Mad Money 08/20/26 | Audio Only

In the shadow of Idaho's mountains, the future of technology is being built from the ground up. My problem was born here nearly a half a century ago. Today, it's building the technology powering the next industrial revolution. Steel in the ground. Ingenuity at work. Billions of dollars and tens of thousands of jobs. The race for AI may be global, but its next frontier is taking shape on American soil. Right here in Boise, Idaho. A legacy of American manufacturing is shaping the future of innovation. Mad Buddies invest in America from Microni begins now. My mission is simple. To make you money. I'm here to level the playing field for all investors. There's always a market somewhere and I promise to help you find it. That money starts now. Hey, I'm Kramer. Welcome to a special edition of Mad Money coming to you from Mike Ron's headquarters in Boise, Idaho. Welcome to Kra America. Other people, my friends, I'm just trying to make you a little bit of money. My job is not just to entertain, but to educate, to teach you. So, call me at 1800 743 CBC. Tweet me at Jim Kramer. You take your eye off the market for one lousy day and come out here where they actually make things like a Boise, Idaho construction site for Micron's new semiconductor factory. You realize there's an incredibly jarring gulf between stock prices and reality. Of course, the matter the market doesn't seem to rally just because it's a beautiful day out here, does it? I'm watching 8,000 workers crawling all over 10 million square ft of steel and concrete infrastructure. But instead, what I really have to do is settle for a rough and nasty day on Wall Street, 2,150 miles away from here, where the Dow tumbled 704 points as it beat the climb 87% and the NASDAQ lost a full percent. >> Oh, I wish we had a better session, though. Because there's no manufacturing process on the planet that's more complex than building semiconductors, and Micron builds them right here. This is a company that's always been committed to the United States and we have come out here to see and praise that commitment. This company spending 250 billion yeah will it be $250 billion here New York and Virginia to make the most advanced memory chips many for the gigantic data center built out right now and soon for robots self-driving cars. They all need memory to work and Micron's a heavy hitter in the memory space. the third largest after Samsung and SKH Highix. If you measure a company's success by its gross margin, the percentage of revenue they keep after the cost of goods sold, what you're looking at will be just two fabs within one of the most lucrative companies in the world. Unfortunately though, you can't take your eye off the broader market. Even if you think, as I do, that Mike B stock is radically undervalued. Yeah, that's even after today's $37 rally. In the end, we always have to look at stocks through the markets prism. Okay? Not ours, but the markets. And right now, the market's not going to give Micron its due because of factors beyond this company's control. What is clouding the market's prism? What is making everything so darn fair? Let me spell it out. I'm going to start with the United States of Walmart, the largest retail chain in the world, where more than 200 million customers shop every single week. Walmart's a fantastic company. You know, I think that tremendous prices. Lately, it's been able to attract people from all ends of the economic spectrum, and it has a very strong e-commerce business that was on display this last quarter. That said, when Walmart reported this morning, it missed Wall Street's expectations. To me, these results were more complicated than usual. A gigantic tariff rebate, difficult to understand federally reimburseed pharmacy numbers. When I calculated the hit from federal drug price negotiations and backed that out, I actually thought, "Hey, sue me. I was a good quarter. Not great, but good. It would have been much better, though, if gasoline prices hadn't gotten up to $4. That caused the stock to get crushed. It's not just because consumers have less money to spend when fuel's expensive. You see, Walmart has this nasty habit of keeping prices low or taking them even lower when times get tough. They've done it like this since the days of Sam Walden. It's great for customers and long-term, it's been fantastic for stockholders. Problem is, it means the stockholders right now have to take a short-term hit. The people who own the stock until today when they furiously dumped it when they saw the results, they saw two things. The two things they didn't like. One, business didn't get worse as the quarter went on because of ever higher gasoline prices. And two, Walmart chose to do something gutsy, make a little less money shortterm or to take a lot of market share. That is good business. Which sends me back to that dark prism I mentioned before where good business isn't necessarily going to be rewarded with good stock prices. When you match Walmart's subdued end of quarter results with the continual increase in the price of gasoline, well, doesn't it become clear to us that the stock was maybe a little too