Jim Cramer Reviews NVIDIA (NVDA) and Data Center Demand

Jim Cramer Reviews NVIDIA (NVDA) and Data Center Demand

Syeda Seirut Javed

Sat, August 15, 2026 at 2:58 AM GMT+3 4 min read

NVIDIA Corp. (NASDAQ:NVDA) was mentioned during the August 12 episode of Mad Money, as host Jim Cramer detailed the expansion across artificial intelligence infrastructure, as he said:

Then today, aided by a benign consumer price index number, the data center stocks couldn't be contained. Lumentum, which makes fiber optics, told a terrific tale... And finally, CoreWeave reported a monster quarter, demonstrating that their strategy of building data centers embedding NVIDIA chips… a longer shelf life than 3 to 5 years, was more than paying off. CoreWeave CEO Michael Intrator told us an insanely good story when he appeared on Squawk on the Street.

He gave us genuine proof that older NVIDIA GPUs are as valuable or even more valuable than when they were built, even ones that came out of the foundry 9 years ago. Yes, of course, they are. We got a chip shortage. NVIDIA's chips are the most sought-after of all semiconductors, and they hold their value. Anyone who was worried about compute-backed bonds being dragged down by depreciation now looks like a dope.

These chips aren't like cars that lose half their value the moment they drive off the lot. They're more like fine jewelry. Plus, people keep forgetting that NVIDIA also has a software component with its CUDA product and the mass developer ecosystem that can be upgraded through all cycles, allowing 9-year-old chips to keep their value, even appreciating. Auto loans can't make that claim, can they? In the end, CoreWeave finished up $17. NVIDIA rallied $7. Remember, that's the world's largest company.

Operational Expansion and Segment Revenue Results

NVIDIA Corp. (NASDAQ:NVDA) reported record financial results for its fiscal first quarter, which provide provide further financial context for Cramer's bullish view of the broader AI infrastructure buildout.

The company delivered total revenue of $81.6 billion, an 85% increase compared to the prior year. Under its reporting framework, data center revenue achieved massive gains, with compute revenue reaching $60.4 billion, up 77% year-over-year, and networking revenue surging to $14.8 billion, a 199% jump from the previous year. CEO Jensen Huang noted that the worldwide construction of artificial intelligence factories represents an unprecedented infrastructure buildout. Furthermore, GAAP gross margins landed at 74.9%, while non-GAAP gross margins reached 75%, backed by strong enterprise demand for accelerated computing platforms.

Focusing on the Bear Case

On August 11, Morningstar analyst Brian Colello published a dedicated research update titled "Nvidia: Latest AI Partnership May Add to Concerns, but We Think Chip Demand Is There", maintaining a fair value estimate of $280 while analyzing infrastructure financing platforms designed to mobilize over $500 billion. Colello addressed emerging bearish discomfort regarding complex private credit, vendor financing arrangements, and circular deal structures.

Moreover, skeptics emphasize that major cloud service providers maintain long-term incentives to design and deploy in-house custom application-specific integrated circuits, which threatens long-term platform dependency. Furthermore, there is the question of the multi-year sustainability of multi-billion-dollar enterprise capital expenditure cycles dedicated to accelerated computing infrastructure, which considers that a normalization in deployment returns could compress hardware pricing power.

Institutional Positioning and Short Interest Metrics

Professional asset managers continue treating NVIDIA Corp. (NASDAQ:NVDA) as a permanent portfolio fixture rather than a short-term trading play, keeping institutional ownership deeply entrenched. Insider Monkey tracking data across more than 1,000 elite hedge funds shows that the number of hedge fund holders stood at 275 in Q1, compared to 264 holders in Q4 2025. Meanwhile, short positions stand at 1.26% of the total public float. As Cramer made clear, when cooling inflation meets tangible evidence that older graphics processors retain premium value, betting against the absolute center of the artificial intelligence boom looks increasingly shortsighted.

While we acknowledge the potential of NVDA as an investment, we believe certain AI stocks offer greater upside potential and carry less downside risk. If you're looking for an extremely undervalued AI stock that also stands to benefit significantly from Trump-era tariffs and the onshoring trend, see our free report on thebest short-term AI stock.

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