Mad Money w/ Jim Cramer 8/20/26

In the shadow of Idaho's mountains, the future of technology is being built from the ground up. My problem was born here nearly a half a century ago. Today it's building the technology powering the next industrial revolution. Steel in the ground, ingenuity at work, billions of dollars in tens of thousands of jobs. The race for AI may be global, but its next frontier is taking shape on American soil. Right here in Boise, Idaho, a legacy of American manufacturing is shaping the future of innovation. Mad Money's Invest in America from Micron in Boise begins now. My mission is simple, to make you money. I'm here to level the playing field for all investors. There's always a low market somewhere, and I promise to help you find it. Mad Money starts now. Hey, I'm Kramer. Welcome to a special edition. A special edition of Mad Money, coming to you from Micron's headquarters in Boise, Idaho. Welcome to Kramerica. Other people may be friends. I'm just trying to make you a little bit of money. My job is not just to entertain, but to educate, to teach you. So call me at 1-800-743-CBC. Tweet me at Jim Kramer. You take your eye off the market for one lousy day and come out here where they actually make things? Like a Boise, Idaho construction site for Micron's new semiconductor factory? You realize that? You realize there's an incredibly jarring gulf between stock prices and reality. Of course, the market doesn't seem to rally just because it's a beautiful day out here, does it? I'm watching 8,000 workers crawling all over 10 million square feet of steel and concrete infrastructure. But instead, what I really have to do is settle for a rough and nasty day on Wall Street, 2,150 miles away from here, where the Dow tumbled 704 points as it beat the climb point 87%. And the Nasdaq lost a full percent. Oh, I wish we had a better session, though. Because there's no manufacturing process on the planet that's more complex than building semiconductors. And Micron builds them right here. This is a company that's always been committed to the United States. And we have come out here to see and praise that commitment. This company is spending $250 billion. Yeah, will it be? $250 billion is here, New York. And Virginia, to make the most advanced memory chips. Many for the gigantic data center built out right now and soon for robots, self-driving cars. They all need memory to work. And Micron's a heavy hitter in the memory space. The third largest, after Samsung and SK Hynix. If you measure a company's success by its gross margin, the percentage of revenue they keep after the cost of goods sold, what you're looking at will be just two fabs within one of the most lucrative companies in the world. Unfortunately, though, you can't take your eye off the broader market. Even if you think, as I do, that Micron's stock is radically undervalued. Yeah, that's even after today's $37 rally. In the end, we always have to look at stocks through the market's prism. OK, not ours, but the market's. And right now, the market's not going to give Micron its due because the factor's beyond this company's control. What is clouding the market's prism? What is making everything so dark and bare? Let me spell it out. I'm going to start with the United States of Walmart. The largest retail chain in the world, where more than 200 million customers shop every single week. Walmart's a fantastic company. You know, I think that tremendous prices lately have been able to attract people from all ends of the economic spectrum. And it has a very strong e-commerce business that was on display this last quarter. That said, when Walmart reported this morning, it missed Wall Street's expectations. To me, these results were more complicated than usual. A gigantic tariff rebate, difficult to understand, federally reimbursed pharmacy numbers when I calculated to hit them. Federal drug price negotiations. And back that out, I actually thought, hey, sue me. I was a good quarter. Not great, but good. It would have been much better, though, if gasoline prices hadn't gotten up to $4. And that caused the stock to get crushed. It's not just because consumers have less money to spend when fuel's expensive. You see, Walmart has this nasty habit of keeping prices low or taking them even lower when times get tough. They've done it like this since the days of Sam Walton. It's great for customers and long-term. It's been fantastic for stockholders. Problem is, it means that stockholders right now have to take a short-term hit. The people who owned the stock until today, when they furiously dumped it when they saw the results, they saw two things. The two things they didn't like. One, business didn't get worse as the quarter went on because of ever higher gasoline prices. And two, Walmart chose to do something gutsy, make a little less money short-term, order to take a lot of market share. That is good business. Which sends me back to that dark prism I mentioned before where good business isn't. Gasoline's going to be rewarded with good stock prices. When you match Walmart's subdued end-of-quarter results with the continual increase in the price of gasoline, well, it doesn't become clear to us that the stock was maybe a little too high coming in, hence the 