Key points
- Michael Burry disclosed five new short positions on June 30: Tesla (TSLA), Caterpillar (CAT), Nvidia (NVDA), the semiconductor ETF (SOXX), and Applied Materials (AMAT).
- It's reportedly his first-ever short on Caterpillar (CAT), which is up nearly 100% in 2026 on AI-driven infrastructure buying.
- He has not disclosed the size of any of these positions, so there's no dollar figure attached.
- The shorts come just days after he disclosed a multi-year bet that Microsoft (MSFT) shares would rise, so this isn't a simple turn to betting against everything.
I like checking in on what well-known investors are actually doing with their money, and Michael Burry gave a lot to look at this week. On June 30, in a post on his "Cassandra Unchained" Substack titled "Trading Post June 30, 2026," he disclosed five new short positions aimed squarely at the AI and semiconductor trade. Five days earlier, the same investor had disclosed a rare, multi-year bullish bet on Microsoft (MSFT). Both things are true at once, and that's worth sitting with before reaching for a simple headline.
The five new shorts
Burry listed exact entry prices for each position, though not the size of any of them:
- Tesla (TSLA), shorted at $416.22
- Caterpillar (CAT), shorted at $1,060.98
- Nvidia (NVDA), shorted at $198.09
- iShares Semiconductor ETF (SOXX), shorted at $642.80
- Applied Materials (AMAT), shorted at $729.40
He framed the basket as a bet against what he called an inflating AI and semiconductor market, drawing a comparison to the dot-com bubble of 1999 and 2000. No dollar amounts or share counts were disclosed for any of the five, which matters: his past short bets, including the famous 2021 Tesla puts, have repeatedly been overstated in headlines that quoted notional value as if it were money at risk. Treat these as confirmed prices and tickers, not confirmed position sizes.
Why Caterpillar, of all things
The Caterpillar (CAT) short is the most unusual pick of the five, and reportedly the first time Burry has ever shorted the stock. Caterpillar has had a banner 2026, up nearly 100% as investors started treating the heavy-equipment maker as a play on AI-driven data center and infrastructure buildout, alongside more traditional construction demand. That kind of run, a roughly 100-year-old industrial company being repriced on an AI narrative, is exactly the sort of move Burry has built his reputation questioning.
It fits the same logic as the rest of the basket. He isn't only betting against the obvious AI names like Nvidia (NVDA); he's betting against anything that's been swept up in the AI rally's price action, even a construction equipment maker.
A short placed after a rally, not a dip
The Tesla (TSLA) trade came with a specific note from Burry himself: he shorted it at $416.22 and said he was "happy it jumped back to this level." That's a detail worth sitting on. He didn't chase Tesla down during a selloff; he waited for the stock to rally back to a price he liked before putting the short on. It's a small line, but it's consistent with how he's described his own process before: patient, and willing to wait for a price rather than react to a headline.
Just days earlier, he was buying
It's easy to read five new shorts and assume Burry has turned uniformly bearish. He hasn't. On June 25, in an earlier Substack post, he disclosed a multi-year bullish bet on Microsoft (MSFT): December 2028 LEAP call options with strikes in the low $700s. The same post showed buys of JD.com (JD) at $24.79, Adobe (ADBE) at $195.11, and Fiserv (FISV) at $47.55. He also sold his Alibaba (BABA) shares, reportedly for tax-loss reasons, and covered half of his Palantir (PLTR) short at $107.15 while keeping the rest of the bearish bet in place. We covered that disclosure in full, including the Palantir correction, in our piece on his Microsoft bet and Palantir trim.
Checking back on those names: JD.com, Adobe and Fiserv are all trading above where Burry bought them, and Microsoft has held up well above the $350 area he called "a good place to buy the stock." None of that confirms his June 30 shorts will work out, but it's a reminder that he was adding to positions he already held in the same week he started piling on shorts elsewhere.
Where the trades stand right now
It's only been hours since these shorts were disclosed, so treat any read on them as very early. As of today's close, Tesla, Caterpillar and Nvidia are all trading a bit above where Burry shorted them. The semiconductor ETF (SOXX) and Applied Materials (AMAT) are slightly below his entries, so those two are modestly in his favor so far. A few hours of price action after a same-day disclosure tells you almost nothing about whether a multi-week or multi-month thesis is right. He's been early before, sometimes by years.
The bigger picture
The honest read here isn't "Burry is bearish" or "Burry is bullish." It's that he's running both at once: short a basket of names he thinks the AI rally has overpriced, while still holding a patient, multi-year bullish bet on Microsoft. If a famous name's trade tempts you to act fast, the fact that his Microsoft calls run to December 2028 is itself a reason to slow down. These are disclosed positions, not recommendations, and we don't know how large any of them actually are.
If you want to watch this in closer to real time going forward, we're now tracking Burry's Substack posts directly on his Scion Asset Management fund page, alongside his SEC filings, since his 13F only catches his trades up to 45 days late.
This is general market commentary and opinion, not investment advice. Markets can go down as well as up, and you can lose money. Always do your own research and consider speaking with a licensed financial professional before making any investment decision.
