‘Big Short’ investor Michael Burry revives a short bet against Tesla, calling the stock is ‘ridiculously overvalued’

Michael Burry, who last month deregistered his hedge fund Scion Asset Management, took to his newly launched Substack account to reveal a bet against Elon Musk’s Tesla.

“Tesla’s market cap is ridiculously overvalued today and has been for a long time,” he wrote in a post.

Tesla dilutes shareholders at an estimated rate of 3.6% annually thanks to the stock-based compensation it gives employees without buybacks to offset the impact, Puri said. He added that the huge compensation received by CEO Musk would make matters worse.

The 2025 pay plan, which was overwhelmingly approved by shareholders last month, could give Musk at least tens of millions of additional Tesla shares that could further dilute current shareholders’ holdings. Ultimately, Musk will receive hundreds of millions of shares that would raise his stake in Tesla to 29% from the current 15%, as long as he meets strict targets.

However, by achieving two of the more achievable goals required for his salary, Musk could benefit more from the shareholders who supported him, he said. luckSean Tully.

The company’s stock was trading at about $426 on Monday, down less than 1% after Burry’s blog post was published, but is still up more than 6% year to date due to a rebound from a big stock decline earlier in the year.

Aside from overvaluing Tesla, Perry also attacked the company’s biggest fans, saying Tesla’s top priority is a moving target.

“Regardless, Elon’s cult was all about electric cars until the competition showed up, then all on self-driving until the competition showed up, and now they’re all about robotics — until the competition shows up,” the legendary investor said.

Tesla did not immediately respond luckRequest for comment.

Burry’s Tesla recently revealed bets against tech giants Nvidia and Palantir.

the Great short The investor previously bet against Tesla in 2021, when his hedge fund sold nearly $530 million worth of Tesla shares before exiting the trade months later. At the time, Perry told CNBC it was “just business.” It’s unclear exactly how his first bet against Tesla ended, but based on Tesla stock’s movements from the time Scion disclosed the short trade to the time Burry said he closed it, it’s likely the company took a loss.

However, Perry’s position is not unanimous among Wall Street. Despite his bearish outlook, about three-quarters of analysts have a buy or hold rating for Tesla. After Tesla shareholders approved Musk’s pay package last month, Tesla bull Dan Ives and his team from Wedbush Securities reiterated their support for the CEO and his vision for the company.

In the past, Musk has not been kind to Tesla short sellers. Around 2022, after Bill Gates was discovered to have shorted Tesla shares, he was “very mean” to the Microsoft co-founder, Gates later said in an interview.

It’s unclear whether Gates closed the deal, but Musk hasn’t forgotten about it.

“If Gates doesn’t close out the crazy short position he’s held against Tesla for almost 8 years, he better do it soon,” he wrote in a post on X last month.