9% meltdown today. It didn't reflect the fact that this company's willing to take a very small earnings hit to gain market share during a slowdown. That's what they taught us with making money long-term. Or to put it another way, we all understand as long as the world with Iran drags on, we're going to pay more for a lot of things except stocks. Stocks where we demand lower prices before we put more money to work. We learned that last night when the president talked about taking on Iran economically. He wants to get some sort of national, I don't know, financial siege going. Given that Iran's one of the most heavily sanctioned countries on Earth already, I'm not sure what else we can do or even if it matters. Now we're getting retail earnings this week, and we have some good ones, Target and Home Depot, as well as some not-so-good ones, Walmart and maybe Lowe's. They don't cancel each other out, though. It's bigger than every other retailer that it casts a pull over the entire industry, over the entire shopping business. At the same time, this would have been a better day if interest rates had gone down. Our Treasury Secretary has resorted to buying back an unusual amount of Treasuries to hold rates down. I don't know about that. When America has $40 trillion in debt, a $4 billion buyback of long-term Treasuries has the Treasury Secretary looking a little like a little Dutch boy with his fingers plugged in. I don't know about that, but the Treasury Secretary has resorted to buying back an unusual amount of Treasuries to hold rates down. Given that, give that man another, say, billion fingers, and maybe he'll be able to take care of all this. So we are stuck with assuming that because Walmart didn't deliver, the American consumer really is slowing down. As much as I'd like to say that's what's behind me, raw American manufacturing might is what matters, that this is why we should own stocks, I have to remember that two-thirds of our country is service-based. Walmart is the thermometer for the service-based economy. And today it showed a somewhat sickly patient. One that won't get better until peace breaks out in the Middle East. Historically, that's not something we necessarily want to make a bet on. Now, because rates came down, maybe rates will come down. Maybe they will come down. I don't want to say the Treasury Secretary doesn't. Maybe he's a magician, okay? Maybe he's more of a magician successfully pulling up the 30-year Treasury than he is a Dutch boy plugging holes. Maybe the consumer gets used to $4 gasoline unless it's going to $5. But we're just going to have to be satisfied with the micron marble, which goes on for acres and acres. In some places, as far as the eye can see. Tonight, we're learning why this very special company is doing amazing things for our country and succeeding in an industry where so many American companies have failed and making boatloads of money while they're doing it. The bottom line, let's not despair too much. Micron stock did finish up 4%. That's terrific American exceptionalism at work. The problem is there's another 499 stocks in the S&P 500. And the prison made a lot of them look downright awful today. All right, get oil down. Get interest rates down. And the prison will be a heck of a lot better. This picture is spoiled by a different backdrop. One that is 2,000 miles away. Let's talk to Sam in Pennsylvania. Sam. Jim, listen, after J.P. Morgan downgraded Nike, I have to say, as a consumer of their product, I think I could help the C-suite out with some tips here. This has been an ongoing issue for a couple of quarters now, if not a couple of years. Stock is down. 70% is where it was. And I think the C-suite is zero. It's focused on the core consumer and increased the quality of the product. They've got to offer us a value proposition. It's enough with the sustainable materials. It's get back to the core ideology of Nike being the best at what they do. You know, so. Who's that, Sam? What company? Nike. Nike. All right, Sam, look, I wish it were just quality. I wish it were just market share. I wish it were just the cost. I wish it were something. There are just too many things going wrong right now with Nike. And the whole industry is slowing down. Sometimes you can't even blame them for what they're doing. It's just nothing's working. Micron is succeeding in an industry where so many others have failed. That's partly why it was one of the only positive AI-related stocks in today's red tape. On My Money Tonight, on the heels of their $250 billion manufacturing announcement, I'm sitting down with our host for the day, Micron's CEO. Don't miss our wide-ranging conversation. Then a different Boise. Boise's company, Albertsons, hasn't been doing that well at all. So what's been going on with that grocery stock? I'm digging deeper. And I'm taking you behind the scenes of this fantastic facility and showing you the area that inspired me the most and reminded me just how meaningful Micron's American investment is. So stick with Kramer. Don't miss a second. Mad Money. Follow at Jim Kramer on X. Have a question? Tweet Kramer. Hashtag Mad Mentions. Send Jim an email to madmoneyatcnbc.com or give us a call at 1-800-743-CNBC. Miss something? Head to madmoney.cnbc.com. We're here in