and you know, Redbird obviously there as well. Yeah, they can move quickly, quick. Listen, Larry Ellson can do whatever he wants. He's got so much money but he could, you know, he by the moon. But there's not a great economic return there one would expect. I know. You tell me, has he gotten more sentimental now that he's, you know, 80 years old? I don't know.
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B
No, he's not a sentimental fellow. No, no. I don't want anyone to even think that for that for a second. No, I mean he's nicer than Alex Carr.
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D
Well then he's going to do something that makes economic sense in his opinion. And you know, yes, they are investing for the long term. I don't have any doubt about that. You heard Ellison say it, you'd believe it. And maybe there's something else after this if in fact they do get there. But it's going to be great to follow this guys over the next let's call it a few weeks and see where we end up and what happens. It's kind of old media. I think it's called fun.
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B
It's really important to point out that David was going to have a Colin Oscar be this morning, but he canceled it to be able to be here.
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D
Postponed public service announcement. Everybody get out there and get make sure you got them. I do that. No, you know, it's the usual routine. There's nothing thankfully that necessary to do it today given when you do it.
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B
I want you to use this new best selfie in the world. You can selfie your colonoscopy.
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D
Thankfully I didn't start the, I didn't start the prep before I got the calls on this. So I was like, oh, thank God. All right, I'll come in tomorrow because that would have been a bad situation.
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F
Where David, I don't know. When we come back, a lot more from Kramer's time in Kentucky with Apple chief Tim Cook. Plus a Bluegrass State edition of Kramer's Mad Dash. As we count down to the opening bell, take a look at the pre market. We'll get to Adobe and RH&SMCI. Take a look at Oracle's big Week when we return.
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D
Saving on your education should be a right, not a competition.
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C
At University of Phoenix, you'll get the.
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D
Best scholarship or savings you qualify for. Simple as that. Explore scholarship options at University of Phoenix.
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A
Olivia loves a challenge. It's why she lifts heavy weights and likes complicated recipes. But for booking her trip to Paris, Olivia chose the easy way with Expedia. She bundled her flight with a hotel to save more. Of course, she still climbed all 674 steps to the top of the Eiffel Tower. You were made to take the easy route. We were made to easily package your trip. Expedia Made to travel flight inclusive packages are atoll protected. Building a portfolio with Fidelity Basket Portfolios is kind of like making a sandwich. It's as simple as picking your stocks and ETFs, sort of like your meats and other topics and managing it as one big juicy investment. Now that's pretty good. Learn more@fidelity.com baskets Investing involves risks, including risk of loss. Fidelity Brokerage Services LLC Member NYSE SIPC.
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D
All right, you hear the cheers here as we count you down to an opening bell on Friday. Maybe also cheering for the fact that it is Friday, let's do our last mad dash of the week. Of course, head back down to Kentucky and Ms. Mr. Kramer. What do you got?
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B
Right where I am at a beautiful gas factory. Morning, David. One of the things that I think is amazing is when you think of semiconductor stocks and what is powering higher, you think of in Video. Well, wait a second. Maybe you should be thinking about Micron, because Micron Stock was at 64 in April. Dave it's crashing into the 160 level. Why is this high bandwidth memory now? Sanjay Marotra, the CEO who is the least promotional, the CEOs that I deal with would tell you, wait a second, that's only part of our business. We're largely dram. But this is all about data center. Every time we discover new stock. This is in the data center. That's big. We didn't know, by the way, Corning is huge in the data center. And I haven't heard a soul who talks about it. But we will talk about it tonight.
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D
You know, Micron's move yesterday was enormous. And then it's being followed up today, I don't know where. I mean, I know the multiple is always low. We talked about it yesterday in terms of being a cyclical. Does this make sense to you, this move?
