In this piece, we will look at the stocks Jim Cramer discussed before the DeepSeek sell-off.
In a fresh appearance on CNBC’s Squawk on the Street, Jim Cramer cautioned viewers to not be caught up by the energy that’s gripped the US stock market since President Donald Trump resumed charge. “Things are happening very fast. And I want so much to slow it down,” he stated. Cramer mentioned an article that mentioned “the burst of energy, some good, some bad,” adding that not every remark made by the President is investment advice. He believes that “a lot of people want to do that. [treat all of Trump’s remarks as investable]” They wanna do oil and gas, they wanna do with interest rates,” he added and shared “They have to remember that he doesn’t have the authority” particularly when it comes to determining interest rates.
Cramer further commented on the state of America’s non-tech industrial economy and how it tied in with the President’s desire for lower rates. According to him “I just think the industrial economy justifies everything that Trump wants to lower rates.” Yet, as consumer spending has remained robust despite high rates, Cramer added that “the consumer economy, says don’t lower rates.” He believes that if the president took a look at “how great things are at small to medium-sized business. Where the real strength’s coming since his election,” he would be hard-pressed to press for further rate cuts.
Energy was another topic on the CNBC host’s mind. Commenting particularly on natural gas and its demand in today’s era of AI data centers, Cramer shared “People only want to be in this business. Want to own stocks in this business because it’s going to be the biggest thing that we export.” However, he believes that these investors need to ask themselves “Are we going to export so much that domestically because we need it for the data centers, that the customer’s going to be squeezed by uh nat gas prices.” The surge in exports and data center demand could very well lead to higher natural gas prices for consumers. According to Cramer “Nat gas could go to five. That would be something.”
Not only is Cramer interested in energy, but the President ran his election on the promise of increasing America’s oil production and requiring oil companies to drill more. However, the CEOs that he’s spoken to “are all saying listen, we’re going to hold.”
“It’s kind of a Braveheart thing,” Cramer added. He believes “They’re not going to break. And they all are kind of united, but they don’t fix prices. Some people, the FTC felt that they fixed prices. That’s nonsense. But I do think that they’ve all said listen we’re making a ton of money. We’re not going to go down the path the President wants. So there’s going to be a test of wills.”
Another topic that Cramer touched on was SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet service. Starlink is powered by thousands of small satellites in low-Earth orbit (LEO) launched by SpaceX. Over the past year, it has grown its presence in the commercial aviation industry by providing airlines with internet connectivity. Cramer revealed, “You know the rap about Starlink I’m getting from, the push back that I’m hearing from some of the. . . that when you put em all up, like even when United starts, it’s going to slow down the latency, they can’t handle that.”
One of the hottest topics on Wall Street these days is Chinese AI startup DeepSeek. Investors’ worries about the firm’s R1 model being purportedly cheaper than American models led to Wall Street’s favorite AI stock crashing by a whopping 17% on Monday. However, Cramer dismissed the worries of US companies pouring too much money into AI on Friday. He shared that he wasn’t worried “because I’m a huge believer that this is the industrial revolution, and there are going to be so many uses that you just have to be in.”
A mere industrial revolution isn’t the only reason why Cramer was dismissive of the firm that led the AI GPU stock to lose all gains made since October 2024. Commenting on the firm’s GPUs and their potential he revealed:
“I think that what we’re not thinking about, like when I went to Jensen Huang’s panel on healthcare. It’s so much bigger than anything involving AI PC. I mean they’re really just talking about having the data to really attack every single disease and changing it from fatal to maintenance. You have tremendous number of people involved in trying to do that. Then you have Stripe there working with [the GPU company] to be able to do something revolutionary in finance. And then you have the banks working doing some revolutionary things trying to get people who’re doing S1s. . . .”
Cramer also believes that Fed chair Jerome Powell will be ‘perplexed’ by the amount of spending in America. According to him:
“The amount of people traveling. The bump up to first class, from commercial, from the, you know what second class we’ll call it, David. Uh, the amount of people just, the frequency at which people are having a dinner out. I don’t know what to say, there’s a burst of optimism that is being translated into spend. And particularly for younger people that I’m just flabbergasted about. It just can’t stop!”
The spending has left him flabbergasted. “We’re spending so much I don’t know how they can cut!” Cramer explained. “I want them to cut . . . I wanted to cut like a thousand times!” he added.
