Disney Chairman Talks New CEO, A Musk Mega-Merger, & Palantir's AI Gains 2/3/26

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Jim Cramer (0:49)

It's Jim Cramer here. You're listening to the opening bell of CNBC's Squawk on the Street. Don't miss a minute of the action.

Carl Quintanilla (0:56)

Good Tuesday morning. Welcome to Squawk on the Street. I'm Carl Quintanilla with Jim Cramer, David Faber at Post 9 of the New York Stock Exchange. Futures mixed once again as earnings roll in from Pepsi, Merck, Palantir. House is going to try to end this government shutdown this afternoon. Got succession news at Disney and Paypal. Ten year knocking on the door of 4-3. Gold's up 300 bucks. Our roadmap begins with major change at the top of Disney. The media giant naming its parks boss Josh D'Amaro as its new CEO taking over from Iger in March. Disney Chairman James Gorman joins us first on CNBC moments from now to talk about that news.

David Faber (1:31)

Plus Elon Musk's SpaceX is buying its AI startup XAI. It's a deal that values the combined entity at $1.25 trillion and does come ahead of a potential blockbuster IPO for what would now be this combined company. It shows the Palantir soaring after the company reported a surge in quarterly sales thanks to rising US defense spending.

Carl Quintanilla (1:56)

Let's get straight to Julia Borstin at Disney headquarters in Burbank. Morning Julia.

Julia Boorstin (2:02)

Good morning Carl, that's right. I'm joined now by James Gorman, the Chair of Disney's Board, which just announced new CEO in Josh D'Amaro. Thanks so much for having us here on the Disney lot. Tell us why Josh D'Amaro for Disney's new CEO.

James Gorman (2:16)

Josh is unbelievable. I mean, this has been, as everybody's reported, a long, thorough, exhaustive process. And we looked at all comers.

We wanted whoever got this job to be the best person run, what is probably one of the most exciting jobs in the world. Josh is somebody who's got decades of experience at Disney. He's a huge operator. He's run massive operations across the whole parks and cruises, businesses. He's also got great creative touch. Bob Iger put it very well in one of the board meetings when he said it's taste. And from the engineering effort, all of the products that we offer to the customers that come in, it's unbelievable. He's unbelievable. He's so talented. He's strategic. He's financial. He's got that creative edge and he's an operator. So very excited. Josh is amazing.

Julia Boorstin (3:10)

And as part of this announcement, you're also elevating Dana Walden into the role of President and a new role, Chief Creative Officer, Chief Content Officer. Why create this new role for her and how do you expect them to work together?

James Gorman (3:23)

Yeah, she's President and Chief Creative Officer. That's a new role, as you said. Dana also, unbelievable executive. I mean, we're so blessed at this company. We had four incredible top executives with Jimmy Pettaro and Alan Bergman, Dana and Josh.

Dana brings obviously the background, the experience from TV, from Hollywood, from overseeing the streaming businesses with Alan. They've both been incredible executives. I think if you think about what is the heart of the Disney company, it's the creativity. It's this amazing IP that's been produced over decades going back to Walt, and the storytelling that comes from that creativity. I think Dana, working with Josh and ensuring that the best creativity permeates all of our businesses is what we wanted. I'm thrilled for Dana. She's a wonderful person.

Julia Boorstin (4:15)

When you were at Morgan Stanley, you did a good job of making sure that the people who didn't get the CEO job stuck around. Josh D'Amaro has the operational expertise, but not expertise with the actual intellectual property itself, which is where Dana comes in. When you made the choice to go with D'Amaro, were you concerned about losing Dana? How did you manage that balance?