On Friday, Jim Cramer, host of Mad Money, revisited the recent turbulence in artificial intelligence stocks, three months after the emergence of DeepSeek, a Chinese AI firm that initially rattled markets. He noted that despite the broad pullback in the sector, many of the fears triggered by DeepSeek’s debut have not materialized, which has led to a reconsideration of the panic that followed.
“Three months ago, January 23rd is a day that will live in artificial intelligence infamy. That’s when we learned that a Chinese firm called DeepSeek had figured out a way to train high quality generative AI models using far less hardware. They claim their hardware costs were around $6 million versus 80 to $100 million for their enormous American competitors.”
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The announcement sent shockwaves through the market. Cramer recalled how NVIDIA saw its stock fall sharply over just two trading sessions. The market reaction spread quickly beyond and hit other companies tied to data center infrastructure, which eventually pulled down the broader Nasdaq. However, Cramer noted that the company then revealed plans to build $500 billion worth of AI infrastructure in the United States over the next four years.
Cramer noted that initially, it seemed to signal a renewed sense of stability. But soon after, the administration imposed a ban on selling AI chips to China, which forced the GPU kingpin to write down $5.5 billion tied to that entire initiative. Even so, Cramer emphasized that the company’s core business remained strong.
“We understand that they’re basically sold out for the year, even as they can only sell their best stuff in the United States and the 18 friendly countries.”
Cramer attributed the export restrictions to a policy from former President Biden, one that President Trump has not reversed. Despite the geopolitical constraints, Cramer stressed that demand for the company’s technology is still overwhelming. He argued that the stock never should have experienced such a steep drop in the first place. He added:
“Even with the trade war, the AI infrastructure theme seems totally back on track. In fact, it never left the track to begin with.”
Our Methodology
For this article, we compiled a list of 8 stocks that were discussed by Jim Cramer during the episode of Mad Money aired on April 25. We listed the stocks in ascending order of their hedge fund sentiment as of the fourth quarter of 2024, which was taken from Insider Monkey’s database of over 1,000 hedge funds.
Why are we interested in the stocks that hedge funds pile into? 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 373.4% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 218 percentage points (see more details here).
Jim Cramer Commented on These 8 Stocks Recently
8. BHP Group Limited (NYSE:BHP)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 28
Mentioning the CEO change and lawsuits, a caller asked if they should buy more or just hold BHP Group Limited (NYSE:BHP). Cramer replied:
“I like BHP, Broken Hill. I remember it was Broken Hill Proprietary. That’s how old I am. Holy cow. But I like the story. I like the yield. I think you got a good situation going there.”
BHP (NYSE:BHP) is a global resources company involved in mining a variety of metals and minerals, including copper, iron ore, coal, and nickel. It also offers services like freight, marketing, and finance.
BHP (NYSE:BHP) reported record copper production of 1.5 million tonnes for the nine months ending 31 March 2025, driven by a 20% increase at Escondida and strong output from all other operated copper assets. The company revised its growth schedule at Escondida, including extending the Los Colorados concentrator’s life beyond FY29. The company expects the updates to add around 400,000 tonnes of additional copper and support annual production guidance of 900,000 to 1 million tonnes through FY31.
7. Mattel, Inc. (NASDAQ:MAT)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 30
When a caller asked Cramer about Mattel, Inc. (NASDAQ:MAT), he said:
“Well, okay, you know I like Mattel. I have them on, but I also have Hasbro on, and right now, Hasbro is in the lead. They’ve got this card game that’s really good. If you want to know, I’m not kidding, I’m not kidding about what I’m about to say, if you want to compare Hasbro to Mattel, I want you to go to Grok. I’m not kidding, go to Grok because before I came out here tonight, I said, all right, why is Hasbro doing so well? I read the research. The best thing, the best way to find out, you just had to go to Grok. Can you believe it, how good some of these sites are getting? It’s amazing.”
Mattel (NASDAQ:MAT) creates and sells a wide range of toys, games, and entertainment products for children and collectors. Its portfolio includes well-known brands across dolls, vehicles, preschool items, and licensed franchises.