high coming in, hence the 9% meltdown today. It didn't reflect the fact that this company's willing to take a very small earnings hit to gain market share during a slowdown. It's what they taught us would make you money long term. Or to put it another way, we all understand as long as the war with Iran drags on, we're going to pay more for a lot of things except stocks. stocks where we demand lower prices before we put more money to work. We learned that last night when the president talked about taking on Iran economically. So he he wants to get some sort of national I don't know a financial siege going given that Iran is one of the most heavily sanctioned countries on earth already. I'm not sure what else we can do or even if it matters. Now we're getting retail earnings this week and we have some good ones, Target and Home Depot as well as some not so good ones, Walmart and maybe Lowe's. They don't cancel each other out though. Walmart's so much bigger than every other retailer that it cast a pole over the entire industry, OVER THE ENTIRE shopping business. At the same time, this would have been a better day if interest rates had gone down, our Treasury Secretaries resort to buying back an unusual amount of treasuries to hold rates down. I don't know about that. When America has $40 trillion in debt, a $4 billion buyback of long-term treasuries, has this treas Treasury Secretary looking a little like the like a little Dutch boy with his fingers plugging the dyke. Give him that. Give that man another say billion fingers and maybe he'll be able to take care of all this. So, we are stuck with assuming that because Walmart didn't deliver, the American consumer really is slowing down. As much as I'd like to say that's what's behind me, raw American manufacturing might is what matters. that this is why we should own stocks. I have to remember that twothirds of our country is service-based. Walmart is the thermometer for the service-based economy. And today, it showed us somewhat sickly patient, one that won't get better until peace breaks out in the Middle East. Historically, that's not something we necessarily want to make a bet on. Now, because rates came uh down, maybe rates will come down. Maybe they will come down. I don't want to say the Treasury Secretary doesn't. Maybe he's a magician. Okay? Maybe he's more of a a magician uh successfully pulling up the 30-year Treasury than he is a Dutch boy plugging holes. Maybe the consumer gets used to $ four dollar gasoline, unless it's going to five. But we're just going to have to be satisfied with the Micron Marvel, which goes on for acres and acres in some places, as far as the eye can see. Tonight, we're learning why this very special company is doing amazing things for our country and succeeding in an industry where so many American companies have failed and making boatloads of money while doing it. The bottom line, let's not despair too much. Micron stock did finish up 4%. That's terrific American exceptionalism at work. The problem is there's another 499 stocks in the S&P 500 and the prison made a lot of them look downright awful today. All right, get oil down. Get interest rates down. The prison will be a heck of a lot better. This picture spoiled by a different backdrop. One that is 2,000 miles away. Let's talk to Sam in Pennsylvania. Sam. >> Jim, listen. After JP Morgan downed Nike, I have to say as a consumer of their products, I think I could help the street out with some tips here. This has been this has been an ongoing issue for a couple of quarters now, if not a couple years. stock is down 70% where it was and I think what they need to do is focus on their core consumer and increase the quality of the product. They got to offer us a value proposition. It's enough with the sustainable materials. It's get back to the core core ideology of Nike being the best at what they do, >> you know. So, >> who's that, Sam? What company? >> Nike. >> Nike. All right, Sam. Look, I wish it were just quality. I wish it were just market share. I wish it were just the cost. I wish it were something. There just too many things going wrong right now with Nike and the whole industry is slowing down. Sometimes you can't even blame them for what they're doing. It's just nothing's working. Micron is succeeding in industry where so many others have failed. That's partly why it was one of the only positive AI related stocks in today's red tape. On May money tonight on the heels of their $250 billion manufacturing announcement, I'm sitting down with our host for the day, Micron CEO. Don't miss our wide-ranging conversation. Then a different Boise based company, Albertson's, hasn't doing that well at all. So, what's been going on with that grocery stock? I'm digging deeper and I'm taking you behind the scenes of this fantastic facility in showing you the area that inspired me the most and reminded me just how meaningful Micron's American Investment is. So, stick with Kramer. Don't miss a second of MadMoney. Follow Jim Kramer on X. Have a question? Tweet Kramer #madmentions. Send Jim an email to madmoney@cnbc.com or give us a call at 1800743cnbc. Miss something? Head to