Michael Burry Shorts AI Chip Makers Including Micron

Investor Michael Burry, known for his prescient bet against the U.S. housing market, has initiated significant short positions against several major technology and industrial companies, centering his bearish thesis on the artificial intelligence semiconductor rally. Through a series of online posts beginning June 30, Burry disclosed short bets against Nvidia, Tesla, Applied Materials, Caterpillar, and the iShares Semiconductor ETF. On July 1, he revealed a direct short position against Micron Technology, established when the stock traded near $1,052 per share.

Burry characterized the fervor around AI as "mass addiction" and warned that "the end is nigh," drawing parallels between the current market enthusiasm and the speculative excesses of the dot-com bubble. His critique of Micron was particularly pointed, noting the stock's history of extreme volatility, with 34 separate declines exceeding 30% over the past 42 years. He cited the stock's extreme distance above its 200-day moving average, a gap he claimed is the widest since 1984, and dismissed the company's high-bandwidth memory chips for AI as just another in a long series of products without durable competitive advantage.