Jim Cramer: Why investors are punishing Alphabet and giving Microsoft a pass
Microsoft and Alphabet are getting very different reactions following Wednesday night’s earnings reports. Jim Cramer believes the reason for that boils down to one thing:financial discipline. Shares of Google parent Alphabet tumbled over 12% on Thursday, on pace for their biggest one-day drop of all time. On the other hand, Microsoft shares popped at Thursday’s open, before slipping less than 1% amid broader weakness in the Nasdaq . Two tech giants: one headed for a historic drop and the other experiencing a routine decline. For Jim, the key differentiator is Microsoft’s ability to keep spending in check while pursuing its artificial intelligence ambitions and delivering strong growth. The cloud and software giant beat estimates across all key metrics, including revenue and earnings per share. Its Azure cloud business also grew 48% year over year in constant currency, ahead of the 45% consensus, according to FactSet. All the while, Microsoft’s free cash flow came in at $18.6 billion, down just $1 billion sequentially. “What I noticed is that this is a disciplined approach with AI,” Jim said Thursday morning on CNBC. Now contrast that with Alphabet, which missed expectations on many key metrics in the quarter , including overall revenue, operating income and adjusted earnings per share. The company also saw a sequential deceleration in Google Search revenue growth, fueling concerns about AI disruption for its longtime cash cow. There were some bright spots: Google Cloud revenue doubled year over year, and its Gemini app is now the fastest-growing product in company history. But those positives pale in comparison to the negatives, especially as Alphabet’s free cash flow fell deeper into negative territory at minus $9.1 billion. It was an outflow of $5.86 billion in the prior quarter. The company also noted that capital expenditures are expected to rise in 2027 to support its AI buildout. “You don’t spend more than you have to. I did not feel that was the case with this Alphabet call,” Jim said. “We’re supposed to give them a free pass when we now start thinking, ‘Wait a second, this core business they had, isn’t it being eroded by other companies?” Jim compared the tech giants to Goofus and Gallant, the fictional comic strip characters featured in the Highlights for Children magazine. In this analogy, Jim said Microsoft was the responsible Gallant and Alphabet was the less disciplined Goofus. At the center of Jim’s praise is Microsoft CFO Amy Hood, whom he credited alongside CEO Satya Nadella for getting the company back on track after a rocky start to the year. “We don’t emphasize how important CEO and CFOs are together to be able to change not only the narrative, but the actuality,” Jim said. Microsoft shares had fallen more than 25% in the first six months of the year amid concerns that the company could be left behind in the AI race. Much like Salesforce , Microsoft faced fears that AI could disrupt its seat-based subscription business. Investors were also worried that the company lacked innovation in its AI tools, particularly its Copilot assistant compared with what frontier labs Anthropic and OpenAI were churning out. But Microsoft began changing that narrative in its July fiscal fourth-quarter earnings, when it reported accelerating Azure revenue growth and an increase in paid Copilot seats. Equally important, the company’s spending guidance at the time was music to our ears. The company set itself apart from its hyperscaler peers, proving it could invest in AI without raising its capital expenditure outlook. The combo of accelerating growth and disciplined spending helped ignite Microsoft’s rebound. Shares surged roughly 51% from their late-June low through Wednesday’s close. Now, the company’s latest earnings report validated that comeback by checking those same boxes once again. In Jim’s view, Alphabet has failed to demonstrate the same kind of discipline. While the company could argue that it’s the best-positioned hyperscaler, given its wide range of AI assets — including custom AI chips, cloud computing, Gemini and the popularity of Search — Jim is frustrated with management’s execution. Among Jim’s bones to pick, he lamented the fact that Alphabet is beginning to sell racks of its custom tensor processing units (TPUs) to external customers, at the same time it’s also having to rent computing capacity from third-party vendors. He also argued that Alphabet has failed to properly monetize YouTube. “They got saved by the cloud,” he said. “If they didn’t have the cloud, then we would come in today and the stock would be appreciably lower.” He added later, “This was a highly undisciplined call. I did not sense the kind of discipline that you got from Amy Hood.” Still, Jim cautioned against giving up on Alphabet entirely, pointing to the Club’s history with the stock. The Club previously exited our position in Alphabet in March last year, right before the stock went on a big run as numerous overhangs dissipated. We eventually reinitiated the position in December at higher prices. That experience demonstrates why Jim isn’t giving up Alphabet despite his current frustrations. We downgraded the stock to hold-equivalent 2 earlier on Thursday , but we’re not ringing the register. “We’ve written off this company before, and that’s been a very big mistake,” Jim said. “They can come back because they’re really smart.” As for Microsoft, Jim remains bullish and believes shares have considerably more room to run, suggesting that $600 per share is a distinct possibility. He drew parallels between Alphabet’s current situation and some of his past grievances with Microsoft. Ultimately, Jim put his faith in Nadella and Hood and held onto the stock. “Turns out, they knew exactly what they were doing,” Jim said. (Jim Cramer’s Charitable Trust is long MSFT, GOOGL. See here for a full list of the stocks.) As a subscriber to the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer, you will receive a trade alert before Jim makes a trade. Jim waits 45 minutes after sending a trade alert before buying or selling a stock in his charitable trust’s portfolio. 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