Michael Burry of ‘Big Short’ fame deregisters Scion Asset Management
Burry stepped up criticism of Big Tech in recent weeks
Places bets against Palantir, Nvidia
“On to much better things,” Burry posted on Wednesday
Nov 13 (Reuters) – “Big Short” investor Michael Burry, known for his successful bets against the U.S. housing market in 2008, has deregistered his hedge fund, Scion Asset Management.
The Securities and Exchange Commission’s database, opens new tab showed Scion’s registration status as “terminated” as of November 10. Deregistering would imply the fund is not required to file reports with the regulator or any state.
Bets by Scion, which managed $155 million in assets as of March, have long been dissected for hints of looming bubbles and signs of market froth.
In a post on social media platform X on Wednesday, Burry said, “On to much better things Nov 25th.” Scion Asset Management did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
Burry has stepped up criticism of technology heavyweights, including Nvidia (NVDA.O), opens new tab and Palantir Technologies , in recent weeks, questioning the cloud infrastructure boom and accusing major providers of using aggressive accounting to inflate profits from their massive hardware investments.
BEARISH AI BETS
“Burry’s decision feels less like ‘calling it quits’ and more like stepping away from a game he believes is fundamentally rigged,” said Bruno Schneller, managing director at Erlen Capital Management.
Between 2026 and 2028, those accounting choices could understate depreciation by about $176 billion, inflating reported profits across the sector, he estimated.
AI-related stocks have accounted for 75% of the S&P 500 index’s (.SPX), opens new tab returns since November 2022, when OpenAI launched ChatGPT, J.P. Morgan Asset Management wrote in September.
“Don’t count him out, just expect him to operate off the grid for a while. He may simply pivot to a family-office setup and run his own capital,” said Schneller.
The investor’s short position against subprime mortgage securities during the housing market crash was chronicled in Michael Lewis’s book, “The Big Short”, and its film adaptation.
His profile on X, titled “Cassandra Unchained,” is seen as a nod to the Greek mythological figure cursed by Apollo to deliver true prophecies that no one would believe.
Investment advisers with assets under management of $100 million or more have to register with the SEC, and are primarily subject to federal regulation instead of state regulation.
ROUGH RIDE FOR SHORT SELLERS
Burry joins a cast of high-profile investors navigating a market that has become increasingly hostile to bearish views in recent years, thanks to unfettered optimism around technology and strong interest from retail investors.
Hindenburg Research shuttered earlier this year after a string of high-profile calls, including bets against India’s Adani Group and U.S. electric-truck maker Nikola.
Veteran short seller Jim Chanos, best known for his bets against energy trader Enron months before the company’s bankruptcy, has also sparred with Michael Saylor’s bitcoin holding company Strategy (MSTR.O), opens new tab.
Chanos has argued that Strategy’s valuation premium was unjustified, a critique that drew a sharp response from Saylor.
Reporting by Niket Nishant and Johann M Cherian in Bengaluru and Nell Mackenzie in London; Additional reporting by Aditya Soni and Manya Saini in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D’Silva
Niket Nishant reports on breaking news and the quarterly earnings of Wall Street’s largest banks, card companies, financial technology upstarts and asset managers. He also covers the biggest IPOs on U.S. exchanges, and late-stage venture capital funding alongside news and regulatory developments in the cryptocurrency industry. His writing appears on the finance, business, markets and future of money sections of the website. He did his post-graduation from the Indian Institute of Journalism and New Media (IIJNM) in Bengaluru.
