CNBC's Jim Cramer launched a fiery defense of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) on Wednesday, claiming a pivotal U.S. court ruling has fundamentally reshaped the tech giant’s artificial intelligence strategy, allowing it to get paid for AI rather than funding an expensive catch-up.
Check out the current price of AAPL stock here.
Cramer Argues Apple Will Get Paid For AI
In a series of posts on the social media platform X, Cramer blasted naysayers and argued that Wall Street is failing to grasp the “incredible importance” of the development for Apple's future.
Cramer argues that Apple, long criticized for lagging in the AI race, no longer needs to spend a fortune to compete. Instead, he contends, a major AI player like Google will now pay Apple billions to integrate its technology, like Gemini, into Apple’s vast ecosystem.
“Instead of buying AI it will have a rich company pay IT to take that company’s AI,” Cramer stated, adding this negates fears of Apple writing a “$200 billion check to NVDA” for infrastructure.
Judge Rules Against Forced Divestitures
The catalyst for Cramer’s analysis was a decision on Tuesday by U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta in the Department of Justice’s antitrust case against Google.
While the judge previously found Google held an illegal search monopoly, he rejected the DOJ’s call to force a breakup of the company.
Critically, Judge Mehta ruled that Google could continue its multi-billion-dollar payments to Apple to remain the default search engine on iPhones.
Cramer Thinks That Market Reaction Was Muted
The ruling sent Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) shares up 6.73% and Apple up 2.97% in after-hours trading. Cramer scoffed at the market's seemingly muted reaction to the news for Apple, posting.
He dismissed recent negative stories about AI talent departing Apple as “plants,” suggesting they are irrelevant now that the company has a clear path to monetize its platform through an AI partnership, turning a massive perceived cost into a significant new revenue stream.
Price Action
The stock fell 1.04% on Tuesday and rose 2.97% in after-hours. It has declined 5.79% year-to-date and was up 3.12% over a year.
Benzinga’s Edge Stock Rankings indicate that AAPL maintains a stronger price trend in the short, medium, and long terms. However, the stock scores poorly on growth rankings. Additional performance details are available here.
The SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (NYSE:SPY) and Invesco QQQ Trust ETF (NASDAQ:QQQ), which track the S&P 500 index and Nasdaq 100 index, respectively, fell on Tuesday. The SPY was down 0.74% at $640.27, while the QQQ declined 0.84% to $565.62, according to Benzinga Pro data.
On Wednesday, the futures of the S&P 500, Dow Jones, and Nasdaq 100 indices were trading in a mixed manner.
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Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.
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