madmoney.cnbc.com. We're here in Boise, Idaho, where Micro, the memory chip maker, is spending tens of billions of dollars to build not one but two semiconductor fabs, the ones you see behind me, in order to tackle the dire memory chip shortage. I think this company is a national treasure. Micron's been printing money lately with its stock up 731% over the past 12 months because data centers have an insatiable appetite for memory. Management says the shortage should get even worse next year. Even after this run though, the stock trades at just over six times next year's earnings estimates because Wall Street's terrified terrified that Micron and its competitors will add too much capacity and then become flatfooted once demand starts to come down. I think that isn't going to turn out like that. I think it is going to be a little bit different. The data center is that much of a gamecher and no data center can go without gobs and gobs almost limitless amounts of memory. But don't take it from me. Earlier today, I sat down with our host Sanjay Marocha, the chairman, president CEO of Micron Technology to find out more. Take a look. Sanjay, a lot of people could see behind me and say, "Listen, there's a lot of concrete, a lot of steel, a lot of people with hard hats." I look at and I think national treasure. >> Jim, I have always considered Micron a national treasure. Nearly 50 years of leading with innovation in memory. The only memory company that is here today in US driving global leadership and now memory has become a critical infrastructure for AI. Without memory there is no AI. You want to advance AI, you need more memory. all invented here you know 62,000 patents created you know with the leading work done here and now we are building leading edge memory manufacturing here very excited Jim and thank you for coming here to see the action here as well as bringing your whole crew here >> I like I like to see American greatness and innovation I like it when I think our country is winning because of micron tell me what would happen if I went to clay New York I went to Manass passes the other places you're doing these things. It's not just Boise. This is a big effort. >> Absolutely correct. Micron is investing $250 billion. >> Big uh big numbers and >> big billion not million. and totally totally committed to making these investments here in America to bring up leading edge memory manufacturing as well as what we call long life cycle memory products for automotive, industrial medical defense aerospace markets. So what we are building here in Boise, Idaho are two large fabs. gym. Each of these fabs will be the size of 10 football fields. That means the size of two Eagles stadiums. Each fab will be the size. >> Two winning fabs. >> Two winning fabs. That's right. Absolutely. Two winning fabs. It starts here. We are building in Syracuse, New York. In Clay, New York as well, where earlier a month or so ago, we poured concrete moving as fast as we can over there as well. and Manasses Virginia we have uh brought modernizing the technology there to meet the requirements of those end markets. So from data center to edge for data center consumer automotive industrial we are bringing up memory supply as fast. >> Okay. So are there people are there people right now is it jet is there Amazon who's saying listen when are those chips going to be done and when are they going to be done when are we going to see something from here >> all of our customers want more memory they want more memory faster I we I'm engaged directly engaged and our teams are engaged directly with our customers they appreciate that Micron is betting on American worker Micron is investing in American our US supply that we are working hard to bring up is very important to all our customers. So yes, I mean this uh Boise Idaho fab which has right now about 8,000 construction workers are here. This fab will have first wafers out middle of 2027. Jim, these fabs take a long time to build. You cannot flip a switch and have a fab constructed. >> But but how can you afford to risk building something this big given the way the industry has historically been like this and this and this? >> Jim, AI has changed the demand profile for memory. >> It's not boom bus. AI memory has secular demand with AI across data center across consumer markets and of course industrial automation and in future robotics which by end of the decade each of these robots and there will be over time hundreds of millions of these robots they all require tons of memory. So memory demand is tremendous, supply is constrained. We see 2027 even tighter with respect to 2026. What we are building here first wafers out in 27 production ramping in 2028 time frame. Clay New York production ramping, you know, by 209 2030 time frame. The second Boise Fab will start ramping up production late 2018. >> You're telling me that you have line of sight for demand beyond 27? >> Absolutely. I mean, we see we have done fiveear strategic customer agreements, right? These strategic customer agreements have given commitment of demand from our customers over these 5year period. >> Did you ever dream even these three years ago that