Jim Cramer Rejected This AI Stock Before It Rose Over 30% in August

Jim Cramer spent the last week of August 2026 arguing with himself about Super Micro Computer (NASDAQ:SMCI | SMCI Price Prediction). On August 25, during his lightning round on Mad Money, a viewer asked about the AI server maker. Cramer waved him off with a Cole Porter riff, calling the day’s gain “a short squeeze” and saying flatly, “I don’t want to own Super Micro” because “it’s got accounting problems.”

Six trading days later, closing the book on the month, he read Super Micro’s name off his list of August winners. “I don’t know how this Super Micro keeps coming back, but no matter how much heat it takes for some of its employees helping the Chinese to get NVIDIA hardware, it’s still up 31% for the month of August. The market has no memory. The authorities perhaps have no teeth,” Cramer told viewers in a CNBC segment on August 31.

What the Stock Actually Did

The price data backs the recap. SMCI closed August at $36.71, and the one-month move from $28.40 on July 31 to a late-August peak put the stock up 29.26% for the month on an adjusted basis. Year to date, SMCI is up 25.42%, though the 12-month return remains negative at -11.63%.

The rally had a fundamental spark. Super Micro reported fiscal Q4 on August 11, 2026, posting revenue of $11.1 billion, up 93% year over year, and non-GAAP EPS of $1.70. Non-GAAP gross margin came in at 17.6%, versus prior guidance of 8.2% to 8.4%, a 750-basis-point sequential jump CEO Charles Liang tied to a richer enterprise mix. Management also disclosed over $60 billion in new orders during the quarter and guided fiscal 2027 revenue to $65 billion to $72 billion. You can read the full earnings report in the company’s 8-K earnings exhibit filed with the SEC.

Why Cramer’s Skepticism Isn’t Crazy

The bear case Cramer keeps returning to has legs. Fiscal 2026 operating cash flow was negative $6.8 billion as inventory ballooned to $12.9 billion, the board is still reviewing transactions tied to export-control issues, and one large data center customer represented 28% of fiscal 2026 revenue. Cramer’s reference to employees allegedly helping Chinese buyers obtain NVIDIA hardware speaks to a regulatory overhang that has not gone away.

SMCI Rode a Bigger Wave

Super Micro rode a broader rally. Palantir Technologies (NASDAQ:PLTR) rose 46.21% in the month after posting 93% revenue growth and a 155% Rule of 40 score, with CEO Alex Karp calling it “one of the more exciting times to be at Palantir.” Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) climbed 40.26% after Q2 revenue of $11.35 billion and AgentForce ARR reaching $1.5 billion. ServiceNow (NYSE:NOW) added 28.47% after CEO Bill McDermott announced ServiceNow AI ACV had “cross[ed] over a billion” with agentic AI production customers up 9x over the last nine months.

All four had been under pressure from a hedge fund positioning bet against AI-displacement and enterprise software names. When that positioning unwound, the same shorted names rallied together, which helps explain how a controversial name like SMCI could catch the same bid as blue-chip software. The server, power, and cooling suppliers behind the data-center buildout keep showing up on our radar too, and we rounded up seven of them in a free AI infrastructure report.

What to Watch Next

SMCI trades at a P/E of roughly 11, cheap relative to Palantir at 255, but the multiple reflects real risk: customer concentration, working capital strain, and an unresolved board review. Q1 fiscal 2027 guidance calls for revenue of $14.5 billion to $15.5 billion and non-GAAP gross margin of just 10.4% to 10.8%, meaning the Q4 margin spike is not expected to repeat. Investors weighing Cramer’s whiplash should keep an eye on the stock through the next quarterly print, when the $60 billion order book starts converting into shippable revenue and the margin story gets its next real test.

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