Boise, Idaho, where Micron, the memory chip maker, is spending tens of billions of dollars to build not one, but two semiconductor fabs, the ones you see behind me, in order to tackle the dire memory chip shortage. I think this company is a national treasure. Micron's been printing money lately with its stock up 731% over the past 12 months because data centers have an insatiable appetite for memory. Management says the shortage should get even worse next year. Even after this run, though, the stock trades at just over six times next year's earnings estimates because Wall Street's terrified, terrified that Micron and its competitors will add too much capacity and then become flat-footed once demand starts to come down. I think it isn't going to turn out like that. I think it is going to be a little bit different than data centers that much of a game-changer and no data center can go without gobs and gobs, almost limitless amounts of memory. But don't take it from me. Earlier today, I sat down with our host. Sanjay Marocha, the chairman and president and CEO of Micron Technology, to find out more. Take a look. Sanjay, a lot of people can see behind me and say, listen, there's a lot of concrete, a lot of steel, a lot of people with hard hats. I look at it and I think, national treasure. Jim, I have always considered Micron a national treasure. Nearly 50 years of leading with innovation in memory. The only memory company that is here today in Europe, US, driving global leadership, and now memory has become a critical infrastructure for AI. Without memory, there is no AI. You want to advance AI, you need more memory. All invented here, you know, 62,000 patents created, you know, with the leading work done here. And now we are building leading-edge memory manufacturing here. Very excited, Jim, and thank you for coming here to see the action. Thank you for being here, as well as bringing your whole crew here. I like to see American greatness and innovation, and I like it when I think our country is winning because of Micron. Tell me what would happen if I went to Clay, New York, if I went to Manassas, the other places you're doing these things. It's not just Boise. This is a big effort. Absolutely correct. Micron is investing $250 billion. Big, big, big billion, not million. Big numbers and totally, totally committed to making these investments here in America to bring up leading-edge memory manufacturing as well as what we call long life cycle memory products for automotive, industrial, medical, defense, aerospace markets. So what we are building here in Boise, Idaho, are two large fabs. Jim, each of these fabs will be the size of 10 football fields. That means the size of two Eagles. Stadiums. Each fab. Two winning, two winning fabs. Two winning fabs. That's right. Absolutely two winning fabs. It starts here. We are building in Syracuse, New York, in Clay, New York, as well. We had earlier, a month or so ago, we poured concrete moving as fast as we can over there as well. And Manassas, Virginia, we have broad modernizing the technology there to meet the requirements of those end markets. So from data. Center to edge for data center, consumer, automotive, industrial, we are bringing up memory supply as fast. Okay, so are there people, are there people right now, is it Jensen Wong, is there Amazon, who's saying, listen, when are those chips going to be done and when are they going to be done? When are we going to see something from here? All of our customers want more memory. They want gold memory faster. I'm engaged, directly engaged, and our teams are engaged directly with our customers. They appreciate that Micron is betting on American worker. Micron is investing in America. Our U.S. supply that we are working hard to bring up is very important to all our customers. So, yes, I mean, this Boise, Idaho fab, which has right now about 8000 construction workers are here. This fab will have first wafers out middle of 2020. Jim, these fabs take a long time to build. You cannot flip a switch and have a fab constructed. But how can you afford to risk building something this big, given the way the industry has historically been like this and this and this? Jim, AI has changed the demand profile for memory. It's not boom-bust? AI memory has secular demand with AI across data center, across consumer markets. And of course, industrial automation and in future robotics, which by end of the decade, each of these robots, there will be over time, hundreds of millions of these robots, they all require tons of memory. So memory demand is tremendous. Supply is constrained. We see 2027 even tighter with respect to 2026. What we are building here, first way for South in 2027, production ramping in 2028 timeframe. Clay, New York, production ramping by 2029, 2030 timeframe. The second Boise Fab will start ramping up production late 2028 timeframe. You're telling me that you have line of sight for demand beyond 2027. Absolutely. I mean, we see, we have done five years strategic customer agreements, right? These strategic customer agreements have given commitment of demand from our customers over these five years. Did you ever dream, even three years ago, you strategic customer agreements where they lock in and they take or pay? They are take