Jim Cramer says the data center trade is under attack. Here’s who could benefit
- ID
- 17466
- Status
- summarized
- Published
- 25 Aug 2026, 6:31 AM
- Fetched
- 25 Aug 2026, 7:17 AM
- Provider
- CNBC Technology
- Category
- technology
- Original URL
- https://www.cnbc.com/2026/08/24/cramer-data-center-trade-under-attack-who-could-benefit.html
- Source URL
- https://www.cnbc.com/id/19854910/device/rss/rss.html
Summary
- Score
- 4.5
- Created
- 25 Aug 2026, 7:17 AM
- Tags
- Audience
- developerssaas_founders
What happened
CNBC's Jim Cramer argues that political and community pushback over electricity costs, water use, and other concerns is slowing the unbridled data center buildout in the US, citing governors in Pennsylvania and Texas reversing course on support. He says this could depress valuations for data center beneficiaries like GE Vernova, Micron, Sandisk, Western Digital, and Seagate, while favoring hyperscalers—Amazon, Alphabet, Microsoft, and Meta—who can outlast smaller developers and face less competition for land, labor, and power.
Why it matters
If US data center expansion slows due to energy and water constraints, cloud compute capacity tightens and costs could rise for builders running AI workloads stateside. For Malaysian/SE Asian builders, this strengthens the case for regional data center and cloud investment—Malaysia is already attracting hyperscaler builds, and a constrained US market makes local infrastructure and regional cloud pricing more strategically important. Founders evaluating where to deploy AI infrastructure should weigh this trend.
Discussion angle
If US data center growth hits regulatory walls over power and water, does Malaysia's data center boom become more critical to regional AI builders—and what happens to cloud pricing if US capacity tightens?