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B
James? Yes, only because of Micron. Micron has at times there have been periods where it was number one in the S and P and then literally the next year number 500, the S&P. Anybody who remembers the great 93 crash in Micron says, you know what? We got 93. I mean, wait a minute, that's a, that's 1990. Feels like 1840, 1848. It has these moves, moves that are just extraordinary and they don't stop here. I always kid Sanjay, I say, Sanjay, once this thing goes, it goes much further than you think. He has always tried to restrain me, but he can't this time, David. He can't stop me.
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F
What did you make? I don't know if you've seen this piece in the Journal today, Jim, looking at the challenges that open I will have in raising enough money to fulfill these deals with Broadcom, for example, Apple and Oracle. I mean, it's riding on the line here.
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B
It sure is. I mean, there's a presumption that you just have unlimited amount of cash to do anything. I would then, by the way, what they say behind the scenes is unlimited amount of cash to go pay Jensen Huang and Nvidia, because that's the big piece of it. I think that we've seen some studies, some trade journals this week told you about the leap that new Nvidia chips given and how much money you make if you get them. Carl, I am not concerned. This is not 2000 Corning, which was deep into 2000. This is where we are, 2000 revolution for fiber. This is the real deal. Carl I'm not concerned about them getting the money.
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F
Let's get the opening bell here on the CNBC real time exchange with a big door via transportation celebrating an IPO. CEOs going to join us in the next hour at the nasdaq. Gemini's co founders Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss during the honors their global crypto platform Gemini going public. They were on stock today, David, saying even after a 10 year effort on this, they think it's still early innings.
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D
Well, crypto's had obviously a real renaissance over the last year, certainly being embraced by the current administration in a very major way. We've talked often about Circle, of course, and Stablecoin and the very successful initial public offering of that company. We'll see how Gemini performs.
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F
As for IPO count, I think we're in the 140s now for the year. That's up 50% year on year. It's been a good run here.
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D
Yeah, it has been. And we got obviously we got via today, we got Klarna just the other day as well, an important one. You know Jim, I still though hear different things depending of course on people's perceptions in terms of whether this really will be the, the flood of IPOs that so many have hoped for. Certainly here at the New York Stock Exchange.
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B
I got to tell you, if you look at the action we see the stocks of J.P. morgan and Goldman Sachs which have been good predictors, not the TED pick, I'm sorry, also Morgan Stanley, you would most definitely think that there's something much bigger happening. And of course I know that it's not just going to be an iPodOS. It's going to be in your world when you have companies that suddenly are worth twice what we thought. I mean that is just going to cause a lot of bankers to make a lot of calls. David, It's a renaissance moment. And I think, I feel like I'm the only one out there who believes.
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F
I'm not so sure. Jim. Goldman is now the best Dow stock of the year. It surpassed Nvidia.
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B
Great.
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F
It's above JP Morgan, Boeing 3M. That's I think over six months, 46% jump in Goldman Sachs shares, Jim.
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B
And it's, it's become one of the largest position in my trust simply because it's gone up a lot. Although I would say that David Solomon, when he came on David Solomon was not that bullish. Okay. David Solomon was saying yeah, we'll see, it's okay. And they talks about the worries. You got the bond market, Trump, no.
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F
Money well, we just had Abby Joseph of Cohen on Squawk a few moments ago and she kind of reminded us what it's like in a Goldman executive committee meeting. And the job is to say what are we missing? Right. What are we not thinking about? What could go wrong? The kinds of themes that Lloyd was mentioning on the show yesterday.
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B
Well, look, that's, that's being responsible and you certainly want to do that. But I also remember when I, when I would have said that Goldman would have a super premium to the average stock and Goldman frankly, I mean I've got a lot of stocks that are, let's just say boring. Transportation stocks that have much higher multiple than Goldman Sachs. David, if we care about price earnings multiples, the financials are still well behind as they have been ever since 2009.
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D
Yeah, all right, fair point. But I am seeing, you know, again, Goldman Sachs the best performers. As Carl just mentioned, JP Morgan has.
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B
An 8 to be the worst performer.
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D
And that's an era $36 billion market cap. JP Morgan, I mean it's going to be in the trillion dollar club at this rate soon.
