We recently published a list of Jim Cramer Discussed These 29 Stocks Ahead Of Major AI Event. In this article, we are going to take a look at where Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) stands against other stocks ahead of major AI event that Jim Cramer discussed.

In his appearance on Squawk on the Street the day CES took place in Las Vegas, Jim Cramer commented on the stock market division that persisted throughout 2024 and is present in 2025 as well. The division has seen technology stocks perform well, while other rate-sensitive sectors such as industrial and materials stocks have languished. Cramer commented on the reasons behind it: “I think that’s because people perceive that the rest of the market is hostage to rates. And that tech is not hostage to anything. So I’m aware of that and I’m just concerned that you have this speech tonight, nine-thirty Jensen Huang, everyone’s, we’re really kind of, whatever he says, is going to move things.”

In fact, this division is so prevalent that some of the biggest asset managers in the world have also been unable to remain immune to it. Mentioning a piece in the Financial Times, Cramer shared that it commented about “private equity and private equity trying to get into the 401(k) business.” He added and mentioned, “Marc Rowan CEO of Apollo says, I jokingly say sometimes we levered the entire retirement [inaudible] to NVIDIA’s performance! So [inaudible] we’ve got the NVIDIAs of the world which everybody likes and on the other hand, there’s these stocks are, they really are hostage to rates and no one wants them!”

However, even though technology stocks have stood the test of high interest rates, they might falter in some circumstances. One of these can be bond yields, and if the thirty-year yield spikes to 5%, then Cramer believes “that will start interfering with this tech rally that seems to be motivated by a lot of analysts coming out and saying this is the time, there’s now reacceleration in tech spend.”

The CNBC host also speculated on what Jensen Huang might end up talking about at CES later in the day. He stated “I think that one of the things that Jensen is going to talk about today are all the new use cases. This is tonight’s CES talk. It wouldn’t surprise me if we start hearing about robots. It wouldn’t surprise me if we didn’t hear a lot about Tesla. Tesla and self-driving cars. Tesla and the neural network that is based on NVIDIA!”

Along with industrial and material stocks, another sector that’s caught Cramer’s attention is banks. Mentioning a recent investment bank note about the sector he believes that “one of the groups that I think we have to focus on, there’s a really interesting, uh, Barclays piece on the banks. Darkest before dawn. Raising the group for the first time since 2019, emphasis here on Citi.”

Cramer also outlined that while technology valuations might appear to be overstretched, this isn’t the case with banks. He shared “This is a group that when you look at it, they’re selling at 11 times 2026 numbers. So the idea that you have this valuation problem in the market, well look at these stocks! There’s no valuation problem with materials. Or with banks.” He added “The valuation problem is with the stuff that keeps getting upgraded, which is enterprise software. So there’s a little duplicitous nature among the top people who work at these firms because they should be saying look, there are two markets. There’s the inexpensive market and we’re warming up to it, and the expensive market, and we don’t know what to do.”

Our Methodology

To make our list of the stocks that Jim Cramer talked about, we listed down all the stocks he mentioned during CNBC’s Squawk on the Street aired on Monday.

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).

Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders In Q3 2024: 279

Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) is one of the biggest technology companies in the world. While it was one of the first firms to benefit from investors’ interest in AI stocks, the momentum has cooled off since July 2024. Investors are in a wait-and-watch mode for Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT)’s stock as they evaluate whether the billions of dollars it has spent on OpenAI will lead to profitability for its Azure Cloud computing division. Cramer’s comments for the firm surrounded a recent AI blog post by Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT)’s vice chair and president Brad Smith:

“Brad Smith’s, his blog entry, it’s really much more than that. He’s talking about an AI manifesto. And the reason why I say it’s important is cause a lot of people say listen he’s talking about $80 billion in spend, so what. No he’s not. He’s talking about the new industrial revolution. Which is what you should be hearing tonight from Jensen. The new industrial revolution is such that you can’t afford to not spend. Not because you’re worried about what other people are doing, but because it’s so bountiful.”

Overall, MSFT ranks 1st on our list of stocks ahead of major AI event that Jim Cramer discussed. While we acknowledge the potential of MSFT 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 time frame. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than MSFT but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.

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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.