you strategic customer agreements where they lock in and they take or pay? >> They are take or pay. >> No outs. No out. >> They can't call you and say I'm having a hard time here. Give me a break. >> And can I tell you they are take or pay customers have made cash deposits or you know other similar financial commitments amounting to $22 billion and our customers wanted more of supply than what we could commit to them in the SCAS. So even for data center today customers want 50% more memory than what we are able to commit to them. >> Look I I was reading on X that Elon Musk said he would buy everything that you made. What would happen if he called you and said listen Sanjay I want to buy everything that you make and I don't want anybody else to have it. >> I'll tell you all our customers across our end markets will buy everything that you make. >> So they should take these agreements before someone like that comes in and sweeps. I mean these agreements are critically important. They give us of course the visibility to supply and confidence in that supply enabling us to invest $250 billion commitments here in America. These agreements give our customers assurance of the supply that we are able to commit to them as well. >> But what happens if some board member says you know what Sanjay this whole thing you got with America I think it's great but let's do this in the Philippines and just crush it make a lot more money. What do you say to that that board member? Look, we are an American company. We are we have we are where we are with American innovation. Memory has become a key enabler of AI. It is memory is the intelligence behind artificial intelligence. Right? So it is critically important. We are very proud as an American company that we are investing in America. Of course, we have large scale manufacturing overseas as well and we continue to invest and continue to advance our overseas fabs as well. All of this is needed Jim to meet the customer demand and still I cannot see when supply will catch up with demand despite all our efforts to bring up supply as fast as we can. >> Okay. Now I look around here at a contrast with the view a common view in our country unfortunately that it's too expensive to make things. There's no workforce to make things in this country and no ethic. That can't be true here. Look, Micro has been around here in America for 50 plus nearly 50 years. We have been building memory here in America. 8,000 construction workers with tremendous work ethic are here every day building the fabs. We have 7,000 plus engineers and workers that are driving innovation and driving leading edge R&D roadmap. >> I'm assuming you're training you're training some of these workers careers they're building right here right here. Absolutely right. I mean you know we have just built a training center workforce training center where not only we are training workers our suppliers are training workers to support us here as well as we have college of western Idaho that is bringing students here to train them. Micron is investing in apprenticeships. We are partnering with veteran institutions. Lot of our workforce is made up of veterans as well. We are partnering with universities to advance semiconductor curriculum. So innovation is thriving here in America and this is where you know Micron now invests in Micron Research Labs because there is no better innovation hub than here in America. >> I listen to you and I think well isn't this what the government used to do for us? >> Look I mean partnership with government and industry is critically important. >> It's better that we that the corporations do it. you know they're going to do it great >> totally it's our responsibility to lead advanced research working with the ecosystem this 10 billion Micron research lab announcement that we made here this is Micron is convening the ecosystem partners to lead with breakthrough innovation >> universities startups customers industrial bodies government we are partnering with them to drive the advanced research for the next generation So Jim, think of Boise as the hub for innovation that will be 10 years plus for subsequent decades. Boise as the hub of near-term roadmap of technologies and now Boise becoming the hub of leading memory manufacturing here as well. >> Boise, I got to move here. It's too great. >> It's a great place to move here. We are able to attract top talent here. All right, we're going to be right back with Sergeant Marriage, chamber president, CEO of Micro. Before the break, I mentioned that Micron's insanely cheap on an earnings per share basis. All the memory stocks are. See, because historically this has been a classic boom and bust business. But I'm not so sure the history still applies because the memory shortage has changed the game. Micron has more than 16 multi-year take or pay contracts with major customers. These guys are even putting down deposits because they desperately need to secure more memory. That gives Micron management much more visibility into how demand will look a year or two or maybe even 5 years down the road. Another reason why I believe there may be a multi-year runway of shareholder