“Most Exciting Moment I’ve Ever Been In”: Jim Cramer on the $1 Trillion Boom Driving Stocks to Record Highs

AJ Tiarsmith

Tue, August 4, 2026 at 6:01 PM GMT+3 4 min read

Quick Read

CAT posted its first-ever $20B quarter while PLTR surged 23% intraday on 93% revenue growth, both riding the AI infrastructure boom.
Cramer tied both stocks to the same $1.2 trillion data-center capex wave growing 30% annually, one supplying power, the other enterprise AI software.
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Jim Cramer used CNBC's "Squawk on the Street" on August 4, 2026 to frame the current tape as a generational setup for investors. Watching Caterpillar (NYSE:CAT) print a blowout quarter and Palantir (NASDAQ:PLTR) rip higher intraday, Cramer told co-hosts Carl Quintanilla and David Faber, "This is one of the most exciting moments I've ever been in the business. We're talking about more than 1 trillion, 30% year-over-year growth in spend."

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He was referring to the roughly $1.2 trillion data-center buildout tracking 30% year-over-year growth, the same figure his "more than 1 trillion" line rounds to. That capex wave is showing up in the tape: the Dow was posting record highs and the S&P 500 was aiming for one at the open, while WTI crude sat at $76.58, the lowest since July 13.

Caterpillar: The Data Center Company

Quintanilla opened the segment noting "Caterpillar surging on a blowout quarter, helped by data center demand." Cramer credited the company's prior CEO for the strategic pivot: "Umpleby set this company up to be the data center company. You can string their turbines together, string some of their engines together, and generate as much wattage as you want."

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The Q2 2026 numbers back the thesis. Caterpillar reported revenue of $20.543 billion, up 23.98% year over year, and adjusted EPS of $8.17 versus a $6.1974 estimate, a 31.83% beat. CEO Joe Creed called it "the first time in company history that we have generated over $20 billion in sales and revenues in a single quarter." Details of the release are available in the company's Q2 2026 8-K exhibit.

The data-center engine sits inside Power & Energy. Power Generation revenue climbed 29% to $3.098 billion, driven by demand for large reciprocating engines and turbines. Construction Industries meanwhile posted revenue up 35%, with North America construction up 50% to $5.07 billion. Shares climbed intraday on August 4, adding 6.48% in the session after the earnings report.

Palantir: Enterprise AI at Scale

Palantir's Tuesday move drew Cramer's real-time color: "Palantir was up 8, then up 12, then up 15, then up 20. People who are watching are making fortunes." That was his read on the intraday tape.

Faber zeroed in on the mix shift: "The US business is up that much? Yeah, I mean the US, it's now 81% of their total revenue." Palantir's Q2 print showed revenue of $1.935 billion, up 93% year over year, with U.S. commercial revenue surging 149% to $764 million and U.S. government revenue up 90% to $809 million. Management raised full-year revenue guidance to $8.150 billion to $8.158 billion, implying 82% growth.

CEO Alex Karp framed the setup this way: "Demand for AI sovereignty has now been unleashed. And Palantir is the only company that has demonstrated it can transform tokens into actual economic value." Profitability kept pace, with an adjusted operating margin of 62% and a Rule of 40 score of 155%. Retail sentiment on Reddit matched the tone, with a bullish score of 78-79 through the overnight hours after the release.

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The Bigger Thesis

Cramer's argument threads industrial iron and enterprise software into one trade. Caterpillar supplies the wattage that keeps GPUs humming, while Palantir supplies the AIP software layer enterprises are deploying to operationalize models on their own data. U.S. energy resources, open-source model choice, and combined government-plus-commercial demand knit those two ends of the AI stack together.

Prediction markets echoed the enthusiasm. On Polymarket, participants assigned a 90.5% probability that PLTR hits $162 in August 2026, and a 99% probability the stock finishes higher on August 4. Palantir shares were up 22.52% intraday as Cramer spoke.

His "most exciting moment" framing is on-air enthusiasm about an inflection. What investors can measure is the capex cycle powering it: a trillion-dollar buildout, growing 30% annually, with two very different companies now visibly monetizing the same wave.