Michael Burry shorts $912M PLTR, $187M NVDA

The headline makes it sound simple — Michael Burry bet $912 million against Palantir and $187 million against Nvidia. But that’s not really what the filing says. What actually happened is narrower and more interesting: Scion Asset Management disclosed put options on Palantir and Nvidia in its November 3, 2025 Form 13F for positions held on September 30, 2025. ### What did Burry actually disclose? Scion’s 13F showed put options on roughly 5 million Palantir shares and 1 million Nvidia shares. On 13F forms, options are reported in terms of the underlying shares, which is why the numbers look huge. The filing is real. The “$912 million PLTR short” and “$187 million NVDA short” framing comes from multiplying those share counts by the stocks’ quarter-end values — not from a cash outlay line item on the form. (sec.gov) ### Why do people keep calling it a $1.1 billion bet? Because 13F optics are weird. A put option can control a large block of stock with far less capital than buying or shorting the shares outright. The SEC’s own 13F instructions say managers report options using the underlying security in several columns, not the premium paid for the option itself. So the notional exposure can look enormous even when the actual dollars at risk are much smaller. (sherwood.news) ### Was this filed “today”? No — and that date matters. The underlying positions were as of September 30, 2025, and the 13F was filed on November 3, 2025. So if the story is circulating now, in May 2026, it’s not fresh positioning. It’s an old disclosure getting recirculated, or being used as context for Burry’s broader anti-bubble reputation. ### Why Palantir and Nvidia? The obvious read is AI valuation skepticism. (sec.gov) Nvidia was the core infrastructure winner of the AI boom. Palantir became one of the market’s highest-momentum software names. Betting against both looks like a bet that AI euphoria had outrun fundamentals — or at least that expectations had become too one-sided. That interpretation fits the trade, but the catch is we still don’t know strike prices, expirations, or whether Scion later reduced or closed the position. 13Fs don’t show that level of detail. (sec.gov) ### Why does Palantir make this look especially dramatic? Because Palantir kept running. The company reported Q1 2026 revenue of $1.63 billion on May 4 and raised full-year 2026 guidance, with U.S. revenue up 104% year over year and total revenue up 85%. By early May 2026, Palantir’s market cap was around $330 billion. So the Burry trade, whether hedged or directional, has been fighting a stock that kept getting more expensive. (morningstar.com) ### Does this mean Burry is definitely bearish now? Not necessarily. A 13F is a snapshot, delayed by up to 45 days after quarter-end. It also excludes plenty of context — shorts outside reportable securities, offsets, cash positions, and any moves made after the reporting date. Basically, you can say Scion had put exposure at the end of Q3 2025. You cannot say with confidence that Burry still holds the same trade in May 2026. (investors.palantir.com) ### So what’s the real takeaway? The real story is less “Burry placed a fresh $1.1 billion short today” and more “an old 13F showed big notional put exposure to two AI leaders.” That still matters — Burry is influential, and the trade was clearly meant to benefit from weakness in Palantir and Nvidia. But the filing is a blurry photograph, not a live camera feed. (sec.gov 1) (sec.gov 2)