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B
Well, it's not that hard to break into it these days, David.
- [29:14]
F
Meantime, speaking of JP Morgan guys, the trading desk this morning, Jim, with a note trying to make the argument very short term that next week's Fed decision might be a sell. The news might rekindle some thoughts about stretch positioning, fading buyback, tailwinds. I wonder if you think we're due for a 3 or 5% correction.
- [29:36]
B
Well, it is September and I think there's a lot of people, a lot of people on the sidelines. You said something the other day, Paul. It's so true. The people have been on the sidelines. They're going to start feeling the heat of their investors and I think they've all been waiting for a big break in September. I think you could have a 1 or 2% correction. I don't know where they could be much more. Unless the President comes out on True Social and says that the Dow's overvalued and I don't think he's going to do that.
- [30:00]
F
Yeah, I mean for all the worries we had, David, about September, we've had four all time highs in eight sessions so far.
- [30:08]
D
Yeah. Looking at an S and P that's up roughly 12% for the year and the Nasdaq obviously performing even better than that and getting ready for next week in the Fed. Guys, I did want to move to some other news this morning. We'll get to Adobe earnings, but the Open Air. I mean, Carl, you know, Carl just mentioned the enormous capital needs of Open Air. We've talked about it endlessly here. The 300 billion that they are now basically promising to Oracle, that sent that stock soaring over the next five years. Broadcom, I mean you go through all of the different commitments that they have, it is truly shocking how much they're going to need to both raise now. Their revenues are also going up at a shocking rate and I think it's the expectation of the company that will continue. We can't show you a chart of Open Air, can we? Because it's a private company. Even though it's worth some half a trillion dollars in those private markets, at least that's where employees most recently sold their stock. And Jim, I think important to mention following up on what I was reporting on yesterday, the continued restructuring of this company, we did late in the day yesterday get the Latest update from OpenAI in terms of where things stand with their one time most important partner Microsoft. No longer the case obviously. SoftBank now perhaps is in that role and there may be others as well. But they have signed a non binding memorandum of uncle standing for the next phase of their partnership. They call it actively working to finalize contract contractual terms for a definitive agreement that will resolve their ownership issues, if we want to call it that and allow the company to move closer towards this new structure. We also got some news on that new structure. The Open Air nonprofit will be paired with an equity stake in the, in the Public Benefit corporation. That's what OpenAI will become, what the, where they're doing the business and they'll have a stake in the nonprofit of $100 billion. So right now about 20%, let's call it of, of the Public Benefit Corporation. But you know, the fact that they're perhaps as a detentier and an ability to have reached a, an agreement or at least they have the Memorandum of Understanding, Jim, is an important moment for, for OpenAI and for Microsoft as well, which is moving in, in different directions as it continues to have this partnership with Open Air.
- [32:45]
B
You're so right. Look, the Microsoft piece of the puzzle I think is that if you go back to the last quarter, Amy Hood was talking about explosive numbers did see about for Azure and one of the things that people heard was wait a second, maybe Azure, Microsoft, Microsoft's equivalent of Amazon Web Services is really coming on strong. David, what I hear from you, if you split these two companies up, maybe Azure is not growing as fast. Maybe Amazon Web Services is not that far behind I want to know that.
- [33:13]
D
Because you're saying that the growth is largely as a result of open Air.
- [33:19]
B
The last big delta in growth might have been open AI. It was, it was such a huge move. I want to see the breakdown of how much was open Air. Everyone wants to know how much open air is really doing. I want to know how much it is, how much of Azure was dependent upon open Air. And maybe that goes away. Maybe it goes away and suddenly. And I have to be on Microsoft for my channel trust. I don't want that. But I know that Amazon Web Services Services has been feeling the heat.
- [33:46]
D
Look, we're trying to make. We've made a chart of open air. This is a historic moment here as our network starts to adjust to the fact that there is an enormous market that doesn't have public companies. We're trying. That's not really telling you much because it doesn't trade, folks. Well, you know, but it does show that. Yeah. You know where they've done the latest round. I don't even really know what that number is. Is, I guess is that. That's what the number is. 469 billion.