or pay. No outs. No outs for customers. They can't call you and say, I'm having a hard time here. Give me a break. And can I tell you, they are take or pay. Customers have made cash deposits. Or, you know, other similar financial commitments amounting to $22 billion. And our customers wanted more of supply than what we could commit to them in the SEAs. So even for data center today, customers want 50% more memory than what we are able to commit to them. Look, I was reading on X that Elon Musk said he would buy everything that you made. What would happen if he called you and said, listen, Sanjay, I want to buy everything that you make and I don't want anybody else to have it. I'll tell you, all our customers across our end markets will buy everything that we can make. So they should take these agreements before someone like that comes in and sweeps. I mean, these agreements are critically important. They give us, of course, the visibility to supply and confidence in that supply, enabling us to invest $250 billion commitments here in America. These agreements give our customers assurance of the supply that we are able to commit. But what happens if some board member says, you know what, Sanjay, this whole thing you got with America, I think it's great, but let's do this in the Philippines and just crush it, make a lot more money. What do you say to that board member? Look, we are an American company. We are where we are with American innovation. Memory has become a key enabler of AI. Memory is the intelligence behind artificial intelligence, right? So it is critically important. We are very proud as an American company. We are an American company that we are investing in America. Of course, we have large-scale manufacturing overseas as well, and we continue to invest and continue to advance our overseas fabs as well. All of this is needed, Jim, to meet the customer demand. And still, I cannot see when supply will catch up with demand, despite all our efforts to bring up supply as fast as we can. Okay, now, I look around here and it contrasts with the view, a common view in our country, unfortunately, that it's. It's too expensive to make things, there's no workforce to make things in this country, and no ethic. That can't be true here. Look, Micron has been around here in America for 50 plus, nearly 50 years. We have been building memory here in America. 8,000 construction workers with tremendous work ethic are here every day building the fabs. We have 7,000 plus engineers and. And workers that are driving innovation and driving leading-edge R&D roadmaps. And I'm assuming you're training some of these workers, the careers they're building right here, right here. Absolutely right. I mean, you know, we have just built our training center, workforce training center, where not only we are training workers, our suppliers are training workers to support us here, as well as we have College of Western Idaho that is bringing students here to train them. Micron is investing in apprenticeships. We are partnering with veteran institutions. A lot of our workforce is made up of veterans as well. We are partnering with universities to advance semiconductor curriculum. So innovation is thriving here in America, and this is where, you know, Micron now invests in Micron Research Labs because there is no better innovation hub than here in America. I listen to you and I think, well, isn't this what the government used to do for us? Look, I mean, partnership with government and industry is critically important. But it's better that the corporations do it. You know they're going to do a great. Totally, it's our responsibility to lead advanced research, working with the ecosystem, this $10 billion Micron Research Lab announcement that we made here. This is, Micron is convening the ecosystem partners to lead with breakthrough innovation. Universities, startups, customers, industrial bodies, government, we are partnering with them to drive the advanced research for the next generation. So, Jim, think of. Boise as the hub for innovation that will be 10 years plus for subsequent decades. Boise as the hub of near-term roadmap of technologies. And now Boise becoming the hub of leading memory manufacturing here as well. Boise, I got to move here. It's too great. It's a great place to move here. We are able to attract top talent here. All right, we'll be right back with Sanjay Mehrotri, Chairman and President and CEO of Micron. Before the break, I mentioned that Micron's insanely cheap on an earnings per share basis. All the memory stocks are. See, because historically this has been a classic boom and bust business. But I'm not so sure that history still applies because the memory shortage has changed the game. Micron has. It's more than 16 multi-year take or pay contracts with major customers. These guys are even putting down deposits because they desperately need to secure more memory. That gives Micron management much more visibility into how demand will look a year or two or maybe even five years down the road. Another reason why I believe there may be a multi-year runway of shareholder greatness developing here. Now, we talked about that and more in part two of our discussion with Sanjay Mehrotri, the Chairman, President and CEO of Micron