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Jim Cramer: Here's the list of AI winners to buy for 2026 and beyond

Published Tue, May 5 20266:29 PM EDTUpdated Wed, May 6 20269:27 AM EDT

Key Points

CNBC's Jim Cramer said the data center and artificial intelligence boom is spreading to every corner of the market.
Cramer referenced Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang's framework that describes the AI economy as a "five-layer cake".

CNBC's Jim Cramer said the data center and artificial intelligence boom is becoming all-consuming, spreading far beyond the tech companies and into nearly every corner of the market . "AI is inexorable. It is fierce. And it is making believers fortunes," the " Mad Money " host said Tuesday after all three major indexes closed higher. The market during first-quarter earnings season has been powered by what Cramer called an "explosion of profits" among companies tied to AI and data centers. And the gains are increasingly being seen across a widening group of stocks, he said. To explain the breadth of the trend, Cramer alluded to a framework popularized by Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang. Huang has described the AI economy as a " five-layer cake " — a stack of interconnected industries all benefiting from the same buildout. At the base is power, the foundation of the entire system. Data centers require enormous amounts of electricity, and Cramer said that's driving strength in companies like Vistra , GE Vernova , and Constellation Energy . The next layer is semiconductors. "You need the chips," Cramer said, pointing to Nvidia , along with rivals like AMD and Intel . He also highlighted storage and memory players like Western Digital and Micron Technology , as well as equipment makers including ASML and Applied Materials . Above that sits another hardware layer that makes AI systems possible. Cramer pointed to Dell Technologies for servers, Vertiv for cooling technology, and Eaton for electrical equipment. Additionally, he said networking firms like Cisco Systems and Arista Networks and fiber optic cable supplier Corning help stitch the data center together. Backup power providers such as Caterpillar and Cummins help keep the lights on at all times, he added. Next is the AI model layer. Cramer suggested that when he thinks about soaring adoption of AI models, he thinks about the cloud computing providers such as Amazon Web Services, Microsoft's Azure, and Google Cloud that benefit from all that usage. At the top is the application layer, the tools consumers and businesses interact with directly, including services such as ChatGPT, "the interface that started it all," Cramer said. For Cramer, the key takeaway is that the AI boom is no longer a narrow tech story — it's a broad-based economic shift with everything from utilities to industrials to tech "getting hit by a firehose of money." "You have a well-financed revolution that's already making money for the leaders, and now those gains are spreading through almost the entire economy," he said. "Those with S & P index funds will get a piece of the action. Those who pick the right stocks could get it all, because I just gave you the buy list for 2026 and beyond." Disclosure: Cramer's Charitable Trust, the portfolio used by the CNBC Investing Club, owns shares of GEV, NVDA, ETN, GLW, AMZN, MSFT and GOOGL. Sign up now for the CNBC Investing Club to follow Jim Cramer's every move in the market. Disclaimer Questions for Cramer? Call Cramer: 1-800-743-CNBC Want to take a deep dive into Cramer's world? Hit him up! Mad Money Twitter - Jim Cramer Twitter - Facebook - Instagram Questions, comments, suggestions for the "Mad Money" website? madcap@cnbc.com