“Big Short” Bury warned of an AI bubble and revealed a sharp shorting of Nvidia (NVDA.US) Palantir (PLTR.US) in Q3

The Zhitong Finance App learned that according to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) disclosure, Scion Asset Management (Scion Asset Management), a subsidiary of the “big short” investor Michael Burry (Michael Burry), submitted a position report for the third quarter ending September 30, 2025 (13F, a document requiring institutional investors to disclose shareholding conditions). Large bearish positions on popular artificial intelligence stocks Nvidia (NVDA.US) and Palantir (PLTR.US) revealed in this document attracted widespread attention in the market. This is not the first time that Bury has shorted Nvidia. It cleared almost all of its listed stock holdings in the first quarter of this year, and created a bearish position on Nvidia and Chinese securities before US President Trump stirred up the global market.

Scion's first-quarter position report included an additional disclosure, saying that the disclosed put options “may be used to hedge long positions that do not meet the requirements of the 13F report,” but no similar statement was included in the third-quarter position report.

Statistics show that the total market value of Scion's holdings in the third quarter reached US$1.38 billion, and the total market value in the previous quarter was US$580 million, up 138% from the previous quarter. The fund added 7 new shares to its portfolio in the third quarter, increasing its holdings by 1; at the same time, it reduced its holdings by 0 shares and cleared 14 shares. Among them, the top ten holdings account for 100% of the total market value.

Big bearish on AI giants

The well-known investor has previously sent a cautious signal about the artificial intelligence boom that is driving the market rebound this year, and this move further confirms his views. According to the 13F filing, the company disclosed that it held a put option of 1 million Nvidia shares and a put option of 5 million Palantir shares, which occupied 80% of the fund's position.

Since this year, Nvidia's stock price has increased by 54%, and Palantir's stock price has soared by more than 173%. As of press release, Nvidia's pre-market share price fell 1.9%; even though Palantir previously announced strong third-quarter results and raised its full-year results guidance, its pre-market share price fell 7.2%.

Bury's most widely known story is that before the 2008 financial crisis, he made a forward-looking bearish bet on the US real estate market, which was the prototype for the movie “The Big Short.” This time, he also shared a number of charts to explain why investors are more cautious about AI-related stocks.

In a recent post on social media platform X, Burry shared a chart showing that Amazon (AMZN.US), Alphabet (GOOGL.US), and Microsoft (MSFT.US) cloud business growth has slowed drastically. All three companies are core participants in the artificial intelligence boom.

Another chart shows that the current level of capital expenditure (capex) growth in the US technology industry is comparable to the level during the 1999-2000 internet bubble.

Bury also imitated Obi-Wan Kenobi (Obi-Wan Kenobi)'s line from “Star Wars” and wrote, “These aren't the charts you're looking for. You can keep doing your thing.”

Additionally, Burry has changed his username on the X platform to “Cassandra Unchained” (meaning “Cassandra Unchained”). In Greek mythology, Cassandra is a Trojan princess who can make accurate predictions but is bound not to be believed by others.

Earlier, Bury also shared a stills from actor Christian Bale (Christian Bale) playing himself in the movie “The Big Short” (The Big Short), with the caption: “Sometimes we can see bubbles. Sometimes, there's something we can do about it. Sometimes the only winning move is not getting involved.”

Last week, Nvidia made history, becoming the first company in the world to surpass $5 trillion in market capitalization. Since this year, the company's stock price has risen 55%, and its market capitalization has increased by more than 1.6 trillion US dollars. Previously, Nvidia's stock price rose 240% in 2023 and 170% in 2024. This series of increases strengthened its dominant position in the AI hardware market. Palantir has also achieved significant success, and its growth has benefited from AI-driven government and corporate contracts.

Bullish on Pfizer, Halliburton, etc.

The current 13F file shows that Scion Asset Management has established new bullish positions on Pfizer (PFE.US), Halliburton (HAL.US), Molina Healthcare (MOH.US), and Lululemon Athletica (LULU.US).

In the third quarter, the fund bought 6 million call options from Pfizer and 2.5 million call options from Halliburton.

While Bury is betting bullish on Pfizer, investors are looking forward to a catalyst to drive the development of this pharmaceutical company. Currently, Pfizer is in an adjustment phase to normalize demand in the post-pandemic era. Since this year, Pfizer's stock price has dropped 7.5%.

At the beginning of October, Halliburton announced a sharp decline in earnings for the third quarter, but thanks to stable demand for drilling equipment, the performance still exceeded analysts' expectations. The company also predicts annual savings of $400 million through cost reduction measures. Halliburton's stock price has remained flat since this year.

In addition to Pfizer and Halliburton, Scion Asset Management also increased its holdings of Molina Healthcare by 125,000 shares to expand its exposure to the managed healthcare sector; at the same time, it also increased its holdings of Lululemon Athletica by 100,000 shares, but at the same time sold a large number of bullish options on this stock. Among them, Molina Healthcare's stock price has fallen by more than 49% this year, and Lululemon Athletica's stock price has fallen 56.7% since this year.

Also at the beginning of October, due to rising medical cost trends in all business segments, its market business was particularly affected by this. Molina Healthcare drastically lowered its 2025 Earnings Per Share (EPS) guideline.

In addition, Scion Asset Management also included Bruker (BRKR.US) and SLM.US (SLM.US) in its portfolio to further expand its exposure to scientific instruments and student loan finance.

Judging from changes in position ratios, the top five buying targets are: Palantir Put Options (PLTR.US, PUT), Nvidia Put Options (NVDA.US, PUT), Pfizer Call Options (PFE.US, CALL), Halliburton Call Options (HAL.US, CALL), and Molina Healthcare.

The top five selling targets include UnitedHealth call options (UNH.US, CALL), Regenerative Pharmaceuticals call options (REGN.US, CALL), Lululemon Athletica call options (LULU.US, CALL), META call options (META.US, CALL), and Estée Lauder call options (EL.US, CALL).