Technologies. For as long as I've followed this industry, I've always felt that your particular end, memory chips, just weren't given its due. The balance of power has shifted dramatically in your favor. How come? You know, today there is no AI without memory. AI systems need more memory. They need higher performance memory. They need lower power memory. So the value of memory has. That equation has totally changed. Our customers, to drive their own growth, they need more compute. They need more memory. So memory really has become a key enabler. And Jim, this is not only in data centers. Even in your phone, you know, to have richer experiences in AI-enabled phone, you need more memory content. Your PCs, your self-driving cars, all of them now need more and more memory content. Right. So the need for memory is ever greater. And now, in AI, it's not just the devices and the servers. Now you have agentic AI. Agentic is all the agents, all the context windows that are getting larger. And that's all filled with more memory as well. Okay, so we have a lot of shareholders of Micron. I know I've talked with you positively for years and years since the show started. And they're probably saying, yeah, that's great. But are they able to. They can make enough money. In fact, you're making the most money I've ever seen Micron make. Do the customers think that's fair? Do they understand that it's just that there's nothing you can do? You've got to spend a lot of money to make a lot of money? You know, our customers recognize the value of memory. Because memory is what is enabling them to deliver, to design products that are driving growth engine for them. That are enabling value for their customers. Right. So our customers recognize. They recognize the value of memory. And of course, you know, they are paying the value of memory. And what's important to them is availability of memory. So that's why more than 16 companies, big companies, the companies everybody knows, have said, look, I want to do a deal with you because I want to be sure I have supply. That's absolutely correct. Because they need the supply. And they see the value of memory. Therefore, they are willing to pay for the memory. Of course, they decide how they're going to. How they're going to manage their profits, how they're going to price their products. And by the way, we had 16 customers with whom we had signed the strategic customer agreements announced at the time of our last earnings call. Since then, of course, we have signed more strategic customer agreements as well. So how do we get away from the idea that, well, wait a second, the data center is slowing down, AI is slowing down, anthropic good month, open AI bad month. How do we get away from that? Because you know that's missing the big picture. It's not about any one customer. It's about diversified end markets. And Micron is important for us to support all of our end markets to the best of our abilities, data center, consumer, automotive, industrial. And we have a wide range of customers. We have strongest portfolio today in the industry going across these end markets. And the demand across our end markets. And the demand across our end markets are high. Memory industry is not able to keep up with the demand. Okay. Now, come December 9th, your deal with the government, it'll be two years. I understand that after that, you're allowed to buy back stock. I know you can't right now. Your compadres, SanDisk, Western Digital, C8 are buying back a huge amount of stock. Do you see a situation where you too can buy back a huge amount of stock? Jim, we have said before that, of course, we are growing the business. We are investing in the business. We are investing in. We are investing in advanced research, R&D roadmap for our products, investing as you see here in building out the memory supply base. So, we will, of course, invest first in growing the business. We had $25 billion of net cash positive last quarter. Free cash flow this quarter will even be greater. Of course, excess cash, we will return to shareholders and we are best positioned ever to grow the business. As well as provide return to our shareholders at larger levels than before and yes, we are committed to doing that. Okay, now, there are a lot of people talking about how there's a real overbill that could happen. Of course, we're going to overbill. I spoke to you three years ago, we had a very pointed conversation where you said, "Jim, I got to rein in, you were too bullish." Well, I mean, you got me excited that you told me not to get too bullish. I mean, you weren't that, you were not all that bullish three years ago and now, obviously, everyone's gotten too bullish to some degree. What do you think? Where is it? Where are we in the cycle? Look, I mean, we see no end when supply catches up with demand. No end. We do not and the demand continues to grow here. Well, that's the best story ever. And again, it is reflected in those strategic customer agreements. They are five-year agreements with our customers where they have committed to taking the supply. And can I just also point out that these strategic customer agreements are committed to taking the supply. That these strategic customer agreements can also be extended by our customers. So