Nvidia is the GOAT – the Muhammad Ali of the stock market
Don’t sweat the decline in Nvidia stock, CNBC’s Jim Cramer said Thursday. Calling Nvidia the GOAT — the greatest of all time — Cramer likened the AI chip king’s industry prowess and resiliency to that of boxing champ Muhammad Ali. “I recognize that you’ve been taking a beating in Nvidia,” Cramer said during “Squawk on the Street.” “There have been moments of beat-downs that are extraordinary, but this may be the Muhammad Ali.” Widely considered the GOAT of boxing, Ali gained and lost and regained heavyweight titles. He was also known for his rope-a-dope style of leaning back against the ropes and taking tremendous punishment to let his opponent tire himself out, and before roaring back with a vicious counterattack to win the fight. Cramer said that over the years of recommending that investors “own, not trade” Nvidia, there have been times when the stock has tanked and seemed down and out, like Ali, only to rally back to life because the Jensen Huang-led company is just so good at what it does. Cramer first recommended Nvidia in late 2009. Since then, the stock has skyrocketed, as of Thursday trading, by more than 40,000%. During the CNBC Investing Club’s annual meeting back in October, Huang appeared on stage before an audience of many Nvidia millionaires and thanked Cramer for supporting his company. “Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee” — is one of Ali’s most enduring quotes, emphasizing the need bob and weave to evade punches and then strike with conviction. Nvidia has certainly done its fair share of bobbing and weaving over the years. Its graphics processing units started as must-haves in the computers of video gamers and graphics artists long before the company pivoted to developing the GPUs for AI. In a terrible year for tech and the broader stock market, Nvidia shares lost 50% of their value in 2022 after three prior years of blistering gains following a 30% drop in 2018. Nvidia had many boom and bust periods even before that. But late in 2022, when OpenAI’s ChatGPT launched and quickly became a viral sensation, everybody couldn’t get enough of Nvidia’s chips, which trained the model. Seizing on that moment, Nvidia shares went parabolic in 2023, 2024, and 2025. NVDA ALL mountain Nvidia long term performance This year, however, has gotten off to a rough start with worries about how all the massive AI spending to date and promised spending in the future could possibly continue. Nvidia shares have dropped more than 6% this year to around $175. The stock’s record high close of $207 came back in late October. With the long knives out for the chipmaker, Cramer said Nvidia has the power to weather these current headwinds, which, in addition to spending concerns, have been exacerbated by an AI-induced memory shortage. In another Ali-type moment of greatness, Nvidia previously secured partnerships with both SK Hynix and Samsung for supply of their high-bandwidth memory, which is crucial for its AI chips. That was a “remarkable” move on CEO Huang’s part, Cramer said. “Whoever has memory wins,” he continued. “Nvidia has all the memory in the world because Jensen went to those two companies in Korea.” If Nvidia stock were to continue its downward trend, Cramer recommended that investors take action, saying the $160 level would be a solid time to buy. “This is the GOAT,” Cramer said Thursday. “Don’t mess with the GOAT.” CNBC’s Morgan Chittum contributed to this report.
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