greatness developing here. Now, we talked about that and more in part two of our discussion with Sanjay Motri. He's the chairman, president, CEO of Micron Technology. For as long as I've followed this industry, I've always felt that your particular end memory chips just weren't given its due. The balance of power has shifted dramatically in your favor. How come? You know today there is no AI without memory. Me AI systems need more memory. They need higher performance memory. They need lower power memory. So the value of memory has that equation has totally changed. They our customers to drive their own growth they need more compute. They need more memory. So memory really has become a key enabler. And Jim, this is not only in data centers. Even in your phone, you know, to have richer experiences in AI enabled phone, you need more memory content. Your PCs, your self-driving cars, all of them now need more and more memory content. So the need for memory is ever greater. And now in AI, it's not just the devices and the servers. Now you have agentic AI. Agentic it's all the agents all the context windows that are getting larger >> and that's all filled with more memory as >> Okay. So uh we have a lot of shareholders of micron. I know I've talked with you positively for years and years since the show started and they're probably saying yeah that's great but are they able to make enough money? In fact you're making the most money I've ever seen Micron make. Uh do the customers think that's fair? Do they understand that it's just that there's nothing you can do? You got to spend a lot of money to make a lot of money. >> You know, our customers recognize the value of memory because memory is what is enabling them to deliver to design products that are driving growth engine for for them that are enabling value for their customers, right? So our customers recognize the value of memory and of course you know they are paying the value of memory and what's important to them is availability of memory. >> So that's why more than 16 companies big companies the companies everybody knows have said look I want to do a deal with you because I want to be sure I have supply. That's absolutely correct because they need the supply and they see the value of memory. Therefore, they are willing to pay for the memory. Of course, they decide how they going to manage their profits, how they going to price their products. And by the way, we had 16 customers with whom we had signed the strategic customer agreements announced at the time of our last earnings call. Since then, of course, we have signed more strategic customer agreements as well. >> Right. So how do we get away from the idea that well wait a second the data center is slowing down AI slowing down uh anthropic good month open AI bad month how do we get away from that because you know that's missing the big picture it it's not about any one customer it's about diversified end markets and Micron it's important for us to support all of our end markets to the best of our abilities data center consumer automotive industrial And we have a wide range of customers. We have strongest portfolio today in the industry going across these end markets and the demand across all our our end markets are high. Memory industry is not able to keep up with the demand. >> Okay. Now it come December 9th your deal with the government it'll be two years. I understand that after that you're allowed to buy back stock. I know you can't right now. your compadres, SanDisk, Western Digital C8 are buying back huge amount of stock. Do you see a situation where you too can buy back a huge amount of stock? >> Uh Jim, we have said before that of course we are growing the business. We are investing in the business. We are investing in advanced research R&D roadmap for our products. Investing as you see here in building out the memory supply base. So we will of course invest first in growing the business. We had $25 billion of net cash positive last quarter. Free cash flow this quarter will even be greater. Of course, excess cash we will return to shareholders. And we are best positioned ever to grow the business as well as provide return to our shareholders at larger levels than before. And yes, we are committed to doing that. >> Okay. Now, there are a lot of people talking about how there's a real overbuill could happen that you of course we're going to overbuild. I spoke with you three years ago. We had a very pointed conversation where you said, "Jim, I got to reign in. You were too bullish." Well, I mean, you got me excited then you told me not to get too bullish. I mean, you you weren't that you were not all that bullish three years ago and now obviously everyone's gotten too bullish to some degree. What do you think? Where where is it? Where is it? Where are we in the cycle? Look, I mean, we see no end when supply catches up with demand. No end. We do not and the demand continues to grow here. >> Well, that's the best story ever. >> And again, it is reflected in those strategic customer agreements, their five-year agreements with our customers where they have committed to taking the supply. And can I just