6. Arm Holdings plc (NASDAQ:ARM)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 43
Discussing the stock’s price movement, a caller asked if they should get out of Arm Holdings plc (NASDAQ:ARM). Here’s what Mad Money’s host had to say:
“Oh no… I want you to stay in it. Rene Haas is doing a great job. I think that this whole semiconductor group has been oversold. It will bounce, and when it bounces, you want to trim back because it is expensive. That’s fine. Do not sell it here.”
Arm Holdings (NASDAQ:ARM) focuses on designing and licensing CPU products and related technology. Appearing on Squawk on the Street in February, Cramer said:
“They have the same problem when we speak to Rene Haas at Arm. I mean, people are asking for too much at these companies. They just are. People seem to think, well wait a second, you’re gonna claim that DeepSeek is good for you? Well if you’re claiming then shouldn’t you be raising in the out years and no one’s doing that because it’s not really the way that you look at things. They’re playing defense, not offense.”
5. MicroStrategy Incorporated (NASDAQ:MSTR)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 44
In response to a caller’s question about MicroStrategy Incorporated (NASDAQ:MSTR), Cramer said:
“Oh… No, no. Look, we like Bitcoin. We actually buy Bitcoin. That’s what we do. We want Bitcoin. We buy Bitcoin.”
MicroStrategy (NASDAQ:MSTR) provides AI-driven analytics software and related services that help businesses access and use data more effectively. The company also works on Bitcoin development. Greenlight Capital stated the following regarding MicroStrategy Incorporated (NASDAQ:MSTR) in its Q4 2024 investor letter:
“There is an open debate as to whether Bitcoin will at some point enter the mainstream as an official currency. In fact, there is a bill before Congress for the U.S. to establish a “Strategic Bitcoin Reserve” and buy one million Bitcoins over five years. The bill’s purpose appears to be the use of public funds to ramp up the price of Bitcoin, thereby enhancing the wealth of existing Bitcoin holders. This seems a dubious use of taxpayer funds, but the new administration has a lot of Bitcoin-owning supporters, so it might happen. More likely, cooler heads will decide that the government should not borrow another trillion dollars in the bond market to speculate in Bitcoin and that there is, in fact, nothing strategic about doing so.
One of the biggest owners of Bitcoin is MicroStrategy Incorporated (NASDAQ:MSTR). While MSTR owns a small software business, its principal pursuit is buying Bitcoin. In practice, MSTR is an investment company that buys and holds Bitcoin.2 MSTR trades at a large premium to the value of the underlying Bitcoin it holds. The idea is to raise money from new investors at a premium and use the proceeds to buy more Bitcoin. Since the Bitcoin that MSTR buys costs less than the Bitcoin-implied value of MSTR’s stock, the new investment is dilutive to new investors but accretive to existing investors. MSTR’s promoters have labeled the return to existing investors created by this scheme the “Bitcoin yield”. As Bitcoin itself yields nothing, the Bitcoin yield is simply a measure of the Ponzi finance’s effectiveness. Lately, it has been pretty effective.”
4. Ulta Beauty, Inc. (NASDAQ:ULTA)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 47
Inquiring about their daughter’s portfolio, a caller asked Cramer’s thoughts on Ulta Beauty, Inc. (NASDAQ:ULTA), and he replied:
“I’ve been thinking a lot about it. I’ve been thinking a lot about it. One of the reasons I’ve been thinking about is, you know that Sephora is in Kohl’s, and Kohl’s is doing so poorly that I think people are going to gravitate away from Sephora and come back to Ulta. Ulta’s got new management…. I think they got horse sense.”
