Burry Goes Short Nvidia With Earnings Two Days Out

Scion Asset Management founder Michael Burry is positioned short NVIDIA (NASDAQ: NVDA) going into the chipmaker's fiscal second-quarter 2027 results, due after the close on Wednesday, Aug. 26, 2026, and has been using his Substack, Cassandra Unchained, to defend a very different kind of holding.

Michael Burry has picked the loudest possible moment to bet against the biggest stock in the artificial intelligence trade. The Scion Asset Management founder is positioned short NVIDIA Corp. (NASDAQ: NVDA) going into the chipmaker's fiscal second-quarter 2027 report, scheduled for after the closing bell on Wednesday, Aug. 26, 2026 — the single most watched corporate print of the current cycle, and the one that has repeatedly set the tone for semiconductor and hyperscaler valuations in the sessions that follow.

Nvidia shares last traded at $214.72, down 0.98% on the day, against a previous close of $216.85 and a session range of $214.50 to $218.74, as of the last trade on Friday, Aug. 21, 2026. The stock finished the week soft while the broad market firmed: the S&P 500 tracker (SPY) closed at $765.72, up 0.41%, the Nasdaq 100 tracker (QQQ) at $713.44, up 0.35%, and the Dow tracker (DIA) at $532.22, up 0.89%.

A short with an audience

Burry is not a quiet short seller. The investor who made his name betting against subprime mortgage securities spent the weekend publishing on his Substack, Cassandra Unchained, arguing the case for a very different kind of stock — the sort of position that sits at the opposite end of the risk spectrum from a trillion-dollar accelerator franchise priced for continued hypergrowth. The details of that long idea were laid out in his posts and reported by 24/7 Wall St.

The pairing matters more than either leg on its own. A short against Nvidia into earnings is a statement about the price of AI optimism, not about whether AI works. A simultaneous defense of an out-of-favor, cash-generative business is a statement about where Burry thinks capital gets treated better over the next several years. Investors reading his Substack for a trade signal are likely to be disappointed; the more useful read is the shape of the barbell.

What Wednesday actually decides

Nvidia's fiscal calendar runs ahead of the civil one, so the report due Aug. 26 covers fiscal Q2 of its 2027 year. For the market, three things carry the session that follows:

Data center revenue trajectory. The line item that has driven the entire story, and the one where any deceleration is punished hardest.
Gross margin. Whether Nvidia is still able to price accelerators at will, or whether supply catching up with demand is starting to show.
Forward guidance. The number that moves the tape. Nvidia has repeatedly cleared its own bar; the question for a short is what happens when the bar itself stops rising.

None of those figures are knowable in advance, and Burry's position is not a forecast of any specific line. Short interest built into a print like this one is a wager on the reaction function — that a stock priced for perfection can deliver a good quarter and still trade lower.

The asymmetry that makes this dangerous

Shorting Nvidia into earnings is arithmetically brutal in a way that shorting a mortgage index in 2007 was not. A put-based short caps the loss at the premium; a plain short position does not cap anything. Nvidia has, over the AI cycle, repeatedly gapped double digits on a single overnight print — in both directions. That means the position size is the whole argument. A small, defined-risk short expressing skepticism about a valuation is an entirely different animal from a leveraged bet on a crash, and public filings and Substack posts rarely make the distinction obvious to readers copying the trade.

There is also a timing problem that is now well documented in Burry's own record. He has been early before — famously so on housing, where the thesis was right and the mark-to-market pain nearly ended the fund first. A short that is correct in 2027 but marked in August 2026 still hurts.

Why the long side is the tell

For anyone trying to extract something usable from this, the interesting question is not whether Nvidia beats. It is what characteristics Burry is now willing to pay for. Historically his long book has leaned toward businesses trading at low multiples of demonstrable cash flow, often in unloved industries, frequently with balance sheets that survive a downturn without a capital raise. That profile is the mirror image of the AI capital expenditure complex, where today's earnings depend on next year's data center budgets at a handful of customers.

Put another way: the short is a view on concentration risk. When one company's revenue depends on the capital spending decisions of a small number of hyperscalers, and that company's share price anchors the weighting of the major indices, a single guidance miss transmits across every passive portfolio in the country. Burry's long idea, whatever its merits, has no such linkage.

What to watch after the close on Aug. 26

Three markers are worth tracking. First, the direction and size of the after-hours move relative to the $214.72 last close — a stock that rises on the print and fades over the following week tells a different story from one that gaps and holds. Second, the read-through to the Nasdaq 100, which closed at $713.44 and carries Nvidia as one of its heaviest constituents; the index's reaction will show how much of the AI premium is genuinely stock-specific. Third, Burry's next disclosure. Quarterly filings lag, and a Substack post is not a position report. If the short is still on after the print, that is the confirmation; if the commentary quietly shifts to the long idea alone, so is that.

Retail investors tempted to follow either side should be clear about the mechanics. Copying a hedge fund short without knowing the instrument, the size, or the holding period is not the same trade — it is a guess wearing someone else's conviction.

Key facts

NVDA last close: $214.72, down 0.98% (as of Fri, Aug 21, 2026, 20:00 GMT)
Earnings date: Fiscal Q2 2027 results, Wednesday, Aug. 26, 2026, after the close
Burry's fund: Scion Asset Management, positioned short Nvidia
Nasdaq 100 (QQQ) last close: $713.44, up 0.35%

Frequently asked questions

When does Nvidia report earnings?

Nvidia is scheduled to report fiscal second-quarter 2027 results on Wednesday, Aug. 26, 2026, after the market close. Because Nvidia's fiscal year runs ahead of the calendar year, the quarter labeled fiscal Q2 2027 covers a period in mid-2026. Results released after the close typically drive an after-hours move before the next regular session opens.

What is Michael Burry's position in Nvidia?

Burry, the founder of Scion Asset Management, is positioned short Nvidia heading into the Aug. 26, 2026 earnings report. A short position profits if the share price falls. The specific instrument and size were not disclosed in the material available, and a public commentary post is not the same as a regulatory position filing.

Where has Burry been publishing his views?

Burry has been writing on his Substack newsletter, Cassandra Unchained, where he spent the weekend before the Nvidia print making the case for a very different kind of stock than an AI hardware leader. The publication is his primary public channel for laying out investment reasoning outside of quarterly regulatory filings.

Where did Nvidia shares last trade?

Nvidia last traded at $214.72, down 0.98% on the day from a previous close of $216.85, with a session range of $214.50 to $218.74, as of the last trade on Friday, Aug. 21, 2026. The market was closed at the time of writing, so that price is the most recent close rather than a live quote.

Why is shorting Nvidia into earnings considered risky?

A plain short position has unlimited theoretical loss, and Nvidia has repeatedly gapped by double digits overnight on earnings in both directions. That makes position sizing and the choice of instrument — shares versus defined-risk options — the decisive factor. Being directionally right on a slower timeline can still produce large interim losses.

How does Nvidia's report affect the broader market?

Nvidia is one of the heaviest weights in the major U.S. equity indices, so a large post-earnings move transmits directly into index funds. The Nasdaq 100 tracker QQQ closed at $713.44 and the S&P 500 tracker SPY at $765.72 on Friday, Aug. 21, 2026, giving a baseline against which the post-print reaction can be measured.

Sources

Michael Burry Is Shorting Nvidia Heading Into Earnings, Here’s What He’s Buying Instead — 24/7 Wall St

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