During the Lightning Round of CNBC’s Mad Money, Jim Cramer adopted a more defensive stance, characterizing the broader market as “turned ugly.” One of his strongest warnings was reserved for Ondas Holdings (NASDAQ:ONDS), one of 2026’s hottest drone and counter-drone stocks.
The Ondas “Meme Stock” Call
Asked about Ondas, Cramer was blunt: “This is a meme stock. It’s just a meme stock that it’s about the autonomous system meme. And I can’t get behind a meme stock. This market’s too horrible. I mean meme stock could rip your lungs out.”
Ondas has been one of the year’s most striking stories, with management reporting Q1 FY2026 revenue of $50.12 million, up 1,079.8% year over year, and a pro forma backlog that swelled to $457 million after five acquisitions closed in Q1 2026 alone. CEO Eric Brock raised full-year revenue guidance to at least $390 million in the company’s May 14 earnings release.
Cramer’s concern is that Ondas has become a narrative-driven stock. Companies tied to popular themes like autonomous systems and drone defense often attract aggressive investor enthusiasm, but those same stocks can unravel quickly when sentiment changes. Despite its explosive revenue growth, Ondas still posted an adjusted EBITDA loss of $10.88 million and burned $51.3 million in operating cash last quarter. At a roughly $5.03 billion market value, investors are paying for significant future growth, making the stock particularly vulnerable if execution falls short of expectations.
Pulling Back on a Favorite: Nebius
The more revealing call was on AI cloud infrastructure player Nebius Group (NASDAQ:NBIS | NBIS Price Prediction). Cramer admitted, “Until this market turned ugly, Nebius is one of my favorite stocks. Now, I got to pull back because the facts of this entire market have changed.”
The key takeaway is that Cramer’s caution is driven by the broader market, rather than the company. Nebius remains one of the fastest-growing names in AI infrastructure, with Q1 2026 revenue up 279.6% year over year, a major Meta contract, and NVIDIA support. Cramer’s view is that when market conditions deteriorate, even strong businesses can see their stocks decline as investors reduce exposure to higher-risk growth names.
AI Disruption: Thomson Reuters
On Thomson Reuters (NASDAQ:TRI), Cramer gave a structural rejection: “I understand why you think that Wall Street is wrong. But the problem is that this is media, and media has been decimated by all things AI. And I can’t get behind it.”
Despite Thomson Reuters’ CoCounsel AI growth story and Q1 2026 revenue of $2.09 billion, up 10% year over year, Cramer sees AI as a secular headwind for media and information businesses broadly. For him, valuation is not enough to overcome the bucket the stock sits in.
The Takeaway
Across the segment, Cramer rejected speculative momentum (Ondas), trimmed a former favorite (Nebius), and avoided an AI-disrupted sector (media via Thomson Reuters). Lightning Round calls are rapid-fire opinions, and the “ugly market” framing is Cramer’s read of the broader market. The consistent thread across all these takes is that in this environment, risk management is doing more work than stock picking.
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