Cramer says everything still revolves around Nvidia despite stock lag

Jim Cramer wants you to know that Nvidia is still the main character. Even when it’s having a bad day.

Speaking on CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street” on July 7, Cramer doubled down on his conviction that “everything still revolves around Nvidia,” despite the stock sliding roughly 2% during the session. In a market where the Magnificent Seven collectively shed about $2.3 trillion in market cap during June alone, Cramer’s message was simple: stop trading Nvidia and start holding it.

The case for Nvidia at 22x earnings

Here’s the thing about Nvidia’s current setup. The stock is trading at roughly 22x earnings, a multiple that Cramer described as “incredibly cheap.” For context, that’s a company dominating the GPU market for AI infrastructure, priced like a mid-tier industrial firm.

Cramer called Nvidia the “most important stock” in the ongoing AI boom. That distinction matters because it frames Nvidia less as a momentum trade and more as foundational infrastructure, the company whose chips quite literally power the AI models everyone else is building on.

The 2% dip that triggered Cramer’s commentary reflected a broader unease that’s been building around AI-adjacent equities. Investors spent much of June questioning whether the massive capital expenditures flowing into AI would actually generate proportional returns. The $2.3 trillion evaporation from the Magnificent Seven’s combined market cap suggests that skepticism found plenty of willing sellers.

The custom chip threat is real but overblown

Part of Nvidia’s recent underperformance relative to peers traces back to a familiar concern: hyperscalers building their own custom AI chips. Amazon, Google, and Microsoft have all invested heavily in proprietary silicon designed to reduce their dependence on Nvidia’s hardware.

Cramer acknowledged the competitive dynamics but maintained that Nvidia’s position as the default standard for AI compute isn’t under serious threat in the near term. The software ecosystem built around CUDA, Nvidia’s proprietary programming platform, creates switching costs that custom chips can’t easily replicate.

What this means for crypto and AI-adjacent markets

Nvidia’s GPUs are the backbone of crypto mining operations, particularly for proof-of-work networks, and its hardware powers the AI models increasingly integrated into DeFi protocols, trading algorithms, and blockchain analytics platforms. Projects leveraging decentralized GPU networks like Render and Akash are directly tied to the supply and pricing dynamics of Nvidia’s hardware.

The $2.3 trillion wipeout across the Magnificent Seven in June also carries macro implications for risk assets broadly. When institutional investors rotate out of AI stocks, they tend to pull capital from speculative positions across the board, including digital assets.

The risk is that a 22x multiple assumes earnings growth materializes as expected. If AI spending decelerates more sharply than anticipated, or if custom chip competition accelerates, Nvidia’s earnings trajectory could flatten. Investors positioned in AI-related tokens and GPU compute projects should monitor Nvidia’s quarterly results as a leading indicator for the entire sector’s health.