Michael Burry swaps AI shorts for put options: "I am moving timelines up"

Michael Burry, the investor known for the housing short in 2008, changed how he is betting against the AI trade on September 28. In his Substack's Trading Post of that date, the only part visible without a paid subscription reads: "Today I was busy repositioning the portfolio in light of weekend research... Fundamentally, I am moving timelines up."

That post came five days after we reported his added shorts on Micron, Nebius, Palantir and the SOXX chip ETF. Everything below on the specific contracts comes from outlets that describe the paid post, not from text we could read ourselves.

From shorts to puts

Yahoo Finance reported that he replaced short positions with put options, which cost less capital and give more leverage over a shorter window. Per Yahoo, the Micron puts have strikes around $500 and expire in June, Nebius puts also expire in June at double-digit strikes, and SOXX puts expire in September 2027 with strikes in the low $400s. GuruFocus confirms the Micron detail: puts expiring in June with a strike around $500.

The Motley Fool quotes him on the logic: "I want more leverage in my short positions. Better timelines make leverage more palatable." It also says he holds other AI-related puts expiring in September and December, without naming them. Outlets disagree on which shorts he closed, so we are not listing them.

The Ares research

GuruFocus and the Motley Fool both say Burry pointed to research from Ares Management. As the Fool describes it, the argument is that AI revenue has to be large enough to support the capital spending the industry has already committed to, and that markets price the risk of that failing at a very low probability. Neither article gives the title or date of the Ares piece, and Yahoo does not mention it, so treat the link as reported, not verified against Ares itself.

What we could not confirm

• The 13F. The latest 13F-HR on SEC EDGAR for Scion Asset Management was filed November 3, 2025, for the quarter ended September 30, 2025. There is no newer filing, so no regulatory document shows these 2026 puts. Reports that cite Scion puts on Palantir and Nvidia in a 13F refer to that older filing.
• Anything newer on the AI bet. His posts since (October 1 on GPU depreciation, October 8 on the AI cloud oligopoly, October 11, 17 and 19) continue the bearish AI theme. The public excerpts we read do not state new positions in these stocks. The October 11 post discusses a move in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which is a separate subject.

Why it matters

A put loses its entire premium if the stock stays above the strike at expiry, so moving to puts is a statement about timing as well as direction. Burry's earlier call, in the September 23 post, was that the memory shortage would fade over two years. Shortening that to a window ending in mid-to-late 2027 is the change. His timing has been mixed before, and one investor's positioning is not a forecast. It is one more reason Micron's results and AI capital spending guidance are being watched closely.

Sources: Michael Burry, Cassandra Unchained; Yahoo Finance; GuruFocus; Motley Fool; SEC EDGAR. This is market information, not investment advice.