'Big Short' investor Michael Burry reveals he isn't betting against Tesla right now - but says he should be
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- Michael Burry disclosed he isn't short Tesla, but said he should be betting against the automaker.
- The "Big Short" investor has repeatedly blasted Elon Musk and his electric-vehicle company.
- Burry held bearish put options against Tesla stock in the first six months of 2021.
Michael Burry revealed he's not betting against Tesla right now, but he sees a compelling case to wager against Elon Musk's electric-vehicle company.
"If I am tweeting this you can bet I am not short it," he said in a now-deleted tweet on Tuesday. "But I should be."
As evidence of the automaker's gloomy outlook, Burry highlighted a CNBC story about a Tesla Megapack battery catching fire at a PG&E energy-storage facility in California on Tuesday.
Burry's Scion Asset Management held bearish put options against nearly 1.1 million Tesla shares at the end of June 2021. However, it exited that position during the third quarter of last year.
The fund manager of "The Big Short" fame has repeatedly taken aim at Tesla during the pandemic. He revealed in December 2020 that he was short the company, and labeled its stock price "ridiculous."
"Well, my last Big Short got bigger and bigger and BIGGER too," Burry tweeted in January 2021, after Tesla stock surged. "Enjoy it while it lasts."
A few weeks later, the investor compared the massive buzz around Tesla to the speculative mania during the dot-com and housing bubbles.
Burry has also warned that Tesla stock could plummet 90%, criticized the company's meager sales and profits relative to its peers, and described its battery technology as "inferior" based on multiple reports of Tesla vehicles catching fire. In April of this year, he cautioned that "the competition is coming" for Tesla.
The Scion chief has also targeted Musk directly. In November, he accused the Tesla CEO of selling his company's stock to service his personal debts and capitalize on its heady valuation.
"Burry is a broken clock," Musk responded on Twitter, referencing the investor's penchant for relentlessly issuing dire predictions. In another tweet, Musk jokingly called Burry a "bastard" for shorting Tesla.
Tesla's stock price skyrocketed nearly 700% in 2020, and soared another 73% by November 2021, lifting the company's market capitalization to north of $1.2 trillion. However, the automaker's stock has retreated by 26% since then.
Burry is best known for predicting and profiting from the collapse of the mid-2000s housing bubble, after his contrarian trade was immortalized in the book and the movie "The Big Short."
The investor also inadvertently helped inspire the GameStop short squeeze and the wider meme-stock movement, as he purchased a stake in the video-game retailer and pushed its bosses to make changes in 2019.
Twitter/Michael Burry