- [34:15]
F
No intraday.
- [34:16]
D
No, no intraday. But we're trying. We're trying to adjust, you know.
- [34:21]
F
Yes. Although the one, the one important public company, Jim, that we are talking about today is Apple. There was actually an item on the Wire today. I know Tim mentioned ESIM to you, but there was an item in the Wire, I think from a computer, competing wire service that said maybe a delay of the air in China because of ESIM and some regulatory issues.
- [34:43]
B
Oh, we're definitely going to. Definitely going to talk about that. I do want to just, just show you a little bit more tape of my talk this morning, which is really a preface to how we're going to deal with the. With tariffs and all sorts of trade international. And don't forget India, too.
- [35:02]
E
We'll take 500 billion selfies with iPhone every year.
- [35:07]
B
I've done. I think I did 100, though.
- [35:09]
E
If all of us were in a selfie, we would enter one at a time. The phone would recalibrate.
- [35:14]
B
All right, well, can we get someone in the selfie that we really just respect and love? Yeah, let's get him in here. We got Wendell Weeks here from Cornall. So glad to be here.
- [35:23]
E
So glad to be here.
- [35:24]
B
Welcome to Harrodsburg, Kentucky. Welcome, buddy. Titan Titus bubbling and leaves. Like you, that community is the most important thing. Community is not just America. Community is making it so that we have productive lives that we sometimes, as you said, lost the ability to do. Yes, like the facility you're in today. We actually built it in the 50s, but we view it as our job to keep working with great customers like Apple. We keep innovating and changing the products that we do here because we're committed to the community and the people of the community. Today you guys will get a chance to meet with folks whose family have been here for three generations working in the plant.
- [36:11]
D
This is really cool.
- [36:12]
B
Well, Wendell, you know that there's a perception in America that it's too expensive around the world, too expensive buildings here and not good enough. We can't do it. And yet even from when you started, it was the cold war that started this plant. But you got a call from Steve Jobs and initially trepidation. Even you in trepidation. But the truth is, if you want it done and done right and done it cost effectively, you have something like this. That's exactly right. We built the very first gorilla glass, my friend here, 17 years ago, right in this factory. And now we're going to dedicate 100% of this factory, triple its production. All aim at the newest generations of Apple phones.
- [36:55]
E
Now, every next year, every iPhone sold in the world, not just in the United States, but sold in the world. And every Apple watch will contain glass from this factory.
- [37:07]
B
Well, I did some research that would be a tremendous transference from overseas to America that you've done. This is not just a little bit of a tweak. How are you able to pull this off? Because a lot of it is kind of right at the heart of what is Washington, China, India, those to not be able to happen. But you're doing it, we're doing it.
- [37:31]
E
We'Re doing it, we're doing it together. And so innovation is at the heart of it. You know, the ceramic shape which is on the front and the back of the pro and the air. This is the reason we're able to get the durability that we're able to get. And so we're working together with all of our teams to produce every iPhone glass back in front in this factory.
- [37:59]
B
We're talking about things that aren't supposed to be able to happen. We're talking about an old plan, markets. Both of them not be able to do anything nearly as good as people in Asia. I'm not being jingoistic here. I am being proud. This is an amazing place and these two marvelous companies together have created something that I think is very different, Carl, from my the previous generation phone. I would Just drop it because I know I'll be fine. But then that would be, that's just theater. I don't go for theater. This is the real, real thing and it's made right here, this glass.
- [38:32]
D
All right, you don't go for theater. Although those guys behind you. But everybody else I've seen behind you has the white. I've seen a lot of white. You know, lab coats I'd love to see in one.
- [38:42]
F
Jim.