Our Methodology
To make our list of the stocks that Jim Cramer talked about, we listed down the stocks he mentioned during CNBC’s Squawk on the Street aired on January 24th.
For these stocks, we also mentioned the number of hedge fund investors. Why are we interested in the stocks that hedge funds invest in? The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletter’s strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 275% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 150 percentage points. (see more details here).
11. Intuitive Surgical, Inc. (NASDAQ:ISRG)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders In Q3 2024: 82
Intuitive Surgical, Inc. (NASDAQ:ISRG) is a medical technology company that specializes in making surgical robots. It is one of the few players in its industry, which provides it with a strong competitive moat. Estimates suggest that Intuitive Surgical, Inc. (NASDAQ:ISRG) commands a 57% market share. While several medical device companies, such as Abbott, ended 2024 on a lackluster note when it comes to share price performance, Intuitive Surgical, Inc. (NASDAQ:ISRG) closed the year 58.6% higher. In an earlier appearance, Cramer praised the firm and its management. Here are his latest remarks:
“I want to just mention that you’re getting an opportunity here to buy Intuitive Surgical. It pre-announced last week at San Francisco. I thought, uh don’t, I wanted to add it to the club, to the charitable trust. And then it just took off. It was a star, of, of San Francisco, star of the conference. And then they announced the regular quarter today and people suddenly don’t like it. Give me a break. Just go buy ISRG. It’s fantastic.”
10. GE Vernova Inc. (NYSE:GEV)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders In Q3 2024: 89
GE Vernova Inc. (NYSE:GEV) is an industrial equipment company that caters to the needs of the power generation industry. The firm provides products such as gas turbines and components for nuclear generation. It was one of 2024’s best-performing stocks as the shares closed the year 144% higher from the day it started trading after its spin-off. The optimism was due to GE Vernova Inc. (NYSE:GEV)’s exposure to power generation demand from AI; yet, the stock cratered by 21.5% on Monday after investors re-calibrated the demand for AI data centers. Ahead of the drop, here’s what Cramer said about GE Vernova Inc. (NYSE:GEV) on Friday:
“And if you go over the GE Vernova quarter, it is that’s why Vernova, someone downgraded GE Vernova today, the guy doesn’t know what he’s doing. GE Vernova is, they’ve got all bases covered. It’s natural gas. It’s natural gas.”
9. Oracle Corporation (NYSE:ORCL)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders In Q3 2024: 91
Oracle Corporation (NYSE:ORCL) is an enterprise resource planning software products provider that’s also shaped up to be an AI computing resource provider. It was at the heart of President Trump’s $500 billion Stargate AI announcement earlier this month with the shares soaring by 14.4% after the announcement. Oracle Corporation (NYSE:ORCL)’s Oracle Cloud Infrastructure business aims to host thousands of NVIDIA Blackwell GPUs to provide AI computing power. However, during Monday’s DeepSeek AI sell-off, the shares tanked by 13.8%. Cramer believes Oracle Corporation (NYSE:ORCL) is a winner in the AI hierarchy:
“Microsoft’s not been a winner. Oracle was the winner because they, you know, the White House.”
8. Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders In Q3 2024: 99
Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) is the largest electric vehicle manufacturer in the world. It is also in the news quite a bit due to CEO Elon Musk. In his previous appearances, Cramer has insisted that Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA)’s narrative isn’t driven only by electric vehicles. He believes that assisted driving powered by AI offers the firm a chance to significantly reduce costs. The CNBC host has also asserted that Musk’s relationship with President Trump could pave the way for Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA)’s cars to use FSD on the interstate. Here are his latest remarks:
“Yeah I just think that, Jonas has the zeitgeist on that. But I do think that Jonas is completely, you know this is going to be, he mentions the Jensen Huang CES speech. Now he doesn’t not have the times right about how much Jensen Huang spent on humanoids. But there’s only one way to play humanoids. And that is Tesla. And that’s because of the Tennessee, remember you’re talking, you don’t want to conflate the different factories. Tennessee factory. The horde of chips. It would look like a factory.
“But there is a sense that Tesla is the way to play robot. Period end of story. And we that should stop taking about the number of cars, and the EV incentives. Just get in there and start buying robots.”
7. Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE:LLY)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders In Q3 2024: 106
Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE:LLY) is the pharmaceutical giant that is at the heart of the weight loss drug market. It’s also one of Cramer’s favorite stocks as he has mentioned the firm multiple times on his show this year. In his recent appearance, Cramer stressed that Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE:LLY)’s scripts for its weight loss treatments were improving. He believes that scripts are key to evaluating drug companies, as other factors such as trials paint an incomplete picture. Cramer has also advised viewers to not be spooked by recent Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE:LLY) share price dips. Here are his latest remarks:
“[nvo new results stock down] Okay, one and a half, it’s early. Remember it’s a one half trial. Now, you cane make these, you can finagle Lilly versus Novo. It’s hard, very hard to do actual comparisons because some are by forty eight weeks, some are shorter weeks. Some are bigger. . . what really matters? Boom, Eli Lilly’s scripts are way up. And if you’re looking at the fourth quarter, remember fourth quarter was a disappointment. David Ricks came on Mad Money, he came on our show. What did he say? He said we botched the launch. This is the beginning. Wolfe puts out the scripts, the numbers for Lilly were really good. And that’s what I’ve been waiting for. We can do this head to head of the phase one, the half. Forget that. Novo’s down so much, anything they put out . . .and this thing causes, you know it like makes you feel better. It wouldn’t matter. What matters is that Mounjaro and Zepbound weekly scripts are finally, finally doing good. And they have been not good. . . .”
“Lilly versus Novo this morning. Not one. Looked at every single data test that there is. Not one.”
“You can’t compare an eighteen week to a thirty six week and there’s just lots of different guess work. And I prefer, I spoke with David Ricks last week, you gotta be really careful. What really matters is scripts. And that’s why, that’s why Lilly is up today. It’s about the scripts, not about the pill. And the scripts are now turning up after, really, a disastrous fourth quarter for Lilly. Disastrous.”
6. Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMD)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders In Q3 2024: 107
Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMD) is a CPU and GPU designer that sells products to consumers and businesses. Despite the fact that it’s a chip stock, the shares have performed weakly lately even ahead of Monday’s DeepSeek stock sell-off. At the core of Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMD)’s lackluster stock performance is the firm’s inability to meet NVIDIA head-on in the AI market and perceptions about weakness in the consumer PC market. In his remarks, Cramer also commented on how the AI PC hype not materializing had hurt Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMD):
“the AI PC, wasn’t ready.”
“By the way AI PC was AMD. We’re gonna see now coming out, the NVIDIA PC but it’s too expensive. But it’s just not what Jensen’s [Jensen Huang NVIDIA CEO] focus. His focus is bigger. And his focus is on the trillion dollar amount that we do for building factories. It’s about making things David, making our lives longer. I mean these are big. He’s thinking much bigger than clippy two.”
5. Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders In Q3 2024: 158
Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL), the firm behind the iPhone, weathered the storm on Monday amidst the DeepSeek sell-off. Its stock made negligible losses compared to enterprise AI companies. The reason why Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) became the most valuable company in the world again while others floundered is because it hasn’t invested billions of dollars into AI. Instead, when it comes to AI, Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s exposure is primarily to the consumer side of the technology courtesy of its products. Cramer’s comments revolved around the upcoming earnings report:
“Look when you come in everyday and Apple is down. That is saying something! That’s people saying you know what, I’m not putting the money in Apple anymore. I’m going to take that money, which was the largest company on Earth, look at that, look at that [points to share price graph]. That’s what I’m talking about. That’s not the leader.”
“[When told he was trying to defend the stock] No I said it’s gonna come down, I said it’s a weak quarter, not only that but they guide lower.”
4. NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders In Q3 2024: 193
Not a show goes by without Cramer talking about NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA). This time around, he commented on the firm on Friday, which was the last day before the DeepSeek sell-off. During the day, Cramer discussed reports that technology stock valuations were overstretched. For that day’s specific moves, the host pointed at other sectors, such as healthcare, that were doing well and contributing to strong index performance. Naturally, and in eerie foreboding, he commented on NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA)’s overstretched valuation on the last trading day before the stock sank by 17%:
“[on reports of markets being stretched] We’re in a good time. And yet of course we have to have everyone saying, well it’s over, it’s stretched. It’s been stretched now since when I, since August of 1981 when I started. It was very stretched. You know it went up like eighty points in five weeks. Stretched. I am just saying don’t play that game. Find good stocks. Find stocks that are winning and they are going, higher. NVIDIA by the way was at one forty two when I woke up at three o clock. Well one forty six. Then it went down to one forty five. Now it’s back to one forty seven. It’s doing nothing!”
