Michael Burry Makes New Bet Against BlackRock's SOXX

The hedge fund manager, known as the Big Short, is wagering that the valuation is too high.

Michael Burry, the hedge fund manager who inspired the movie, “The Big Short,” held more than $47 million of bets against a BlackRock semiconductor ETF at the end of the third quarter, even as chipmakers have driven much of U.S. equity gains this year. 

According to its latest 13-F filing, Burry’s Scion Asset Management bought puts on 100,000 shares of the $9.6 billion iShares Semiconductor ETF (SOXX) with a nominal value of $47.4 million.

SOXX tracks the NYSE Semiconductor index of the 30 largest companies involved in the design, distribution, manufacture and sale of semiconductors. Its top holdings are comprised of 9.2% to Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), 8.5% to Broadcom and 8.2% to Nvidia. 

Nvidia has made headlines for gaining 247% so far in 2023. In May, it became the first chipmaker to hit a $1 trillion market cap. 

Burry's recent filings also show Scion consolidated its portfolio, with its number of positions cut from 33 to 13. 

Ends Bets vs. SPY, QQQ

That included closing the $1.6 billion bet it held against popular U.S. equity benchmarks in the second quarter, including the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100, via $886 million of puts against the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY) and $739 million against the Invesco QQQ Trust ETF (QQQ). 

Scion’s allocations in the second and third quarters come after Burry took to X, formerly Twitter, at the end of March to say he was wrong to tell investors to “sell” at the start of the year. 

“Going back to the 1920s, there has been no [buy the f****** dip] generation like you. Congratulations. I was wrong to say sell,” the hedge fund investor said. 

The move continues a pattern of the Scion founder betting against frothiness in tech valuations in recent years. 

Filings from the second quarter of 2021 revealed the firm had taken out a $31 million position against the ARK Innovation ETF (ARKK). 

Outside of semiconductors, Scion’s13-F revealed it had also re-entered positions in Chinese eCommerce firms Alibaba and JD.com, after it liquidated these positions in the second quarter.