- [38:45]
B
I might put something on. I mean, why not for a little artifice. Look, we are going to talk extensively about China, about, we're going to talk a lot about India, we're going to, we'll talk about tariffs, talk about President Trump. But I also want to talk about, to Wendell Weeks, the fact that his stocks at a 52 week, 52 week high. And the reason it is, is because of its partnership with Nvidia and what it does in the data center. It is huge in the data center, yet nobody talks about it. Drives me crazy.
- [39:13]
F
We should probably, we should probably, if we're going to talk, if we're going to talk manufacturing, we should at least touch on this Hyundai plant in Georgia and the South Korean workers that landed in Seoul overnight. I mean the South Koreans, they're not pleased with the way their workers were detained and videotaped in shackles. And I wonder if you think that'll be a suppressant on foreign investment.
- [39:37]
B
Well, I do know that of the countries that have been doing what the President wants, I would say South Korea, Mexico and then Japan. So this was. When you're looking for allies, you found one in South Korea. And this doesn't help that relationship one bit. So I think you're absolutely right to.
- [39:57]
D
Focus on something else I want to talk about is Adobe. We didn't get to the numbers, Jim. We were.
- [40:04]
B
I knew you going to go Adobe. I knew you were going to do well.
- [40:07]
D
I mean it is one of the bigger companies, certainly one of the ones that reported earnings. They raised their fiscal 25 digital media say. Yeah. All right, Stocks down. Stocks down about 1 1/2% after looking up in the pre market.
- [40:22]
B
Yeah. Okay, so people bought it up 20 and then up 10. But they didn't realize it was in the conference call Is so much of what they did in those record numbers is raising price. It's not getting new customers. Now they do have some new customers, obviously. But when you raise price in order to be able to make it in a software, a service business, people are seeing through that and they're saying, you know what no matter how much they have, and they have a lot more than 5 billion AI, it's not enough. David, you know what this is like? You know, it's like Salesforce. Those are the two that keep coming up as being able to be cannibalized by themselves because of. Of what you can do with AI. I had to think Adobe had a good quarter, but I recognize if you're just talking about price increases, that's what happens.
- [41:03]
D
Yeah. And I know you're very focused on. On. On CRM as well, for any number of obvious reasons. Certainly you followed the company closely for so many years. And it is an important sort of reflection of, To. To the extent that agentic. I actually, even though they're embracing it, can it hurt their overall business in terms of their. The number of seats, for example, that they're getting paid for when they're, when they're selling their service services to various companies?
- [41:30]
B
Seat shrinkage is the story. Those. That's the operative term you're going to be hearing going forward. The number of seats are shrinking. Now. The new plans that Salesforce has as a consumption model, in other words, it's not about losing seats, but the old Salesforce seats could go down because you can develop product, you can develop that with AI, a lot of tools that make it so that you can do this stuff yourself. I think these are two fantastic companies. But you know what? That just doesn't matter, David.
- [42:00]
D
No, it may not. Guys, I did want to circle back to, you know, towards the top of our hour, Warner Brothers shares continuing an incredible march higher up another 10%. And Paramount, this is even perhaps more, in some ways more curious. As I explained earlier, if, as is expected, the bid when it comes for Warner Brothers is largely cash. Companies have to get it somewhere now they can finance to a certain extent, but the expectation as well is there's going to be a lot more equity put into Paramount to help them then turn around and pay cash for Warner Brothers Discovery, or at least make that bid. That's going to come from Larry Ellison, maybe some of the other partners, such as Redbird or most likely to some extent, but mostly Ellison himself. He's going to get common or preferred. It's going to be dilutive. So again, I mentioned that although this stock already took off to a certain extent, it got memified a bit as well. When they announced, remember the UFC deal, Some said, hey, I know. I talked to others who were. We're below that. They were well below what Paramount was willing to pay. They signed South park for years again at a number that others tell me their competitors, to be fair, was well below what they would have paid. But there is a question even now as to the current EBITDA number at Paramount and whether in fact that may be a bit overstated. We'll see. My point though is that that strength is only helpful for Paramount even though as I reported, there's not a lot of interest in taking much stock, if any, from the Warner Brothers Discovery board if in fact a bid comes. There's also been some questions about tax status. It involves spin offs and the like. The understanding that I have had based on conversations with people who are expert in this is that if Paramount were to come and they were to engage and they were to fail, they would be prevented from ever engaging again with either part of either global networks or the streaming studio business for a period of two years. But it will not prevent said businesses from potentially, potentially selling themselves after spin to another buyer. So that's where that stands in terms of potential tax status involving spins and the like, guys. And then finally, Jim, you know I reported this yesterday in the 3 o' clock hour. Got some attention after somebody bought 100,000 of the December 15th Warner Brothers calls 100,000 contracts yesterday. That may be one reason why there was a feeling that maybe they need to get the idea of the bid out there on the Paramount side. Whoever that was there, they could be in big trouble, I would think.
