Burry boosts QQQ puts to 6% as AI shorts near 2020 levels

Burry's short load now rivals 2020 levels, with QQQ puts at 6% and cash at 12%.

"CRWV has more of a meme vibe," Burry said. "Both are volatile, but I'd rather not short the leading candidate for memesville."

Burry exited losing SOXX put options and exchanged them for a much larger QQQ put position. He retained puts on Nvidia and Palantir, increased his Micron short as the stock approached $1,000, and kept the SOXX short as his largest bearish position at about 7%. He covered profitable shorts in Tesla and Applied Materials, calling quick gains "gift horses in this market."

Burry said his base case for the AI bubble is 2028, when compute becomes "too much." He has reduced gross exposure, trimmed long positions, and built a 12% cash position, saying "if this looks like preparation for a larger fall in the market, that is because it is."

The "Big Short" investor said his current positioning resembles the bearish wagers that paid off during the 2008 financial crisis and the COVID-19 crash. "In 2008 and 2020, I timed being heavily short well, and both times it converted to cash when I needed it most," he said. "I am now carrying a similar short load, maybe even more aggressive in some way than 2020." The difference is that Burry was also heavily short index futures in 2020, which he is not doing now.

Burry's reluctance to short CoreWeave does not reflect confidence in its business. In February, he called the AI neocloud an "off balance sheet SPV designed to lose money" and compared it unfavorably with Level 3 Communications during the dot-com bubble. His concerns relate to debt-funded GPU spending, rapid hardware depreciation, customer concentration, and circular financing within the AI sector.

Yet CoreWeave's limited float, retail popularity, and potential for a short squeeze make the stock tactically dangerous. Since its March 2025 IPO, CRWV has repeatedly drawn meme-stock comparisons as AI enthusiasm, Nvidia ties, and elevated short interest have fueled big price swings. CRWV has fallen 10% over the past year but remains up 48% since January. On Stocktwits, retail sentiment for CRWV jumped to "extremely bullish" from "bullish" levels a week ago, with "extremely high" message volume.

Burry remains broadly skeptical of the AI infrastructure boom. He said AI companies are increasingly investing in one another and then using that capital to purchase each other's products, turning funding back into reported revenue. "This is a concentrated effort to inject capital into the AI ecosystem that literally comes back to these companies as revenue," he said. With a growing share of that spending financed by debt, Burry believes the boom now carries a concrete cost of capital and a potential expiration date.

Burry also recalled being nearly perfectly positioned during the DeepSeek scare and the volatility preceding "Liberation Day" last year. His fund was up almost 100% by April before President Donald Trump urged investors to buy stocks. "We were printing," Burry said. "Then Trump said to buy stocks and I did not listen." Although the fund still finished with a solid double-digit return, Burry said it surrendered much of its gain because he failed to convert the bearish payoff into cash.

The QQQ put position now accounts for about 6% of his portfolio. His largest long positions include Zoetis, Mercado Libre, JD.com, and Adobe, each around the same size. The next group includes Lululemon, Veeva, Flutter, Molina Healthcare, HCA Corp, and PayPal. At about 5% each, Burry holds positions in Sprouts, Fannie Mae, and Freddie Mac.

Burry's moves come as Nvidia shares have gained 20% year to date, while Micron has soared more than 240%. Palantir is down about 4%, and Tesla has lost nearly 28%. The S&P 500 ETF has risen 22% year to date, while the Nasdaq 100 ETF has gained 31%. The divergence between Burry's bearish thesis and the market's AI rally has pushed parts of his short portfolio into losses, prompting him to reduce gross exposure.

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.