Michael Burry adds Micron short at $1,051.87, citing valuation and cycle risks
Burry’s June 30 bearish basket targeting Tesla, Nvidia, Caterpillar, Applied Materials and the chip sector was followed by a sharp selloff in semiconductors and a steep drop in Tesla, though the moves were tied to separate market catalysts.
Michael Burry said on July 3 that he directly shorted Micron Technology at $1,051.87, arguing that valuation, technical patterns and long-term semiconductor cycles created meaningful downside risk. In a Substack post, he said put options were too expensive and added that Micron’s deviation from its 200-day moving average was the widest since 1984, exceeding the level seen at the peak of the dot-com bubble. The Micron position adds to bearish trades disclosed on June 30 against Tesla, Nvidia, Caterpillar, Applied Materials and the semiconductor sector, which he framed as a single bet against an overheated AI cycle. Within days, several targets and related names fell, including Micron, SanDisk, Seagate and Tesla, while the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index dropped 12% in two days, including a more than 6% slide on July 2 after reports that Meta was building Meta Compute to lease surplus AI data-center capacity. Tesla fell 7.5% that same day despite reporting Q2 deliveries of 480,126 vehicles, above Wall Street consensus, in what traders treated as a sell-the-news reaction. BlockBeats, citing SEC 13F position-direction data, previously said 9 of Burry’s last 11 disclosed put-option calls were directionally correct, though the filings do not show premiums, strikes or expiries and therefore do not establish profitability.
- shorted: Bet against a stock by selling borrowed shares in anticipation of a price decline.
- put options: Options contracts that typically gain value when the underlying stock falls.
- 200-day moving average: A widely watched long-term average price indicator used to assess trend and how far a stock has stretched from it.