“Why, the stock’s trading down on what, what phrase in that thing is negative. What phrase. Look, Microsoft’s doing eighty, it’s good for NVIDIA.”
3. Meta Platforms, Inc (NASDAQ:META)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders In Q3 2024: 235
Meta Platforms, Inc (NASDAQ:META) is a social media giant that is also investing heavily in AI. It is the only major AI player with social networks at its disposal. Consequently, Meta Platforms, Inc (NASDAQ:META)’s AI hypothesis surrounds its ability to provide AI-driven services to advertisers and users alike. CEO Mark Zuckerberg has also been in the news in 2025 for his appearance on Joe Rogan’s podcast and a massive 2025 $65 billion capital expenditure announcement ahead of the DeepSeek sell-off. Meta Platforms, Inc (NASDAQ:META)’s shares actually closed Monday 1.9% higher, and here’s what Cramer said on Friday:
“And the only one that’s really going up is Meta and . . Amazon’s levitating because there are some, talk that Amazon’s going to have much better than expected numbers. But, Meta, no one yet wants to say listen, this is all about he is the real winner with TikTok, you know you got this ByteDance, TikTok and it’s him! It’s about the algo! And Zuckerberg’s gonna have the algo! “[whether the stock is reflecting the possibility of benefits from TikTok ban] No. No, today Meta’s just going up because it’s the second year of living, you know, of living efficiently. That’s why that’s going up because the guy just is like, he’s like when I worked at Goldman. It’s the deadwood quotient. When they would say listen, you know, you got any deadwood there? We gotta like move it.” “Well remember he has to have, did he say that Meta AI is going to be number one because it isn’t. Remember when he said Meta AI was going to be number one? It isn’t. And he it was going to be by last . . . Look, this guy’s, he’s, I think this is, uh, going down, because I think it’s not, it didn’t have any [inaudible].
“[on how the projects are structured that brings debt and other financing that reduced capex on paper as they are the tenant and they will pay interest in private credit markets] But that means we should be looking at free cash flow. . . and we have to find out free cash flow in Meta.”
“I have to tell you if you don’t spend. People don’t, go back over what Jensen said. For every dollar you spend, you get ur dollars in return. So to me Microsoft is the leader in this. And I know that Zuckerberg is behind, because Zuckerberg, and by the way Meta AI, I don’t know if you guys have used it. I mean really, really. It’s wildcard week. That does not make the playoffs. Meta AI is not in the playoffs.”
2. Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders In Q3 2024: 279
Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) is the world’s largest software company. It was one of the top-performing stocks in the early phases of the AI race due to its investment in and partnership with OpenAI. However, since its July 2024 peak, Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT)’s shares have lost 5.4% as investors sit on the sidelines to see the returns of its multi-billion dollar AI investments. The wariness hasn’t stopped Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) from spending big bucks on AI, with CEO Satya Nadella sharing earlier this year that he ‘has the money’ for AI capital expenditure. Here’s what Cramer said:
“I’m saying that Microsoft is on its heels, I know that you’re okay it’s up a little but take a look at what Microsoft’s been year-over-year. Microsoft’s not been a winner. Oracle was the winner because they, you know, the White House.”
1. Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders In Q3 2024: 286
Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) is the largest eCommerce company in America and a major player in the cloud computing market. Its shares are up by 48.5% over the past year as the firm navigated through a tricky 2024. The stock dipped by 12% in August after Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) after inflation-wary customers led to a slowdown in online sales growth to 5% from 7% in the previous quarter. Then, the shares rose in November after Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN)’s Q3 results revealed that its EPS grew by a whopping 52%. Cramer is optimistic about the company over its peers:
“And the only one that’s really going up is Meta and . . Amazon’s levitating because there are some, talk that Amazon’s going to have much better than expected numbers.”
AMZN is a stock Jim Cramer talked about before DeepSeek wreaked havoc on the stock market. While we acknowledge the potential of AMZN as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that some AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and doing so within a shorter timeframe. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than AMZN but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.
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