We recently published a list of Jim Cramer’s Lightning Round: 8 Stocks in Focus. In this article, we are going to take a look at where Holding N.V. (NASDAQ:ASML) stands against other stocks that Jim Cramer discusses.

Jim Cramer, host of Mad Money, discussed on Monday how investor sentiment surrounding tech stocks has shifted over the past three months. He pointed out that not long ago, tech was seen as the leader of the market. However, that is no longer the case. Cramer noted that he had hoped for a thriving AI infrastructure space.

“Three months ago, I thought we could be in for all sorts of exciting new technology. We went out to that GTC conference with Jensen Huang, but so far this year AI has only evolved in the direction of lower stock prices.”

READ ALSO: Jim Cramer Looked At These 23 Stocks Recently and Jim Cramer Put These 16 Stocks Under a Microscope.

Despite the tech stocks getting hit, Cramer expressed that he has not abandoned his belief in the potential of AI infrastructure. He encouraged investors to focus on the strongest companies within the AI space, especially since prices have dropped significantly. He noted that it makes it less of a chase and more of an opportunity. Cramer also noted that while he had initially expected that enterprise software companies utilizing AI would perform well in 2025, it has not played out as he expected.

“I figured we’d see a group of enterprise software companies that harnessed AI tools to make big money this year. No, that didn’t happen at all. I’m not giving up hope but look at the enterprise software companies who seem to be leading the way in AI. They’ve become some of the worst performers in all of tech.”

Cramer also touched on the global trade situation and specifically addressed the impact of President Trump’s trade policies. He recalled that back in January, he was more focused on the tech-specific trade restrictions imposed by former President Biden, such as bans on advanced chip sales to China.

However, he noted that the situation has escalated into what looks like a full-scale trade war. Cramer said that while it appears that the U.S. might be emerging victorious in some ways, the cost could be high and he called it a “Pyrrhic victory”. He remarked that the current administration under President Trump does not appear in any hurry to reverse the trade limitations. He added:

“Given the new president’s attitude toward our trading partners, I bet he’ll double down before rolling this stuff back. He is more likely to ban the selling of any chips, even potato chips at this point.”

Our Methodology

For this article, we compiled a list of 8 stocks that were discussed by Jim Cramer during the episode of Mad Money aired on March 31. We listed the stocks in ascending order of their hedge fund sentiment as of the fourth quarter of 2024, which was taken from Insider Monkey’s database of over 1,000 hedge funds.

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 technician in a clean room working on a semiconductor device, illuminated by the machines.

ASML Holding N.V. (NASDAQ:ASML)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 86

Highlighting ASML Holding N.V. (NASDAQ:ASML) stock’s recent 9% decline, a caller inquired about the company and in reply, Cramer said:

“Remember they’re a Dutch company and the president is, the president of the United States will not help a Dutch company do business in China, and that business in China is what’s really necessary and he just will not let that happen. By the way, that’s not new. Previous president felt the same way. So there are real issues with our trade partners in ASML because they own one of the most crucial parts of the entire semiconductor food chain.”

ASML Holding (NASDAQ:ASML) designs and makes advanced semiconductor equipment including lithography, metrology, and inspection systems. The company helps chipmakers produce various semiconductor technologies and offers customer support and system upgrades. Baron Fifth Avenue Growth Fund stated the following regarding ASML Holding N.V. (NASDAQ:ASML) in its Q4 2024 investor letter:

“ASML Holding N.V. (NASDAQ:ASML) is a Dutch company that designs and manufactures photolithography equipment for semiconductor manufacturing. While ASML is the leader across all types of lithography, most importantly, it is the only manufacturer of extreme ultra-violet lithography tools, which are critical for the manufacturing of leading-edge chips. Shares fell 16.6% during the fourth quarter (finishing the year down 7.7%) on reduced guidance for 2025 as well as growing investor concerns about the potential impact of U.S. government restrictions on Chinese demand and the possibility of peaking lithography intensity. Despite near-term noise, we believe that the growing demand for chips in general and AI chips in particular will continue to support long-term growth for the wafer fab equipment industry with ASML’s competitive positioning remaining unassailable. While lithography as a percentage of capital expenditure may decrease from current levels, the chip layer count requiring lithography will continue to increase, in our view, as chips continue to become more complex. As a monopoly on critical lithography tools supporting an industry with growing demand fueled by the proliferation of AI, we see strong long-term upside for ASML.”

Overall, ASML ranks 6th on our list of stocks that Jim Cramer discusses. While we acknowledge the potential of ASML as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and doing so within a shorter time frame. 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 ASML but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.

READ NEXT: 20 Best AI Stocks To Buy Now and 30 Best Stocks to Buy Now According to Billionaires.

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