As shares of Netflix surged to an all-time high on Tuesday and sent the broader market higher, CNBC's Jim Cramer tied the rise to the lasting effect of the FANG stocks on the economy.
Analysts have long said FANG, Cramer's acronym for the stocks of Facebook, Amazon, Netflix and Google, now Alphabet, was near-dead or overvalued, but Cramer has balked at the allegations.
"These companies embody major long-term changes in the way we think, the way we do things, the way the global economy operates," the "Mad Money" host said on Tuesday.
Even so, Cramer admitted that analyzing the stocks can be enough to drive people crazy.
"Today's epic 9 percent run in Netflix, after the company reported some preposterously fantastic sign-ups, is the kind of thing that makes you want to tear your hair out, if you have any, if you're trying to value the stock on traditional metrics," he said.
Netflix's stock has soared despite the company's heavy spending on content and its negative free cash flow, which some see as a threat to the streaming giant's earnings.
But Cramer argued that "the simple fact is that the world loves Netflix. We're beginning to believe that it could easily reach 300 million subscribers someday and they'll be willing to pay a heck of a lot more for the service. Why? Because it is such a bargain."
"That's why Netflix is the best-performing stock in 2018 for the ," Cramer continued. "That's why it has a $145 billion market cap, very close to Disney and more than seven times the size of CBS. That's why Netflix is the most powerful force in the entertainment world today."
Netflix's strength goes beyond Netflix itself. The company uses Amazon Web Services to get content onto the internet and ready for streaming, among other functions, and turns to Google's cloud platform for a few crisis-related workloads.
Shares of Amazon and Alphabet, Google's parent company, popped more than 4 percent and 3 percent on Tuesday, respectively.
And while social media giant Facebook isn't connected to Netflix on the business side, its stock gained 2 percent thanks to the exchange-traded funds that group the FANG stocks together, Cramer said.
Better yet, Netflix's strength extended to the cloud, brightening prospects for companies like Adobe, Red Hat and Salesforce.com, the "Mad Money" host said.
"The more everyone gets familiar with the cloud for ordering from Amazon or watching programs on Netflix, the more comfortable they are using the cloud at work," he said. "No wonder all of the cloud plays roared higher today."
As the market worries about the fate of U.S.-China relations, Cramer suggested investors look to the FANG stocks as a safe haven from the geopolitical concerns.
"Here's the bottom line: in a market that can't get comfortable with the drug stocks — [Johnson & Johnson] took a hit on a pretty good quarter — or the banks, as Goldman Sachs got smacked around on a terrific number, the cloud stocks soared today on the back of Netflix, and all I can say is the smallest stock in FANG has got some real broad shoulders," Cramer concluded.
WATCH: Cramer talks FANG's influence on the market
Disclosure: Cramer's charitable trust owns shares of Facebook, Amazon, Alphabet and Goldman Sachs.
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