Michael Burry has shifted from hedge fund investing to long-form writing. The investor known for The Big Short has launched a new paywalled Substack called Cassandra Unchained. He says the blog is now his only focus and offers readers a front row seat to his market analysis, predictions, and views on bubbles. He frames it as a return to a familiar path, recalling the period when he wrote about value investing at night while working as a neurology resident at Stanford.
His first entries set the tone. One walks through his early years in the late nineties and early 2000s. The other takes direct aim at the current AI frenzy, which he describes as a glorious folly. He writes that the topic will require several posts to unpack. He challenges a common claim that separates the dot com bubble from today’s AI boom. Many people argue the companies of that era were unprofitable while today’s giants generate real money. Burry says that view misses the point.
He writes that the Nasdaq at the turn of the century was driven by large, profitable companies. He points to Microsoft, Intel, Dell, and Cisco, which were known as the four horsemen of that period. He argues the real problem back then was catastrophic overbuilding. Supply soared far beyond what demand could support. He then adds that the pattern today is not as different as many believe.
He calls out the five public horsemen of the current AI cycle. They include Microsoft, Google, Meta, Amazon, and Oracle. He also mentions a cluster of fast growing AI startups led by OpenAI. He suggests the real parallel to the dot com period sits at the center of the AI ecosystem. He reminds readers that Cisco fell seventy eight percent during the dot com crash. He says the modern equivalent is Nvidia.
Burry ends his post with a quote from Charlie Munger. The line says that anyone who keeps popping balloons will not be the most popular person in the room. He uses it to hint at the reactions his views may generate as he challenges the optimism around AI valuations.
He announced his blog on X, where he uses the name Cassandra. The reference comes from Greek mythology. Cassandra was the figure who could see the future but was doomed never to be believed. Warren Buffett once used the same comparison for Burry and John Paulson after they warned about the housing market before the financial crisis.
Burry recently closed Scion Asset Management to outside investors after terminating its SEC registration. He returned to X in late October after a long break and posted a cryptic message that questioned the strength of the AI boom. The line suggested that the only winning move might be to step aside.
