On November 3, Michael Burry’s Scion Asset Management disclosed a new regulatory filing, revealing several changes to its portfolio, including one million put options on Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA).
The bet against the chipmaker was tied to roughly 1 million NVDA shares, carrying a notional value of about $186 million.
With Nvidia jumping around 5% on Thursday, November 20, and adding roughly $205 billion in market value following strong third-quarter results, those who called Burry’s take “dead wrong” might be justified in hindsight.
Namely, while the exact strike prices and option deltas were not disclosed, the investor’s position has still potentially translated into an unrealized loss exceeding $9 million, considering Nvidia opened at above $195 this morning.
Michael Burry still after Nvidia
Despite seemingly being proven wrong, Michael Burry took to social media in the hours after Nvidia’s earnings call, taking aim not only at the semiconductor leader but at a wide swath of high-growth tech firms.
In one post, he alleged that several companies, including Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) and OpenAI, are engaging in “suspicious revenue recognition” practices that could eventually be viewed as fraudulent.
“The future will regard this a picture of fraud, not a flywheel. True end demand is ridiculously small. Almost all customers are funded by their dealers. If you can name OpenAI’s auditor in 1 hour you win some pride,” Burry wrote.
Continuing his rant, the former chief of Scion renewed his criticism of Nvidia’s capital allocation, arguing that its shareholder returns mask significant dilution.
More precisely, he noted that since the start of 2018, Nvidia has generated roughly $205 billion in net income and $188 billion in free cash flow, while issuing $20.5 billion in stock-based compensation. Despite executing $112.5 billion in share buybacks over the same period, he added, the company’s share count has increased by 47 million.
According to Burry, the “true cost” of stock-based compensation was effectively the full $112.5 billion spent on repurchases, an amount he argues slashed “owners’ earnings by 50%.”
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