this gives us assurance of demand. Of course, you know, nothing ever goes in a straight line. There can be ebb and flow. This is what Micron has shown that when we partner with customers over a multi-year horizon, it gives us opportunity to make adjustments as well. Today, supply is so tight that we have to build out the clean rooms. Of course, how we equip the clean rooms, Right. will also be a challenge. It will always be in a disciplined manner based on the latest assessment of demand we have. But our customers, when we work closely with them, and you know, Jim, you're working closely with them earlier and earlier in their development cycle. This is our unique advantage. As an American company, as a technology leader, America driving AI innovation, it's our unique advantage to be able to work closely with our customers. What we see is that the demand of members, from today's data center, you know, tomorrow, autonomous vehicles, self-driving cars, robots, and across consumer devices, the demand for memory continues to increase, and we are working hard to meet the requirements of our customers. I want to talk about your commitment to America. You're obviously committed to making careers for people. You're committed to a tremendous amount of work, people getting jobs. But you're also committed to the country. And one of the ways you're committed to the country, is that you yourself have driven the Trump account in terms of your commitment. $250 million, other companies have to step up. Absolutely right, Jim. We are very proud that Micron is investing in the future of Americans through this $250 million commitment to secure the financial future of American children with a $250 commitment in 70 years. We're in different states in counties where the income is below $150,000, Trump account launched about a month ago. What we are seeing is that $250 million of commitment is already being deployed. Of course, we are working with Treasury to get that money into the accounts of our children. I think that's much faster than I thought. But we are seeing already $50 million in these seven states. And by the way, it's not only this $250 million commitment through Trump accounts. Micron, here in Boise, Idaho, $75 million commitment toward community investment fund to work with the community, to address. Not the enemy of the community. Working with the community to support the community through housing needs, transportation needs, and of course, for the welfare and quality of life improvement in the community. In Clay, New York, Micron has commitments of $250 million, again, working with the community for education, for schools, for STEM education, worker training, yes, transportation, as well as housing. So Micron really works closely with communities where we have operations. Okay, now, one last thing on your tremendous labs announcement. Jensen Wong, Micron is taking on one of the greatest challenges of the AI era, reinventing memory technologies and architectures to fuel the next generation of increasingly powerful AI systems. We won't be able to do the robots that we want. We won't be able to do the self-driving cars. Maybe we can't put people on Mars without you. All this stuff is determined by memory right now. So correct, Jim. Memory is today essential. I mean, that's why I call it strategic infrastructure of the AI era. Memory is essential across devices, across technologies, across product solutions, and we are very proud to be able to partner with this ecosystem you see in our press release, today, on Micron Research Labs leading institutions and leading entities from U.S. are partnering with us to drive America's leadership in semiconductor technology. Now, we will look back on this moment. Making America the innovation leader. We will look back. We will remember. We remember what you did. We're going to play our role here. We are being responsible. And we look forward to other companies joining us, not only in driving advanced research, but certainly partnering to advance the communities. You know, we look forward. We look forward to other companies joining in things like Trump accounts. Well, hopefully they'll watch and they'll get their act. Well, there's many companies doing great things, but they should do them alongside of you. Sanjay Marocha, Chairman and President and CEO of Micron in Boise, thank you for having our team. Thank you for what you're doing for the country. Thank you, Jim. Coming up, Micron isn't the only big company in Boise. So is it. So should you be buying into Albertsons also? Kramer's checking it out next. I was getting ready to come out here to Boise, Idaho. I kept thinking, what the heck happened to the stock of Albertsons, the Boise-based supermarket chain? You might also know them as Safeways, Vons, or my late mom's fave, Acme. Here's a stock that's been really put through the middle. Meat Grinder. I mean, just awful. The House of Pain. Down 30% year-to-date and down over 68% from its highs set roughly four and a half years ago, in large part because they tried and failed to merge with Kroger, a deal that was shot down by President Biden's antitrust team because the FTC feared the two together would be way too powerful, could raise prices with impunity, screwing the consumer. See, Albertsons