also point out that these strategic customer agreements can also be extended by our customers. So this gives us assurance of demand. Of course you know nothing ever goes in a straight line. There can be eb and flow. This is what micron has shown that these when we partner with customers over a multi-year horizon it gives us opportunity to make adjustments as well. Today supply is so tight that we have to build out the clean rooms. Of course, how we equip the clean rooms will always be in a disciplined manner based on the latest assessment of demand we have. But our customers when we work closely with them and you know Jim, we are working closely with them earlier and earlier in their development cycle, this is our unique advantage as an American company, as a technology leader, America driving AI innovation. It's our unique advantage to be able to work closely with our customers. What we see is that the demand of memory from today's data center, you know, tomorrow, autonomous vehicles, self-driving cars, robots, and across consumer devices, the demand for memory continues to increase and we are working hard to meet the requirements of our customer. >> I want to talk about your commitment to America. You obviously committed to uh making careers for people. You're committed to tremendous amount of work be uh people getting jobs but you're also committed to the country and one of the ways you're committed to the country is that you yourself have driven the Trump account in terms of your commitment $250 million other companies have to step up absolutely right Jim we are very proud that uh Micron is investing in the future of Americans through this $250 million commitment to the commitment to secure the financial future of American children with $250 commitment in seven different states in counties where the income is below $150,000. And with the Trump account launched about a month ago, what we are seeing is that 50 million of of that $250 million of commitment is already being deployed. Of course, we are working with Treasury to get that money into the accounts of much faster than we are seeing already $50 million, you know, in these seven states. And by the way, it's not only this $250 million commitment through Trump accounts. Micron here in Boise, Idaho, $75 million commitment toward community investment fund to work with the community to address >> not the enemy of the community. >> Yeah. Working with the community to support the community through housing needs, transportation needs, and of course for the welfare and quality of life improvement in the community. In Clay, New York, Micron has commitments of $250 million again working with the community for education, for schools, for STEM education, worker training. Yes, transportation as well as housing. So, Micron really works closely with communities where we have operations. >> Okay. Now, one last thing on your tremendous labs announcement, Jensen Wong, Micron is taking on one of the greatest challenges of the AI year, reinventing memory technologies and architectures to fuel the next generation of increasingly powerful AI systems. We won't be able to do the robots that we want without you. We won't be able to do the self-driving cars. Maybe we can't put people on Mars without you. All of this stuff is determined by memory right now. >> So, correct, Jim. Memory is today essential. I mean it that's why I call it strategic infrastructure of the AI era. Memory is essential across devices across technologies across product solutions and we are very proud to be able to partner with this ecosystem. You see in our press release today on micron research labs leading institutions and leading entities from US are partnering with us to drive America's leadership in semiconductor technology. We will look back on this America the innovation >> we will look back we will remember we remember what you did >> we going to play our role here we are being responsible and we look forward to other companies joining us not only in driving advanced research but certainly partnering to advance the communities you know we look forward to other companies joining in hope they'll watch they'll get and they'll get their well there's many companies doing great things but they should do them alongside of you Sanjay Maro chairman president CEO of Micron in Boise Thank you for having our team. Thank you for what you're doing for the country. >> Thank you, Jim. Coming up, Micron isn't the only big company in Boise. So, should you be buying into Albertson's? Also, Kramer's checking it out next. I was getting ready to come out here to Boise, Idaho. I kept thinking, what the heck happened to the stock of Albertson's, the Boise based supermarket chain? You might also know them as a Safeways, Vans, or my late mom's fave, Acme. Here's a stock that's been really put through the meat grinder. I mean, just awful. >> The house of pain. >> Down 30% year to date and down over 68% from its highs. set roughly four and a half years ago. In large part because they tried and failed to merge with Kroger, a deal that was shot down by President Biden's antitrust team because the FTC feared the two together