Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang delivered a winning message with his much-hyped Computex keynote by arguing that computing power is a profit engine in the age of artificial intelligence, CNBC’s Jim Cramer said Monday.
Huang’s line of thinking appeared to resonate with Wall Street, according to Cramer, as key stocks within the AI trade rallied Monday despite a spike in oil prices and a setback in U.S-Iran peace talks. That includes Nvidia itself, which jumped 6% on the day. The S&P 500 managed to finisher higher on the day too, finishing at another record high.
“It was incredibly heartening at a time when we’re getting very suspicious of the data center as a concept, let alone a profit center,” the “Mad Money” host said.
“Until this keynote, I was getting the feeling that the bubble contingent lately had the upper hand,” Cramer acknowledged, referencing market observers who question whether the hundreds of billions of dollars being poured into AI infrastructure will generate adequate returns.
In addition to announcing Nvidia’s full-scale entrance into the personal computer market, Huang repeatedly argued during the keynote that “compute is revenue,” in an attempt to make the case that the spending is worth it.
“The endless talk that compute is money, that compute will give you a big return … is truly the tide-turner,” Cramer said, noting that Huang specifically mentioned data center operators and Nvidia chip buyers Oracle, Nebius, and CoreWeave during his speech.
Shares of these three companies jumped 9.9%, 14.5%, and 14%, respectively, during Monday’s session. Oracle, in particular, has faced questions in the past year about whether its massive spending on AI infrastructure was a wise bet. CoreWeave has also had to defend its spending and debt load.
Additionally, Cramer said the presentation further reinforced his view that investors should own Nvidia alongside hyperscalers Amazon and Alphabet, despite both companies developing custom chips that compete with Nvidia’s products.
“That’s a debate I have thrust myself into saying that you need to be in all three companies because the opportunity is so great,” he said.
Ultimately, Cramer said Huang successfully countered the growing narrative that AI infrastructure spending is becoming excessive.
“This time, Nvidia truly delivered, just when you least expected it,” Cramer said.
