Mad Money w/ Jim Cramer 8/24/26

**SPEAKER_1** (0:00)
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**Jim Cramer** (0:47)
My mission is simple, to make you money.
I'm here to level the playing field for all investors. There's always a moment working somewhere, and I promise to help you find it. Mad Money starts now.

**SPEAKER_7** (1:02)
Hey, I'm Cramer.

**Jim Cramer** (1:04)
Welcome to Mad Money. Welcome to Cramer. How's it going, my friends? I'm just trying to make a little bit of money here. My job, not just to entertain, but to teach. Call me 1-800-743-CMZ. Tweet me at Jim Cramer. The data center thesis, perhaps the greatest investment theme in a generation, is now under attack.
And it may never be the same. We now see a mad scramble to invest in anything but data centers, insurers, banks, household products, you name it. And that's why the averages aren't collapsing. Dow advancing 140 points, S&P declining 0.28 percent, and the NASDAQ, the home of many a data center-related company, losing 0.76 percent. So do you stick with the data center, betting the buyers will come back? Or do you throw in the towel and go with the other sectors that are now winning? Let's pull this apart before we answer, because it's a big question, which you certainly felt if you owned anything related to today's most meaningful actions. And there was a lot, a lot happening. Hey, why don't we start talk with data center, okay? Before the election rhetoric against data centers got really loud, that's a very new phenomena. We all assumed that the data center build out would be, I'd say, be investible for the long haul.
Then all of a sudden, we got this resounding backlash against the data center. You either paid attention or you got slaughtered.
Winners turn to losers overnight. The big switch to totally change the dynamic? The governors of Pennsylvania and Texas, both of them are up for real action, heard the drum beat, switched sides, going from unbridled support for data center to a much more restrictive set of rules.
If you're pro-data center. One day the hyperscalers are informing towns that the data center is coming in, maybe the local government can negotiate to prevent anything too impatient. The next day, governors across the border, they're trying to shut you down. I want you to take a listen to what Greg Abbott, he's the Republican governor of Texas, told ABC News yesterday.

**SPEAKER_8** (3:02)
These data centers are coming online, that people didn't see coming. The other is the way that the data centers, they didn't do their job to get the support of people in local communities. Gaining the support of people in local communities is essential. Because they did not do that, that's why I am now coming in as governor saying, listen, if you're a data center and you want to operate in Texas, you have to first get the approval of those in local communities.
Yep.

**Jim Cramer** (3:31)
He wants to force these companies to get local approval before they can build. Now, first, that seemed reasonable to me. Shouldn't the data center builders play with an open hand? Talk about what they can do in return for allowing a data center in the vicinity. But we don't know how many localities would want data centers. We don't know how long it will take to roll this new approval process.
Avid said these companies, quote, basically dug their own grave. And maybe he's got a point.
I think AI needs better marketing because the biggest boosters of this technology love to tell you that it will cause mass unemployment, possibly destroy the world. That's not a great pitch. But in many ways, it was Governor Shapiro. It was his switch in Pennsylvania. I thought it was a much bigger deal. See, he's a Democrat.

**SPEAKER_9** (4:10)
He's been a big backer.

**Jim Cramer** (4:11)
While he didn't shut down data centers, he did sign an executive order that said they, quote, could harm Pennsylvania's right to clean air and pure water, end quote, as well as raise the price of utility bills.