Mr. Huang Goes to Washington, WBD Battle Heats Up, Meta Rallies 12/4/25

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Market insight and analysis. You're listening to the opening bell of CNBC's Squawk on the Street. Good Thursday morning.

Carl Quintanilla (1:08)

Welcome to Squawk on the Street. I'm Carl Quintanilla with Jim Cramer at Post 9 of the New York Stock Exchange. Faber has the morning off. Futures a bit mixed this morning as the market absorbs a handful of tech and retail earnings. Got some eco data as we get closer to next week's Fed meeting. Jobless claims 191K, the lowest since 22, although maybe a Thanksgiving quirk. 10 years back to 41 Our road map begins with the AI trade. Anthropics CEO warns of YOLO spending in the AI arms race. Nvidia's Jensen Huang meets with the president, scores a big win for the company when it comes to China, and some new clues about the labor market. Layoff announcements this year, now hitting the highest level since the 2020 COVID pandemic. Let's begin with the AI race. Anthropics CEO Dario Amodei discussed the risks with Andrew Ross Sorkin in a deal book yesterday. Take a listen.

Dario Amodei (1:58)

On the technological side of it, I feel really solid. I think I'm one of the most bullish people around, and I think it pencils out. On the economic side, I have my concerns where even if the technology is really powerful and fulfills all its promises, I think there may be players in the ecosystem who if they just make a timing error, if they just get it off by a little bit, bad things could happen. There are some players who are yoloing, who pull the wrist dial too far.

Carl Quintanilla (2:30)

Those comments come on a day in which Nvidia's Jensen Huang made the rounds in DC, including a meeting with the president about chip restrictions, regulations, the future for AI. But on Amodei's comments, Jim, he talked about yolo players kind of doing some reckless gambling, perhaps.

Jim Cramer (2:45)

Well, look, I totally understand why some people think it's reckless gambling, because the numbers are so big, but the stakes are much higher. If I were Microsoft, I would have done some serious reckless gambling on Bing. I would have just said, listen, we had to put everything on Bing, because this could end up being the winner when it comes to people searching, and then maybe when we can do things really fast, it could become the winner in artificial intelligence, and then there could be someone else that says, you know what, that's reckless, can't allow it. Well, the person who's reckless and can't allow it has to be fired. And the person who said it should be reckless turned out to be the person who was prudent. A lot of times in life, people who look reckless turned out to be prudent. I love what that gentleman said, and he's smarter than I am about all this stuff. When it comes to prudence and recklessness, I'm better.

Carl Quintanilla (3:38)

Well, your latest book is about taking risks, swinging for the fences, in a sense, and you think corporate should do the same.

Jim Cramer (3:46)

I think that there's one person who is playing by a non-salary cap rule, and that's Mark Zuckerberg. Now, he's clearly reckless by what this gentleman did.

Jensen Huang (3:57)

He's smart.

Jim Cramer (3:58)

He's clearly reckless. I mean, he doesn't have any salary cap. He's going nuts. But you know what? So is baseball, and the teams that spend the most win. So I think the stakes are much higher than these people realize, because it could be winner take all for each vertical. And why don't they recognize that? Did they learn anything from 2000? It's winner take all.

Carl Quintanilla (4:18)

Don't you think this was more of a veiled swipe at Open AI as opposed to Zuckerberg?

Jim Cramer (4:22)

I mean, Open AI doesn't have the balance sheet. We know in wars, whoever has the best, deepest bond market wins, and this is a war. So yeah, I mean, look, Open AI, remember, Open AI is over here for me, and everybody else is over here. Open AI is 2000 in a nutshell. You've been saying this consistently, yes. They're not world-con, because they're definitely not corrupt.