We recently published a list of Top 10 Stocks on Jim Cramer’s Radar as Trump Tariffs Wreak Havoc Across Global Markets. In this article, we are going to take a look at where Rivian Automotive Inc (NASDAQ:RIVN) stands against other top stocks on Jim Cramer’s radar as Trump tariffs wreak havoc across global markets.

Jim Cramer in a latest program on CNBC said that President Donald Trump’s new tariffs were much worse than expected. Cramer believes investors were getting “tired” of worrying about the tariff threat and went into a “bring it on” mode ahead of the Wednesday announcement.

“Regular viewers know that I’ve never been a huge fan of free trade. It would be fine if everybody plays by the rules, but we’re the only country that plays by the rules. I want fair trade instead, which means tariff those who tariff us just as hard. Of course, I’ve been hoping for reciprocal tariffs, and that’s what we allegedly got, even if they were far more severe than I’d hoped for. With reciprocal tariffs, we hammer specific countries for putting up specific trade barriers or subsidizing specific industries. While we got reciprocal tariffs, I never expected them to be this high, nor did many other people. From Wall Street’s perspective, Trump might as well have used a meatax, which is what we were most afraid of. The term reciprocal meant nothing in the end; the term punitive is more accurate.”

Cramer Calls China an ‘Insidious Octopus’

Cramer called China an “insidious Octopus” and mentioned how the country used several “loopholes” to enter the US and European markets. However, he believes the tariffs will result in higher prices for consumers. Cramer said Trump does not “care” about falling stock prices or rising consumer prices.

“Trump doesn’t seem to care about the stock market this time around. Why should he care about certainty, which I’ve said over and over again is what makes investors happy? He’s not trying to make investors happy. He’s not about happiness for us. He’s about making these countries bend to his will, and if it causes inflation, then it causes inflation. He never promised you a rose garden stock market, and I sure didn’t see one in the Rose Garden today.”

READ ALSO: 7 Best Stocks to Buy For Long-Term and 8 Cheap Jim Cramer Stocks to Invest In

For this article, we picked 10 stocks Jim Cramer recently talked about during his programs on CNBC. With each company we have mentioned the number of hedge fund investors. 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).

A state-of-the-art electric vehicle charging at a station at a suburban mall.

Rivian Automotive Inc (NASDAQ:RIVN)

Number of Hedge Fund Investors: 31 Jim Cramer was recently asked about Rivian Automotive Inc (NASDAQ:RIVN). He reiterated his bearish view on the stock:

“I don’t care for the balance sheet. If they had a better balance sheet, then I would say fine. I know they’ve gotten some money from others, but it takes a long time to go public. People misunderstand how long it took for Tesla to be able to get there, and Tesla had, you know, it had a whama jamama musician at the top of it. And these guys — RJ Scaringe is good, but I do worry about the financing.”

Meridian Hedged Equity Fund stated the following regarding Rivian Automotive, Inc. (NASDAQ:RIVN) in its Q2 2024 investor letter:

“Rivian Automotive, Inc. (NASDAQ:RIVN) is a US-based electric vehicle manufacturer focused on the design, development, and production of electric adventure vehicles, pickup trucks, and commercial delivery vans. We own Rivian because we believe the company is a future leader in the growing electric vehicle market with a strong brand, compelling products, and a vertically integrated business model. During the quarter, Rivian’s stock price was driven by its progress on cost reduction initiatives and management’s stated confidence in achieving positive gross margins by the end of 2024. The recent announcement of a joint venture with Volkswagen, involving up to $5 billion in investment, also significantly boosted Rivian’s financing outlook and validated its technology. We trimmed our position in Rivian given the strong performance in the quarter.”

Overall, RIVN ranks 9th on our list of top stocks on Jim Cramer’s radar as Trump tariffs wreak havoc across global markets. While we acknowledge the potential of RIVN, our conviction lies in the belief that AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns, and doing so within a shorter timeframe. 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 RIVN 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.