Michael Burry — the hedge fund manager immortalized in The Big Short for foreseeing the 2008 financial crash — has placed new billion-dollar bets against artificial intelligence heavyweights Nvidia and Palantir.

According to regulatory filings for the quarter ending September 30, Burry’s Scion Asset Management disclosed more than $1 billion in put options against the two companies, trades that profit if share prices fall. The filings also revealed call options on Pfizer and Halliburton, signaling a diversified approach amid growing market volatility.

In a series of cryptic posts on X, Burry hinted at what he perceives as an unsustainable surge in AI valuations. “Sometimes, we see bubbles. Sometimes, there is something to do about it. Sometimes, the only winning move is not to play,” he wrote, accompanying the post with graphs comparing today’s AI-driven spending patterns to those seen during the early-2000s dot-com boom.

Burry’s posts also included charts from Bloomberg showing that much of the current AI frenzy is being driven by partnerships between Nvidia and OpenAI — an imbalance he appears to view as a red flag.

Burry’s bearish stance comes amid turbulence in the tech sector. Following Palantir’s latest earnings report, its shares plunged up to 16%, despite exceeding revenue expectations and raising its full-year outlook to $4.4 billion. Meanwhile, Nvidia’s stock fell by more than 2% on Tuesday, after the U.S. government reaffirmed restrictions on advanced chip sales to China.

Palantir CEO Alex Karp sharply dismissed Burry’s position, telling CNBC: “The two companies he’s shorting are the ones making all the money — it’s super weird. The idea that chips and ontology are what you want to short is bats–t crazy.”

Despite such confidence, both Nvidia and Palantir have seen explosive yet potentially unstable growth this year — up roughly 46% and 157% year-to-date, respectively.

Burry’s pessimism aligns with growing caution across Wall Street. Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon and Morgan Stanley CEO Ted Pick both warned this week of a likely 10%–20% correction in equity markets within the next year.

“The drawdowns we’re seeing could be healthy,” Pick said, “but investors need to accept that inflated valuations will eventually normalize.”

The broader Nasdaq Composite dropped 1.5% on Tuesday, with tech stocks leading the slide — an early sign that investor exuberance for AI may be fading.

Known for his contrarian views, Burry has a history of warning markets before major downturns — and often being ignored. His X handle, Princess Cassandra, nods to the mythological prophet who foresaw Troy’s destruction but was never believed.

Whether his latest call proves prescient or premature, his $1 billion bet against two of the market’s most celebrated companies is once again forcing investors to question whether the AI gold rush has gone too far.