Michael Burry is officially a meme.
The investor of “The Big Short” fame is lighting up social media after he bet against Nvidia and called out the chipmaker and other AI companies on X, which may have contributed to the stock market’s slump on Thursday.
Why Michael Burry is having a moment
Burry is best known for predicting and profiting from the collapse of the mid-2000s US housing bubble. His massive, contrarian wager was immortalized in the book “The Big Short” and a movie adaptation starring Christian Bale as Burry.
Known for his dire warnings of crashes and recessions, Burry goes by “Cassandra” on X — a reference to the priestess from Greek mythology who was cursed to speak true prophecies but never to be believed.
He burst back onto X in late October after more than two years of silence, and wasted no time firing off several warnings about a dangerous bubble in AI stocks.
His hedge fund, Scion Asset Management, revealed days later that at the end of September it held bearish put options on Nvidia and Palantir with a combined notional value of $1.1 billion.
Palantir CEO Alex Karp called the bets “batshit crazy” in a televised interview, spurring Burry to fire back that the AI company’s boss couldn’t “crack a simple 13F.”
In later posts, Burry said that he wasn’t short and had exited the Palantir puts in October. He also terminated Scion’s SEC registration, closing it to outside cash.
Most recently, he took aim at Nvidia after its third-quarter earnings beat on Wednesday. He questioned the longevity of its chips, its “give-and-take deals” with other AI companies, and its stock dilution.
Some market watchers rushed to ridicule his bearish stance on the AI boom after Nvidia shares popped more than 5% following its earnings beat.
Other commenters poked fun at Burry’s defiance, and his willingness to go up against technology titans and the dominant market narrative.
Still others have defended Burry, saying he’s many things but foolish isn’t one of them.
Shares of Nvidia opened higher on Thursday but swung to a 3% decline by the market’s close, and fell another 1% on Friday.
Nvidia is the world’s most valuable public company with a market capitalization above $4 trillion, so its sudden downswing dragged the entire stock market lower on Thursday.
The S&P 500 gave up a 1.9% gain to close 1.6% lower, while the Nasdaq Composite went from a 2.6% rise to a 2.2% fall, marking the indexes’ largest intraday swing since April. Both closed less than 1% higher on Friday.
The reversal led some market watchers to rally behind Burry, celebrating his surprise comeback and suggesting he may have been right to be skeptical.
They also gave him kudos for cashing in on the chaos, even though Burry hasn’t said whether he holds Nvidia puts or profited from Thursday’s selloff.
Burry also received praise for his Palantir bet, as the AI stock has tanked 25% since November 3, when it reported earnings and Burry disclosed his puts.
By no means was Burry solely responsible for the market slump. Investors also soured on Nvidia after analysts flagged increases in inventories and deferred revenues, raising concerns the company’s growth may have been frontloaded and could slow in future quarters. Moreover, delayed economic data showed US unemployment rose to an almost four-year high of 4.4% in September.
Burry is yet to post about the online furor surrounding his crusade against the AI giants. But his followers may hear more from him very soon, as his X bio reads: “‘Unchained’ coming maybe sooner than Nov 25th.”