be way too powerful. Could raise prices with impunity, screwing the consumer. See, Albert News came public in the summer of 2020. It had previously been taken private by Cberus back in 2006, and that was soon to be a great time to be in the grocery business. The pandemic had tons of people eating most of the meals at home. remember the IPO price at 16 bucks. By early 2022, the stock was trading in the mid to high30s. Then the world started going back to normal and the stock of Albertsons got clobbered down to the 20s. In October 2022 though, they got this takeover bid from Kroger for $25 billion in cash and stock. This would have combined the second and fourth largest grocery chains in America, creating a true powerhouse. problem is this was back when Lena Khan was running the Federal Trade Commission. She was reflexively hostile to pretty much all mergers. So the FTC took Kroger and Albertson's to court. They got this preliminary injunction against the merger December 24 and then the next day Albertson's gave up, threw in the tail, said no way, can't do it. Turns out Kroger might have really dodged the bullet here because Albertson's has been doing worse and worse ever since. Just look at the latest quarter which they reported in late July. Albertson's posted a 08% decline in same store sales, worse than the 0.5% decline Wall Street was looking for. Their gross margin shrank by 50 basis points. Their earnings per share came in at 42 cents analyst expecting 54 cents. That was down 24% year-over-year. Albert has even cut its fullear forecast practically across the board, saying they'll earn $1.75 to $185 per share when previously they've been guiding for $222 to $2.32. Those are disastrous numbers, people. Much worse than whatever anyone might have thought about Walmart's results today, which is why the stock immediately plunged a shocking 22%. CEO Susan Morris blamed on the quote, "Increasing pressure from industry unit trends and a more cautious consumer." End quote. Now, in officers's defense, the industrywide pressure is real. Just a couple of weeks ago, I checked in with Cisco, the SY kind, giant food distributor, and I was struck by a chart they featured in their earnings deck. The chart referencing sales data from the Census Bureau, shows that there's been a three decade plus trend of consumers spending more money on food away from home and less money at grocery stores like at Albertson's. That changed dramatically, sure, uh, during CO, but after the pandemic, it only got worse. that drives what we've been seeing between food inflation, rising gas prices, people are buying less and less stuff from the supermarket. You heard that refrain from Walmart. Now, Albertson says they have a plan to fix this. They're trying to simplify their operating model from 11 divisions, some regional, uh, some brand based, and just four regions with the central merching h merching hub. Maybe that'll do it. I don't know. But Wall Street doesn't seem to have much faith in management's ability to turn things around. I I don't believe this is a tough industry at this point. The stock selling for less than seven times the midpoint of its fullear earnings forecast. 5.7% dividend yield. That's too high. You know what that means? Ordinarily, I might find that valuation enticing. But sometimes stocks are cheap because they deserve to be cheap. For me, this is one more example of what happens when well-meaning antitrust enforcement backfires and creates a situation that's worse than what the regulators were even trying to prevent. We saw that when Biden, Justice Department blocked the merger of JetBlue and Spirit Airlines. They didn't want more airline consolidation, especially in the lowcost space. But less than a year later, Spirit Airlines filed for bankruptcy, then emerged from bankruptcy, then went under again before fully closing up shop this spring. It would have been better if they just let the plane stay under JetBoo's name. Same thing happened with Walgreens. They tried to buy the struggling right back in 2015. FTC fought tooth and nail to block it because those were two of the big three drugstore chains. But right couldn't stand on its own. Last year, they shuttered all the stores. The deal got blocked and the drugstore industry still went from three to two. With Kroger's acquisition of Albertson's, they would have combined two of the top four grocerers in America. But this is an incredibly competitive industry dominated by Walmart with roughly 20% market share. Kroger and Albertson's combined currently have less than 13%. that would have given them more scale to hold their own against a Walmart or Costco or Publix, Amazonbased Whole Foods and the foreign discount grocerers that have taken over America like uh Aldi or at least let's say taken over by storm. I'd argue Kroger and Albertson's needed to merge to stay competitive in a tough business. The two together could be a great counterweight to areas where there's only a Walmart or a Costco. Both Alberts and Kroger have lost market share over the years and Kroger's stock is down 10% year to date. Here's the bottom line. Albert's is not doing well. To put it lightly, I