As Nvidia roars, Cramer reflects on what it takes to stick with big market winners

As Nvidia stock climbs to new highs, CNBC’s Jim Cramer on Thursday told investors that sometimes, they need to ignore skeptics to find and stick with a winning stock.

“To nail Nvidia, you needed to do the opposite of everything that captures the conventional wisdom of modern-day investing in this country,” he said. “A certain amount of skepticism is healthy, but if you’re trying to make money in the stock market, you’ve got to believe in something.”

Cramer was an early Nvidia fan—going so far as to name his dog after the Big Tech company in 2017. Powered by voracious demand for its artificial intelligence products, Nvidia reported earnings on Wednesday that blew past Wall Street’s expectations.

To Cramer, many investors were too focused on “macro” events like the Federal Reserve’s interest rate hikes to see the long-term potential of stocks like Nvidia. Some were also put off by Nvidia’s size, suspect of any entity that can make a large amount of money quickly, he added.

Wall Street also didn’t understand the power of Nvidia’s technology soon enough, he said. The company’s products always seemed unique to Cramer, recalling a moment when CEO Jensen Huang showed him what generative AI could do before it became popular in the mainstream.

“Understand, Jensen and his team knew it was just a matter of time,” Cramer said. “Which is why he was ready with hundreds of thousands of graphics cards for that magic moment.”

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Disclaimer The CNBC Investing Club Charitable Trust holds shares of Nvidia.