Jim Cramer thinks investors have neglected two familiar AI giants. In his September 3 CNBC commentary, he argued that Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) and Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) looked cheap as investors favored other winners. His thesis: enormous AI investments could begin delivering substantial returns. His charitable trust owns both stocks.
The latest results support the growth argument. They also show why investors should distinguish earnings from cash available after building the infrastructure that produces that growth. A lower earnings multiple can flatter a stock when investment gains lift the denominator. That distinction matters even when the underlying businesses are expanding rapidly.
The cloud businesses are delivering
Amazon.com, Inc. reported second-quarter AWS sales of $42.2 billion, up 37%. AWS operating income climbed to $16.6 billion from $10.2 billion. That is concrete support for Cramer’s optimism: Amazon’s cloud expansion is producing operating profits, with advertising and retail providing additional businesses beyond infrastructure rental.
But its June-quarter filing shows a different cash picture. Trailing twelve-month operating cash flow reached $161.4 billion, while net property-and-equipment purchases reached $169 billion. Free cash flow was consequently negative $7.6 billion. The quarter also included roughly $50.5 billion of upward adjustments to Amazon’s Anthropic nonvoting preferred stock.
Alphabet Inc. has a similarly credible operating bull case. Its second-quarter release showed Google Cloud revenue rising 82% to $24.8 billion, while companywide operating income increased 30%. Search and YouTube give it substantial existing distribution and monetization alongside cloud demand.
The bear case is the price of sustaining that expansion. Quarterly capital expenditure of $44.9 billion exceeded operating cash flow of $39.1 billion. Alphabet also reported $98 billion in other income, predominantly unrealized equity-investment gains. Treating that windfall as ordinary operating earnings would exaggerate its apparent cheapness. Neither company has to stop investing for the thesis to work, but future cash returns must justify today’s outlays.
Funds added exposure before Cramer’s call
Insider Monkey tracked 369 Amazon holders at June 30 versus 353 at March 31, and 275 Alphabet holders versus 265. Fisher Asset Management increased Amazon shares approximately 2.3% to 34,978,432 and Alphabet Class A shares approximately 2.4% to 39,989,840. These historical filings establish positioning, not the manager’s reasons.
Amazon’s August 14 short interest was 95,300,129 shares, 0.97% of float, with 2.3 days to cover. The investment decision rests on future cash generation, rather than assuming either a low-looking earnings multiple or rising cloud sales alone proves a bargain.
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