Michael Burry Called the 2008 Crash. Now He’s Shorting These 2 Stocks

Michael Burry is a hedge fund manager who gained significant fame and name recognition beyond Wall Street after he predicted the 2008 financial crisis. He began investing as a hobby during his medical residency. His investing abilities caught the attention of Joel Greenblatt, who was one of the premier investors in his hedge fund, Scion Capital.

This hedge fund significantly beat the S&P 500's gains in the early 2000s. From its founding in November 2000 to June 2008, Scion Capital posted 489.34% in returns compared to the S&P 500, which returned just 3% over the period, even after including dividends.

Updated on December 8, 2025, with the latest information.

Michael Burry saw the risks in mortgage-backed securities before the Great Recession and bought credit default swaps against subprime loans. Once the recession came, he made $725 million for his investors and $100 million himself. But what truly made him famous was the book The Big Short in 2010. He became even more mainstream after he was portrayed by Christian Bale in the 2015 film adaptation.

Scion Capital was shuttered in 2008, then relaunched as Scion Asset Management. However, Michael Burry recently deregistered Scion Asset Management, with the SEC database showing its registration status as "terminated," much like a repeat of Scion Capital's being shut down... but where's the recession?

Michael Burry is betting big on a 2008 repeat, this time with AI and tech instead of the housing market. He explained that he is still "active in markets" after deregistering Scion. It is important to keep in mind that Burry has been bearish multiple times in the past two years. What makes this time different is that he shut down Scion and has been much more aggressive. He launched a Substack newsletter to lay out in detail his increasingly bearish thesis on AI.

• Nvidia is the biggest company in the world today and sells AI GPUs. The company has been making a killing selling these, and there's almost no competition today, with up to 95% of the AI accelerator market being conquered by Nvidia.
• This also means that Nvidia is almost fully reliant on AI. It's a strength today, but Burry believes it can turn out to be a weakness when the "AI bubble" bursts.
• Burry compared Nvidia to Cisco before the Dot Com bubble burst, since it provides the "picks and shovels" for the AI gold rush, just like Cisco did for the internet gold rush.
• His Q3 filing revealed he holds put options on 1 million NVDA shares. This translates to ~$185.6 million in value.

• Palantir has been one of the biggest winners of the AI rally due to its surging software stack that is being adopted by governments and corporations alike.
• However, the stock is red-hot and incredibly expensive today. Such earnings multiples on a big-cap stock like Palantir have not been seen since the Dot Com bubble.
• Palantir is what he is the most bearish on right now, with his put options constituting over 66% of his portfolio today. CEO Alex Karp calls it "bats--t crazy".
• He holds 5 million shares worth of PLTR put options as of Q3, worth $912.1 million.

Michael Burry is mostly betting against tech companies that are spearheading the AI race. Whether or not this will work out is anyone's guess, considering previous similar bets in recent years haven't gone his way. Still, he looks far more aggressive and confident this time around, with many in the market agreeing that the AI rally has gone too far. Only time will tell.