Michael Burry — the investor immortalised in The Big Short for predicting the collapse of the US mortgage market — appears to have shut down his hedge fund after placing a high-profile wager against the artificial intelligence boom.
Regulatory filings show that Scion Asset Management, Burry’s firm, has been deregistered with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), with its status marked as “terminated” this week. The move removes the firm from federal oversight and means Scion must return investor capital, given that hedge funds managing over $100m (£75m) are required to remain SEC-registered.
In a brief and cryptic post on X, Burry teased a new chapter, writing he was moving “on to much better things Nov 25” — fuelling speculation that he may be transitioning to a family office, which would allow him to invest his own wealth with far less regulatory scrutiny.
A $1.1bn Bet Against AI High-Flyers
The timing of Scion’s closure raised eyebrows after reports emerged that Burry had placed a $1.1bn bet against two of the stock market’s biggest AI winners: Nvidia and Palantir.
Burry revealed he had bought 2027 put options allowing him to sell Palantir shares at $50, a position that profits if the stock falls below that level. Shares currently trade at $184.
Since his bearish bets surfaced, Nvidia’s share price has fallen roughly 8%, while Palantir is down around 11%. Palantir’s outspoken CEO Alex Karp dismissed Burry’s stance as “bats— crazy”, prompting Burry to retort that he was “not surprised” Karp couldn’t “crack” the regulatory filing outlining the trade.
A Man Who Saw the Last Crisis Coming
Burry became a household name after correctly predicting — and profiting from — the collapse of the US mortgage-backed securities market in 2007, a move that earned Scion roughly $1bn and cemented his reputation as one of Wall Street’s most contrarian thinkers.
His story was chronicled in Michael Lewis’s bestselling book The Big Short and later adapted into the Oscar-winning 2015 film, with Christian Bale starring as Burry.
Renewed Bubble Warnings
After years of relative quiet, Burry has re-emerged on X with warnings reminiscent of his pre-2008 commentary. In late October he posted:
“Sometimes, we see bubbles.”
His bearish wagers on Nvidia and Palantir have tapped into wider market fears that AI stocks have become dangerously overvalued, echoing concerns about the sustainability of the sector’s explosive growth.
