Here’s the list of AI winners to buy for 2026 and beyond
CNBC’s Jim Cramer said the data center and AI boom has become all-consuming, spreading far beyond tech companies and into nearly every corner of the market.
“AI is ruthless. It’s violent. And it makes fortunes for believers,” the “Mad Money” host said after all three major indexes closed higher on Tuesday.
During the first-quarter earnings season, the market was boosted by what Cramer called a “profit boom” among companies tied to artificial intelligence and data centers. And he said gains are increasingly seen across a widening group of stocks.
To explain the scope of the trend, Cramer referenced a framework popularized by Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang. Huang described the economics of artificial intelligence as “five layer cake“ — a collection of interconnected industries that all benefit from the same structure.
At the core there is power, which is the basis of the entire system. Data centers require enormous amounts of electricity, and Cramer The driving force in companies such as Vista, GE VernovaAnd Constellation Energy.
The next layer is semiconductors. “You need chips,” Cramer said, pointing. Nvidiaalong with its competitors such as AMD And Intel. Also highlighted storage and memory players such as: Western Digital And Micron Technologyand equipment manufacturers ASML And Applied Materials.
On top of this lies another layer of hardware that enables artificial intelligence systems. Cramer pointed out. Dell Technologies for servers, vertiv for cooling technology and Eaton for electrical equipment. Additionally, he said networking firms are: Cisco Systems And Arista Networks and fiber optic cable supplier Corning Help assemble the data center. such as backup power providers Caterpillar And cumin “Help keep the lights on at all times,” he added.
The next is the AI model layer. Cramer suggested that he was thinking of cloud computing providers when thinking about the rapid adoption of AI models: Amazon Web Services, Microsoft’s Benefitting from all this usage are Azure and Google Cloud.
At the top is the application layer, where consumers and businesses interact directly, including services like ChatGPT, “the interface that started it all,” Cramer said.
According to Cramer, the key takeaway is that the AI boom is no longer a narrow technology story; is that it is a broad-based economic change in which everything from public services to industrial sectors to technology is being “showered with money.”
“You have a well-financed revolution that is already making money for the leaders, and those gains are now spreading across almost the entire economy,” he said. “Those who own an S&P index fund will get some of the action. Those who pick the right stocks can get it all, because I just gave you the buy list for 2026 and beyond.”
Disclosure: The portfolio used by CNBC Investment Club holds shares of Cramer’s Charitable Trust, GEV, NVDA, ETN, GLW, AMZN, MSFT and GOOGL.