- [44:43]
B
Yeah, they'll probably go to jail. Spend some time thinking about maybe zero day options in jail. Maybe trade more the SPX than they do individual stocks. David, the one thing I'm trying to figure out, if you step back, a lot of people think thought media was left for dead. I mean look, and there's a lot of companies that just want to get rid of the. Get it off their sheets. They think it's awful and it produces like business news, which is nothing and general news. Are the big bosses wrong? It turned out that maybe TV's worth a little more than we thought.
- [45:15]
D
Well, I think there's certainly a belief that broadcast is worth more. As for cable networks, I guess I'll soon find out when we are of course a traded publicly traded company under Versant, which will be our parent company Castillas right now. Then we'll get a better sense. I'll leave it to the market to decide.
- [45:35]
B
Maybe we're, maybe we're still. We don't know. Hey, maybe we can't wait to get our own stock. There's something maybe. I thought it was bad now today I'm thinking hey you know what, maybe everybody wants to buy us too.
- [45:47]
D
Maybe. Although I don't really know if Paramount really wants on the all, all those cable networks either. I mean maybe they'll do it, do it and then they'll do their own spin. I don't know.
- [45:54]
F
I mean there was talk about tv, Comedy Central.
- [45:58]
D
Yes.
- [45:58]
F
Yeah, those legacy brands, some of them.
- [46:00]
D
Listen, they had great franchises once. What's MTV now it's that one guy.
- [46:03]
B
But the one show over and over.
- [46:05]
F
Again with that so called guys watch Bonds today.
- [46:09]
D
Even put a number on what the.
- [46:10]
F
Fable reports we're going to get. We'll get you Mitch in about ten minutes. Ten year as you know dipped below four earlier in the week. Now back to 406. Dow and S and P are down a touch but NASDAQ all time high. Stay with us.
- [46:24]
A
Building a portfolio with Fidelity Basket Portfolios is kind of like making a sandwich. It's as simple as picking your stocks and ETFs sort of like your meats and other topics and managing it as one big juicy investment. Now that's pretty good. Learn more at fidelity.com baskets Investing involves risks including risk of loss. Fidelity Brokerage Services LLC Member NYSE SIPC. When the flu is keeping you up at night, don't try to tough it out. Knock out your flu symptoms with NYQUIL Intense flu. You got this. It provides powerful relief of your flu symptoms so you can sleep well through the night. NYQUIL Intense Flu. The nighttime sniffling, aching, aching fever. Best sleep with a flu medicine. Use as directed. Keep out of reach of children.
- [47:17]
B
Tim Pre ordering has started.
- [47:19]
E
They have started.
- [47:20]
B
It's a big day for you, isn't it?
- [47:22]
E
It's like Christmas morning for me. I'm opening the gift to find out how many orders there are are zapples.
- [47:29]
F
Tim Cook with Jim this morning ahead of a big mad money tonight.
- [47:33]
B
Jim. Well you got to have a lab coat. David's right. David's Hank, you're right. And selfie device. You see the selfie device. I mean look at this. You are literally it's a two way selfie. We're going to talk about that and then we're going to talk about why our company is spending $600 billion over the course of four years and another company that is doing amazing things away from glass. I cannot wait. Guys, thank you so much for for the fabulous promote. We've got great people here in the factory. Everybody's doing a terrific job. I can't wait to go to work. David, thank you you for coming in on this big day.