Ulta Beauty (NASDAQ:ULTA) is a beauty retailer that sells both branded and private-label products. It also provides beauty services through its stores, website, and mobile apps. On March 14, during an episode of Squawk on the Street, Cramer commented:
“You’ll see the stock of Ulta going up today and it shouldn’t. But that’s because people feel some relief. They must not have read the conference call. Because the conference call is incredible in terms of how the new CEO, actually literally says, we’re doing so many things wrong. I was, Dave Kimbell was the previous CEO, I used to interview him all the time. You know, Kecia Steelman, come at the company itself. She says look, the company’s never been this intense. For the first time, we lost market share in the beauty category. She talks about they just operated, they have to change, they’re missing opportunities and I came back and just said, holy cow, she’s on the war path against the management of the previous team. Now I don’t think she necessarily wanted that to come out that way. But it made me think that she felt that Dave Kimbell and his team, because they’ve replaced a lot of them, have missed the mark. Quite shocking cause Ulta Beauty is one of the few beacons in what has been a horrendous, horrendous cohort…
No they weren’t [the comps being disappointing] and that’s why the stock is up. And plus I mean, it’s just been a relentless, you know, Elf has been terrible. Estee Lauder is probably one of the worst plunges I have ever seen in my career. This is a very challenged group and you got to be careful about cosmetics. Remember, Kohl’s and Sephora, the only thing that’s keeping Kohl’s around is Sephora. That was a great deal that they made. But I want to stay away from cosmetics nine ways to Sunday. Anything cosmetics is just no place to be.”
3. Agnico Eagle Mines Limited (NYSE:AEM)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 53
Agnico Eagle Mines Limited (NYSE:AEM) was mentioned during the episode, and here’s what Cramer had to say:
“You can buy the GLD or you can buy Agnico Eagle Mines, which is the best of the golds. Start here. It’s been up a lot. It’s up 51% for the year. Don’t be aggressive till it comes down.”
Agnico Eagle Mines (NYSE:AEM) is a gold producer that explores, develops, and mines precious metals. Its operations include gold, silver, copper, and zinc. It is worth noting that Cramer was previously bullish on the company, as he said on April 17:
“Now people want a gold stock, right? I got one, I got the only one you need. It’s Agnico Eagle. It’s the best. It has the highest quality ores and mines in North America, which, last I looked, is a lot safer than a lot of other places.”
2. Newmont Corporation (NYSE:NEM)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 69
When a caller mentioned that they are looking at Newmont Corporation (NYSE:NEM), Cramer commented:
“Alright, well, let me go over the alternatives here. First, you can own a gold mutual fund or a gold junior mutual fund, which has a lot in the hopper, so to speak. You can buy gold, the actual ingots or bullion, or buy it from Costco.”
Newmont (NYSE:NEM) focuses on gold mining and exploration. It also searches for other metals like copper, silver, zinc, and lead. On March 30, Cramer commented on the company as he said:
“From the recession resistant to the recession suspect, we go to materials. On top is Newmont Mining because gold’s had an amazing run. Is that fear? Now, I don’t know, matter of fact, uh tariff worries maybe? Precious metals being a good store of value? Hey, you know what, given gold’s astronomical outperformance, a bit of all three?”
1. PepsiCo, Inc. (NASDAQ:PEP)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 69
A caller asked if it is finally time to buy PepsiCo, Inc. (NASDAQ:PEP) or if they should stay as far away as possible. Here’s what Cramer had to say:
“Okay, no, no. It yields 4%. It’s a very well-run company. I think that Pepsi, I think you can start a position here at 16 times earnings. I think that they’re going to right the ship. I do not think that Ramon Laguarta is going to just sit there and just say, you know what? I’m done taking this. I think he’s going to make some moves. With a 4% yield. I would start buying, and I have not been positive in PepsiCo for some time.”
PepsiCo (NASDAQ:PEP) is a major company that creates, promotes, and sells a wide range of drinks and snack foods. Its brand lineup includes Pepsi, Lay’s, Gatorade, Doritos, Tropicana, and Aquafina.
While we acknowledge the potential of PepsiCo, Inc. (NASDAQ:PEP) as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns, and doing so within a shorter time frame. There is an AI stock that went up since the beginning of 2025, while popular AI stocks lost around 25%. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than PEP but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about this cheapest AI stock.
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