think they should have been allowed to merge with Kroger years ago. But hey, you know what? Maybe it's not too late. The Trump administration doesn't seem to believe in any antitrust enforcement. So maybe they should just GIVE IT ANOTHER TRY. Consolidation is their best shot at staying competitive. Merge them and let them compete against the big boys. Better for all of us, especially the shareholders of the other big company headquartered in Boise, Idaho. That money's back after the break. It is time. It's time for a very special auto version of light round money. That's where I take your course fire by sell my step of this and then the lighting round is over. Are you ready ski dad with Ryan in Ohio? Ryan. >> Booyah. Big Daddy Kramer. >> Booyah. Hit me. >> Hey. Uh I got a I got a lump of coal and it's been under some pressure. How long a diamond? I'm talking about some Celsius. >> No. No. We don't want Celsius here. We got Coca-Cola. Coke is with KO is the winner. I'd go with the quality. Hey, how about Sanjay in California? Sanjay. >> Booyah. Jim, thanks for putting up a good show. >> Booyah. >> Always love always. What's up? >> I'm looking for the BMNR. Is it still a good buy? I did bought it last time. >> Bitcoin. Just go out and buy. Just go buy Bitcoin. Don't buy the derivatives. The derivatives are too dangerous. You can buy Bitcoin. I like that. Let's go to Eric in Indiana. Eric. Booyah. Jim. Booyah. >> Hello. >> Last summer high. You said you like this company, but not at those levels. It's down about 30% while profits and subscribers have continued to grow. Jim, at these levels, is Arlo's technology a buy. >> You know, it's it's actually profitable. I think it's not a bad idea. We we DODGED A BULLET. I'LL tell you that much. And that, ladies and gentlemen, CONCLUSION OF THE LIGHTNING ROUND. THE LIGHTNING ROUND is sponsored by Charles Schwab. Coming up, it's been a busy day in Boise, but Kramer's not done yet. Don't miss his final thoughts next. Earlier today, I put some pajamas on, the footy PJ kind. Slapped on a hood, some latex gloves, and found myself in a room that's clean enough to make micron semiconductors. It was a wonder. Just a remarkable room, more of an indoor stadium, really with chips flying around and baskets overhead, workers looking at screens that I would assoc memory devices. Now, this wasn't my first clean room. Clean because if there are any impurities, then you got to throw out millions of chips. And I'm not talking the chips in a $6.99 bag of Fritolays. These chips cost millions of dollars and customers are breaking down the doors for Micron to please send them anything. According to Manish Baya, these are the executive vice president of Micron's global operations. Inspect and detect defects at this nano scale. It's like trying to locate a single ant in the entire state of Idaho. Hence the clean room. Hence the pajamas. I found my mind wandering in the clean room, though. I was thinking that the notion of what this company does is so difficult and so important that I'm thrilled that you got to see it with me. You need to see it. You need to see it because what you're looking at is the future. We spend so much time talking about whether anthropics have a good quarter or opening. I do a stock offering. We forget that the future's here regardless of what those AI labs do. I wish I could tell you more. I'd like to be able to say, you know what, Micron Research Labs, the initiative that was unveiled on our network this morning, backed by 10 billion dollar comm I don't see have no idea what it'll produce. But you see, that's the point. I do know this. If we're going to do anything remarkable with technology, it'll probably need Micron's brain and broad, two most self-evident factors I saw at work here today. Pure wonderment. I know another emotion you would have felt if you're with me today. Pride. For those of us who think we can't make anything here, that it's too expensive, that we're too slothful, that the Chinese have a hammer lock on manufacturing, I can tell you that this this is exhibit A, that America still got it. If I managed to remove a speck of cynical dust from your eye here, that I did a better job than all those PJs and hoodies did at keeping that incredible room clean. Thank you, Sanjay. Thanks Micron. You make us all proud. I like to say there's always a bull market at summer product just for you right here in Midmoney. I'm Jim Kramer. See you next time. All opinions expressed by Jim Kramer on this podcast are solely Kramer's opinions and do not reflect the opinions of CNBC or its parent company or affiliates and may have been previously disseminated by Kramer on television, radio, internet, or another medium. You should not treat any opinion expressed by Kramer as a specific inducement to make a particular investment or follow a particular strategy, but only as an expression of his opinion. Kramer's opinions are based upon information he considers reliable, but neither CNBC nor its affiliates or subsidiaries warrant its completeness or accuracy, and it should not be relied upon as such. To view the full MadMoney disclaimer, please visit cnbc.com/madmoney disclaimer.