Ever since Michael Burry gave up on his 2023 short position against the semiconductor industry, his investment in a set of major Chinese stocks has been his most controversial bet.
Despite the long period of stagnation and even decline for East Asian equity, the trader behind the famous ‘Big Short’ of the Great Recession continued building his stake, eventually turning Alibaba (NYSE: BABA), JD.com (NASDAQ: JD), and Baidu (NASDAQ: BIDU) into some of his biggest positions.
Starting in September 2024, and especially since the start of 2025, the long position, worth tens of millions of dollars as of the latest quarterly filing, appears to be paying off as, year-to-date (YTD), China’s benchmark CSI 1,000 index is up 11.25%, while CSI 300 is also in the green, and Hong Kong’s HSI recorded an even more impressive 19.64% rally.
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Alibaba (NYSE: BABA)
Despite the broader success of China’s stock market observable to an extent since the September hype over expected financial stimuli, Burry’s biggest position – Alibaba – has emerged as one of the biggest winners of the portfolio.
BABA shares experienced particularly powerful tailwinds as the technology and e-commerce giant entered the scene with its new and advanced Qwen 2.5 artificial intelligence (AI) model just as another Chinese AI – DeepSeek – shook Silicon Valley.
The release, which positioned Alibaba as a major player in the ongoing boom, led to one of the firm’s strongest rallies in recent years and propelled it to $144.51 – a high not seen since 2021.
Furthermore, as Michael Burry’s BABA stock position is known to have been worth $12.7 million on December 31, 2024, the shares’ 70.43% YTD rally means that ‘The Big Short’ trader has seemingly already made $9 million on his stake.
Baidu (NASDAQ: BIDU)
Baidu, recorded as Burry’s second-biggest holding at the end of 2024 at $10.5 million, also benefited from the surge in prominence of Chinese AI.
Within just several weeks, the company announced its artificial intelligence assistant would be made free on April 1 and scored a partnership with Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) to help facilitate the rollout of Apple Intelligence in the People’s Republic.
Year-to-date, BIDU shares are up 10.72% to their press time price of $93.35, meaning ‘The Big Short’ investor made $1.1 million in less than two months.
JD.com (NASDAQ: JD)
While JD.com has been in focus in February for being part of the trio promising to expand welfare coverage for China’s gig workers, its stock has also quietly been advancing on steady revenue and profit growth.
Indeed, once Burry’s biggest Chinese stock and now in the third spot at $10.4 million on December 31, JD is 22.48% up YTD at $42.46, meaning that the legendary investor already made $2.3 million on the bet in 2025.
In total, the Chinese stock market’s advance ensured that Michael Burry saw his investment in the three major companies grow approximately 36% for a cumulative profit of $12.4 million since January 2, the first trading day of the year.
Disclaimer: The featured image in this article is for illustrative purposes only and may not accurately reflect the true likeness of the individuals depicted.