- [48:06]
D
You are welcome, Jim. I'm so happy to have been here. I'm just sorry we weren't together. But we will be again next week. But very much looking forward. I mean, you left us hanging there in terms of orders. Are we going to get some news here from Tim Cook? Potentially.
- [48:19]
B
Oh, yeah. You kidding me? Of course. Look at this. I mean, this is. I can have seven. I could have a selfie at Yankee Stadium. Get every single person. Not a problem.
- [48:30]
D
See, why would you want to go to Yankees? Yeah.
- [48:34]
B
Okay. Because if you go to the Mets, all you do is see the Phillies win. That's why.
- [48:39]
F
That's.
- [48:39]
D
I set you up for that one, didn't I? Said it's true, though.
- [48:42]
B
Yeah. That was a cheap date. That was a cheap date. Thank you. But I hope you guys have a good weekend. And we are gonna. I can't wait for today. I love this stuff. You know that.
- [48:52]
F
It's. It's a good one, Jim. And you'll have a lot more to dissect. We never really got to RH in a big way. We didn't play Gary Freeman.
- [48:59]
B
Housing.
- [49:00]
F
Yeah. Yep. Have housing tariffs, discounting furniture. Tough business.
- [49:06]
B
Yeah, it always was a tough business. You got to go to High Point, North Carolina. President's right. That's where the upholstery is going to be made. That's how you have to do it.
- [49:16]
D
Yeah. Another. We got another minute here, Jim. Another name. I mean, Carl and I were talking. I don't. Tesla shares are up over 4% percent. I'm not seeing any news. Don't know, maybe you have a sense. But some real strength there.
- [49:27]
F
Up 15% for the month.
- [49:29]
D
Yeah. Yeah.
- [49:30]
B
Wow. Well, people are recognizing what. What it really is. It's a. You know, it's autonomous driving and it is robots. I'm looking for the next 100,000 option buy. David, that's just a great call when you see that, right?
- [49:45]
D
It is. It is, yes. 100,000 contracts yesterday morning. Again, that's probably why there was an inch potentially leak, so to speak. But I'll be very curious to see who did that trade. That's.
- [49:59]
F
Yeah.
- [49:59]
D
They made a lot of money and some bank potentially lost. Yeah.
- [50:03]
B
Oh, yeah. Carl, don't you think it's amazing to be sitting here, we keep thinking that Amazon, Apple, Netflix, that they're going to save us. I mean, do you think they're sitting around saying, well, we got to save them?
- [50:17]
F
Jim, we look forward to tonight. We'll see at 6 mad money 6pm.
- [50:20]
B
Eastern time to show Tim when we.
- [50:24]
F
Come back, you miss after the break.
- [50:27]
B
You've been listening to the opening bell on CNBC's Squawk on the Street.
- [50:32]
C
All opinions expressed by the Squawk on the street participants are solely their opinions and do not reflect the opinions of cnbc, NBC Universal, or their parent company or affiliates and may have been previously disseminated by them on television, radio, Internet or You should not treat any opinion expressed on this podcast as a specific inducement to make a particular investment or follow a particular strategy, but only as an expression of an opinion. Such opinions are based upon information Squawk on the street participants consider 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 Squawk on the street disclaimer, please visit cnbc.com squawkonthestreetdisclaimer hey Fidelity, what's it cost to invest with the Fidelity app? Start with as little as $1 with no account fees or trade commissions on US stocks and ETFs.
- [51:23]
F
That's music to my ears.
- [51:25]
C
I can only talk.
- [51:28]
D
Investing involves risk, including risk of loss. Zero Account fees apply to retail brokerage accounts only. Sell order assessment fee not included. A limited number of ETFs are subject to a transaction based service fee of $100. See full list at fidelity. Com Commissions Fidelity Brokerage Services LLC Member nyse, SIPC.