Cramer Warned Viewers That Meta’s AI Would Crush This Stock, and Someone Just Bet Millions It Won’t
Jim Cramer rattled off the companies he thinks Meta's new AI platform will hurt, but one glaring omission caught traders' attention and sent them rushing into short-dated call options before they even had time to think.
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Mad Money host Jim Cramer made a bull case for Meta Platforms‘ (NASDAQ:META | META Price Prediction) new artificial intelligence (AI) platform, Muse for Small Business, and catalogued the companies he thought it could hurt. That list left out Intuit (NASDAQ:INTU), and the omission fits a key detail: Intuit is a Muse launch partner.
Intuit stock fell 58% over the past year to $282.60 as of October 1, a slide that frames the company’s Muse-related news. In contrast, the iShares Expanded Tech-Software Sector ETF (NYSEARCA:IGV) rose 3% year to date (YTD), which marks the damage in Intuit shares as specific to Intuit and absent from software broadly. Meanwhile, as a gauge of the broader equities market, the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (NYSEARCA:SPY) gained 12% YTD as of October 1.
Meta Platforms stock climbed 11% YTD as the company pushes Muse to small businesses. Additionally, ServiceNow (NYSE:NOW) stock dropped 25% over the past year as of October 1, even as call buyers targeted it. Airbnb (NASDAQ:ABNB) stock slid 12% over the past month, and Cramer called it his favorite of the group to buy on the dip.
Cramer’s Muse Casualties Were Consumer Names
In a television interview, Meta Platforms President Dina Powell McCormick stated, “We have 200 million small business owners on our platform at Meta.” McCormick added that those owners are moving toward having Muse for Small Business “hustle and work for them every day.”
Cramer, who backed Muse, named Airbnb, SiriusXM, Booking Holdings and Planet Fitness as Muse casualties, all consumer-facing businesses. “I don’t think [Muse] will destroy entire industries, but there are plenty of companies that could be vulnerable here,” Cramer declared. Intuit, a small-business software company, was absent.
Intuit Put QuickBooks Inside Muse on Launch Day
A common bear case holds that Meta Platforms’ small-business reach could cut out Intuit, yet Intuit became a launch partner on Muse. Intuit’s launch-day announcement stated that its QuickBooks connector is live inside the platform. Alex Balazs, Intuit’s executive vice president and chief technology officer, asserted, “By bringing Intuit Intelligence’s agentic AI workflows into Muse for Small Business, we’re meeting customers where they are and connecting them to the QuickBooks tool they already rely on to get work done.”
The same announcement said Intuit has built experiences across every major AI platform and that QuickBooks customers connecting through one engage more with Intuit’s products than those who don’t. That arrangement makes Intuit’s QuickBooks the tool Muse calls when a small business asks a money question.
Renick Spotted Big Buyers in Intuit’s October Calls
In an October 1 video from CNBC, Oliver Renick said the most notable bullish software options action was in Intuit. Per Renick, Intuit stock saw “Options volumes more than two-and-a-half times the 30-day average there with more than three times as many calls bought as puts, and twice as many calls bought versus sold.” According to Renick, the biggest money was “someone buying $265 and $270 strike in-the-money calls expiring October 16,” which he called “expensive contracts that are going to need a move towards $290 in Intuit to be profitable by expiry.”
Intuit, in Renick’s words, is “a stock that’s been immense pressure in the past year, down more than 60% from highs.” Over the past month, Intuit shares fell 21%, so these short-dated calls need Intuit stock to rise.
ServiceNow stock drew roughly $5 million in bullish call premium, according to Renick, who noted put selling in the iShares software fund too.
What to Watch Next
Traders can watch for whether Intuit stock approaches the level Renick said those contracts need before they expire. The Muse partnership and the decline in Intuit shares both remain live, and the expiry may not settle which one wins.
Short-dated calls can lose value quickly if Intuit stock stalls. Investors weighing their exposure should adjust their holdings carefully given the steep one-year slide in Intuit stock and the short window on the October calls.
Meta Platforms, ServiceNow and Airbnb each face their own Muse-related questions. Your share positions in those names should reflect how quickly AI stories have moved, and might continue to move, each stock.
Contact [email protected] for any questions or corrections.
David Moadel is financial writer specializing in stocks, ETFs, options, precious metals, and Bitcoin. David has written well over 1,000 articles for leading online publications, helping investors understand markets, income strategies, and risk.His work has appeared in The Motley Fool, InvestorPlace, U.S. News & World Report, TipRanks, ValueWalk, Benzinga, Market Realist, TalkMarkets, Finmasters, 24/7 Wall St., and others.With a master’s degree in education, David has taught at the elementary, high school, and college levels. That teaching background shapes his writing style: clear, educational, and practical. David has also built a loyal social-media audience by providing trustworthy financial content on YouTube, X/Twitter, and StockTwits.