came public in the summer of 2020. It had previously been taken private by Cerberus back in 2006, and that was soon. It was soon to be a great time to be in the grocery business. The pandemic had tons of people eating most of the meals at home, remember? The IPO price is 16 bucks. By early 2022, the stock was trading in the mid to high 30s. Then the world started going back to normal, and the stock of Albertsons got clobbered down to the 20s. In October 2022, though, they got this takeover bid from Kroger for $25 billion in cash and stock. This would have combined the second and fourth largest grocery chains in America, creating a true powerhouse. Problem is, this was back when Lena Kahn was running the Federal Trade Commission. She was reflexively hostile to pretty much all mergers. So the FTC took Kroger and Albertsons to court. They got this preliminary injunction against the merger, December 2024, and then the next day, Albertsons gave up, threw in the towel, said, no way, can't do it. Turns out, Kroger might have really dodged a bullet here because Albertsons has been doing worse and worse ever since. Just look at the latest quarter, which they reported in late July. Albertsons posted a 0.8% decline in same-store sales, worse than the 0.5% decline Wall Street was looking for. Their gross margin shrank by 50 basis points. Their earnings per share came in at $0.42, and I was expecting $0.54. That was down 24% year over year. Albertsons even cut its full-year forecast practically across the board, saying they'll earn $1.75 to $1.85 per share, when previously they'd been guiding for $2.75. $2.22 to $2.32. Those are disastrous numbers, people, much worse than whatever anyone might have thought about Walmart's results today, which is why the stock immediately plunged a shocking 22%. CEO Susan Morris blamed, down to the quote, your increasing pressure from industry unit trends and a more cautious consumer, end quote. Now, in Albertsons' defense, the industry-wide pressure is real. Just a couple of weeks ago, I checked in with Cisco, the SYY kind giant food distributor, and I was struck by a chart they featured in their earnings deck. The chart, referencing sales data from the Census Bureau, shows that there's been a three-decade-plus trend of consumers spending more money on food away from home and less money at grocery stores, like at Albertsons. That changed dramatically, sure, during COVID, but after the pandemic, it only got worse. That jives with what we've been seeing between food inflation and rising gas prices. People are buying less and less stuff from the supermarket. You heard that refrain from Walmart. Now, Albertsons says they have a plan to fix this. They're trying to simplify their operating model from 11 divisions, some regional, some brand-based, and just four regions with a central merchandising hub. Maybe that'll do it. I don't know. But Wall Street doesn't seem to have much faith in management's ability to turn things around. I don't buy it. This is a tough industry. At this point, the stock's selling for less than seven times the midpoint of its full-year earnings forecast. 5.7% dividend yield. That's too high. You know what that means. Ordinarily, I might find that valuation enticing. But sometimes stocks are cheap because they deserve to be cheap. For me, this is one more example of what happens when well-meaning antitrust enforcement backfires. It creates a situation that's worse than what the regulators were even trying to prevent. We saw that when Biden and Justice Department blocked the merger of JetBlue and Spirit Airlines. They didn't want more airline consolidation, especially in the low-cost space. But less than a year later, Spirit Airlines filed for bankruptcy. That emerged from bankruptcy, then went under again before fully closing up shop. It would have been better if they just let the plane stay under JetBlue's name. Same thing happened with Walgreens. They tried to buy the struggling Rite Aid back in 2015. FTC fought tooth and nail to block it because those were two of the big three drugstore chains. But Rite Aid couldn't stand on its own. Last year, they shuttered all of their stores. The deal got blocked, and the drugstore industry still went from three to two. With Kroger's acquisition of Albertsons, they would have combined two of the top four grocers in America. But this is an incredibly competitive industry. Dominated by Walmart with roughly 20% market share. Kroger and Albertsons combined currently have less than 13%. That would have given them more scale to hold their own against a Walmart, a Costco, a Publix, an Amazon-based Whole Foods, and the foreign discount grocers that have taken over America like Aldi. Or at least, let's say taken over by Storm. I'd argue Kroger and Albertsons needed to merge to stay competitive in a tough business. The two together could be a great counterweight to areas where there's only a Walmart, or a Costco. Both Albertsons and Kroger have lost market share over the years, and Kroger's stock is down 10% year-to-date. Here's the bottom line. Albertsons is not doing well, to put it lightly. I think they should have been allowed to merge with Kroger years ago. But, hey, you know what? Maybe it's not too late. The Trump administration