CNBC’s Jim Cramer said Thursday that there’s no need to worry about the decline in NVIDIA stock. Cramer, who called Nvidia the greatest GOAT of all time, likened the AI chip king’s industry excellence and resilience to boxing champion Muhammad Ali. “I know you’ve been treated unfairly at Nvidia,” Kramer said on “Squawk on the Street.” “There were moments of extraordinary beating, but this may be Muhammad Ali.” Widely considered the pinnacle of boxing, Ali regained his heavyweight title, gains and losses. He was also known for his rope-a-dope style, leaning on the ropes and dishing out tremendous punishment to tire his opponent, then roaring back with a ferocious counterattack to win the fight. Mr. Kramer, who for years has encouraged investors to “own, not trade” Nvidia, said there was a time when the stock, like Ali, plummeted and appeared to be in the doldrums, but it has finally picked up because Jensen Huang’s company is so good at what it does. Kramer first recommended Nvidia in late 2009. Since then, the stock has soared more than 40,000% as of Thursday trading. At the CNBC Investment Club’s annual meeting in October, Mr. Huang appeared on stage in front of an audience of NVIDIA billionaires and thanked Mr. Kramer for supporting the company. “Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee” is one of Ali’s most enduring quotes, emphasizing the need to bob and weave to avoid punches and strike with conviction. Nvidia has certainly done its fair share of bobbing and weaving over the years. The company’s graphics processing units started out as a must-have in the computers of video gamers and graphics artists, long before the company pivoted to developing GPUs for AI. In a bad year for technology and the stock market overall, NVIDIA stock lost 50% of its value in 2022, following a 30% drop in 2018 and a ferocious rally over the past three years. NVIDIA has gone through many boom and bust periods before. But in late 2022, when OpenAI’s ChatGPT was released and quickly became a viral sensation, everyone couldn’t get enough of the Nvidia chip that trained the model. Seizing the moment, NVIDIA stock rose parabolically in 2023, 2024, and 2025. NVDA ALL MOUNTAIN NVIDIA’S LONG-TERM PERFORMANCE However, the year got off to a tough start amid concerns about how the massive AI spending to date and future promised spending will continue. Nvidia stock has fallen more than 6% this year to about $175. The stock’s all-time high of $207 was back in late October. Cramer said Nvidia has the ability to weather the current headwinds, compounded by spending concerns and AI-driven memory shortages, in a long and grueling test for chipmakers. In another great Ant-type moment, Nvidia previously secured partnerships with both SK Hynix and Samsung to supply high-bandwidth memory essential to its AI chips. Kramer said this was an “astonishing” move by Hwang. “He who has the best memory wins,” he continued. “NVIDIA has all the memories in the world because of what Jensen did to the two Korean companies.” Cramer said that if Nvidia stock continues its downward trend, the $160 level will be a solid time to buy, and advised investors to take action. “This is a goat,” Kramer said Thursday. “Don’t mess with the GOAT.” CNBC’s Morgan Chittum contributed to this report.
