Are big bears shorting AI stocks and making over 100 million dollars a year from selling opinions?

Author: Long Yue, Wall Street News

Original title: Before the AI bubble burst, the “Big Short” first earned $100 million by charging subscription fees

Michael Burry's paid newsletter “Cassandra Unchained” surpassed 300,000 subscribers in 231 days, with a theoretical annual revenue of about $117.7 million based on an annual fee of $379 million. Meanwhile, AI and semiconductor stocks such as Nvidia, Micron, and AMAT, which he shorted, rose sharply this year. Among them, Micron rose 697% during the year, and short positions were clearly under pressure.

Shorting AI stocks made a huge loss, but selling subscriptions may turn over — Michael Burry's most profitable business this year is probably not stock trading, but writing blog posts.

“Big Short” Michael Burry's Substack subscription investment newsletter “Cassandra Unchained” surpassed 300,000 subscribers in just 231 days since it went live.Based on an annual fee of $379, the theoretical annual revenue is approximately $113.7 million.

How intuitive is this number? According to Stocktwits, if $1 million were to be invested in each of S&P's top 10 highest-grossing stocks in the past 500 years, the total revenue would be about $34 million — less than one-third of Burry's Communications theoretical revenue.

300,000 subscribers, 231 days

In a post entitled “Short & Thankful: 300,” Burry revealed that “Cassandra Unchained” has reached 300,044 subscribers and 346,680 followers, with subscribers from all 50 states and 212 countries in the US, 52% of which are outside the US.

Judging from the data, the “Cassandra Unchained” newsletter had about 218,000 followers in January of this year, and was close to 347,000 by July, and the growth curve continued to rise.

Communications are priced at $39 per month or $379 per year, plus a free tier. Burry did not disclose the exact percentage of paid subscribers. Substack's subscription statistics include both free and paid readers, and the above estimates did not deduct the Substack platform extract. As a result, $117.7 million is a theoretical upper limit rather than actual income received.

Burry founded the newsletter in November 2025, when he had just deregistered a hedge fund with the SEC, returned to social media, and relaunched criticism of the AI craze. Once launched, the newsletter attracted more than 60,000 subscribers, and since then it has gradually evolved into his main platform for posting real-time position updates, valuation analysis, and detailed transaction records.

Long value stocks: PayPal, Lululemon, Alibaba

In the newsletter, Burry continued to disclose specific transactions.

In April of this year, he made his first large-scale public position, opening PayPal Holdings (PYPL) for about $49, accounting for 3.5% of the position, and listed it as the preferred target in the software and payment sector, ahead of Fiserv (FI) and Adobe (ADBE). He then continued to increase his PayPal position around $45 and bought Fiserv at the same time. In the same month, he also opened positions with Adobe, Autodesk (ADSK), and Veeva Systems (VEEV) on the grounds that “fears of AI disruption have driven software valuations below intrinsic value.”

In April, he also reiterated his confidence in Molina Healthcare (MOH), saying that market expectations “have bottomed out” and said he will continue to increase positions because the investment logic is based on normalized profits over the next few years.

In June, Burry turned his sights on Lululemon Athletica (LULU) and increased his position several times. He said bluntly, “Bad management is a value investor's best friend.” He believes Wall Street is focusing too much on management mistakes, tariffs, and slowing growth while ignoring their long-term value.

In terms of Chinese assets, Burry disclosed in April that it holds more than 6% of Alibaba's shares and continues to increase its position in JD (JD). Last week, he said that JD is one of his top three holdings, adding that “as enthusiasm for AI and memory chips fades, capital will rotate to Hong Kong and Chinese stocks.”

Shorting AI stocks: Nvidia, Micron, Palantir

Meanwhile, Burry continues to expand its short positions in AI and semiconductor stocks.

In April, he disclosed that he held additional put options from Nvidia (NVDA), including a $115 exercise price contract due in January 2027, while retaining the previous $100 put option. On June 30, he upgraded his deal to directly short Nvidia, opening the position at $198.09. The same update also revealed new shortfalls for Applied Materials (AMAT), iShares Semiconductor ETF (SOXX), Tesla (TSLA), and Caterpillar (CAT). He compared the current semiconductor boom to the internet bubble.

“The direct trigger for today's wave of gains is the large-scale spending announced by South Korea. I think this is the beginning of the end.” Burry said.

Earlier this month, he revealed that he was directly shorting Micron Technology (MU), saying that the memory chip maker's deviation from the 200-day EMA has exceeded any point since 1984.

On Palantir Technologies (PLTR), Burry has maintained one of Wall Street's most watched bearish positions since it first disclosed bears in November last year. Despite partially closing his position, June reiterated that “there are no signs that sellers have surrendered or exhausted.”

The price of bears: being “punched in the face” by the market

However, reality didn't stand on Burry's side.

Since this year, many of the stocks he has shorted have outperformed the market by a large margin. The S&P 500 ETF (SPY) rose 22% during the year, the Nasdaq 100 ETF (QQQ) rose 31%, while Nvidia rose 29%, AMAT surged 206%, and Micron surged 697%.

Shorting these stocks meant that Burry had a significant book loss on these positions.

That's why his communications revenue is so remarkable — while under pressure at the transaction level, another “big short” business is probably quietly becoming his biggest source of revenue this year.

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