Jim Cramer says the AI data center trade is back. These 6 stocks are leading the comeback

CNBC’s Jim Cramer said Wednesday the AI data center trade is reclaiming its place at the center of the market.

“Today was one of those days where if you bet against the data center, you got trampled,” the “Mad Money” host said. “Of course the best time to buy was when Situational Awareness was forced to sell its holdings … but let’s just say the prices are still below their peaks and now seem primed to go higher.”

Many once-hot AI infrastructure stocks started to cool in late June and continued struggling through much of July until the forced unwind of highly leveraged fund Situational Awareness. That development kickstarted a rally in the group, and Cramer said several developments in recent days suggest that pressure has passed and the fundamentals behind the AI buildout are taking over again.

The first sign of a turnaround came from Intel, Cramer said. Strong investor demand prompted the chipmaker to increase a recent stock offering to $20 billion from $15 billion, with the larger deal still selling out.

Then, he said, server maker Super Micro Computer and photonics supplier Lumentum reported better-than-expected results Tuesday evening, followed by a strong quarter from neocloud Nebius on Wednesday.

Fellow neocloud CoreWeave’s results Tuesday night provided perhaps the most important confirmation, according to Cramer. The data center operator offered evidence that older Nvidia GPUs can remain valuable for far longer than skeptics expected, which he said addresses a key concern around efforts to securitize AI computing capacity. Nvidia recently unveiled agreements with six of the world’s largest asset managers on a $500 billion financing push designed to treat compute infrastructure much like assets to borrow against.

“These chips aren’t like cars that lose half their value the moment they drove off the lot,” Cramer said. “They’re more like fine jewelry.”

He said Wednesday’s benign consumer price index report provided another boost by easing some of the interest-rate pressure that had weighed on growth stocks.

Taken together, Cramer said those developments have restored his confidence in AI infrastructure stocks after the group spent weeks lagging financials, healthcare companies, and retailers.

“I cannot stress enough how important today’s session was,” Cramer said. “This morning, the rockets went off and the fabled six fighting bulls, Supermicro, Nvidia, Intel, Nebius, Lumentum, and CoreWeave, tore out of their pens and proceeded to trample the non-believers who didn’t realize that you’re taking your life in your hands when you bet against these companies.”