Michael Burry, the hedge fund manager immortalized in “The Big Short” for his prescient bet against the US housing market, is back with another contrarian wager. This time, his target is artificial intelligence.
Through his firm Scion Asset Management, Burry disclosed put option positions with a combined notional value of approximately $1.1 billion against two of AI’s biggest beneficiaries: Palantir Technologies and Nvidia. The Q3 2025 13F filing shows $912 million in notional puts on Palantir and $187 million on Nvidia.
The fine print matters
Before anyone assumes Burry is staking a billion dollars on an AI crash, a quick translation is in order. Notional value is not what Burry actually paid. It represents the total market value of shares the options could theoretically control.
The actual premium paid for the Palantir position was around $9 million. That’s roughly 1% of the headline figure. The options reportedly include longer-dated contracts expiring in 2027 with strike prices well below market levels at the time of disclosure. That means Burry is not betting on a minor pullback. He’s positioning for a significant repricing of these companies.