doesn't seem to believe in any antitrust enforcement. So maybe they should just give it another try. Consolidation is their best shot at staying competitive. Merge them, and let them compete against the big boys. Better for all of us, especially the shareholders of the U.S. The other big company headquartered in Boise, Idaho. Ed Money's back after the break. Then the lightning round is over. Are you ready? Let's start with Ryan in Ohio. Ryan. Booyah. Big Daddy Kramer. Booyah. Hit me. Hey, I got a lump of coal, and it's been under some pressure. How long till it's a diamond? I'm talking about some Celsius. No, no, we don't want Celsius here. We got Coca-Cola. Coke is the winner. Go with the quality. Hey, how about Sanjay in California? Sanjay. Booyah, Jim. Thanks for putting up a good show. - Oh yeah. - All is love, all is love. What's up? I'm looking for the BMNR. Is this still a good buy? I did bought it last time. No, just buy Bitcoin. Just go out and buy. Just go buy Bitcoin. Don't buy the derivatives. The derivatives are too dangerous. You can buy Bitcoin. I like that. Let's go to Eric in Indiana. Eric. Booyah, Jim. Eric. Booyah. Hello? Last summer. Yeah, you got me. It's Kramer. You said you like this company, but not at those levels. It's down about 30% while profits and subscribers have continued to grow. Jim, at these levels, is Arlo's technology a buy? You know what? It's actually profitable. I think it's not a bad idea. We dodged a bullet, I'll tell you that much. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the conclusion of the Lightning Round. The Lightning Round is sponsored by Charles Schwab. Coming up, it's been a busy day in Boise, but crazy news. Kramer's not done yet. Don't miss his final thoughts next. Earlier today, I put some pajamas on. The footy PJ kind. Slapped on a hood, some latex gloves, and found myself in a room that's clean enough to make Micron semiconductors. It was clean enough to make Micron semiconductors. It's a wonder. Just a remarkable room. More of an indoor stadium, really, with chips flying around and baskets overhead, workers looking at screens that I would have sold for stock charts if I weren't in a building where they're making next-gen memory devices. Now, this wasn't my first clean room. Clean, because if there are any impurities, then you've got to throw out millions of chips. And I'm not talking the chips in a $6.99 bag of Frito-Lays. These chips cost millions of dollars, and customers are breaking down the doors for Micron to please send them anything. According to Manish Bhaiya, these are the exact same chips that I'm talking about. These are the executive vice president of Micron's global operations, inspecting and detecting defects at this nanoscale. It's like trying to locate a single ant in the entire state of Idaho. Hence the clean room. Hence the pajamas. I found my mind wandering in the clean room, though. I was thinking, the notion of what this company does is so difficult and so important that I'm thrilled that you got to see it with me. You need to see it. You need to see it because what you're looking at is the future. We spend so much time talking about whether Anthropix is having a good quarter or opening. I do a stock offering. We forget that the future's here regardless of what those AI labs do. I wish I could tell you more. I'd like to be able to say, you know what, Micron Research Labs, the initiative that was unveiled on our network this morning, backed by a $10 million commitment from Micron, I wish I could tell you it's going to help us time travel. I managed to go clean the skies. I stopped the fire. I saved the whales. But I don't see it. I have no idea what it'll produce. But, you see, that's the point. I do know this. If we're going to do anything remarkable with technology, it'll probably need Micron's brain and brawl. One, two most self-evident factors I saw at work here today. Pure wonderment. I know another emotion you would have felt if you were with me today. Pride. For those of us who think we can't make anything here, that it's too expensive, that we're too slothful, that the Chinese have a hammerlock on manufacturing, I can tell you that this, this is exhibit A, that America's still got it. If I manage to remove a speck of cynical dust from your eye here, then I did a better job than all those people and DJs and hoodies did at keeping that incredible room clean. Thank you, Sanjay. Thanks, Micron. You make us all proud. I like to say there's always a bull market somewhere. I promise I'll find it just for you right here on MadMoney. I'm Jim Cramer. See you next time. All opinions expressed by Jim Cramer on this podcast are solely Cramer's opinions and do not reflect the opinions of CNBC or its parent company or affiliates and may have been previously disseminated by Cramer on television, radio, internet, or television. Cramer's opinions are solely Cramer's opinions and do not reflect the opinions of CNBC or its parent company or affiliates and may have been previously disseminated by Cramer on television, radio, internet, or television. You should not treat any opinion expressed by Cramer 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 MadMoney disclaimer, please visit cnbc.com forward slash MadMoney disclaimer.