- Michael Burry’s Scion Asset Management bought put options on some Chinese tech stocks.
- Burry is known for value investing and gained fame from the 2008 housing market bet.
- Burry doubled his position in beauty giant Estée Lauder.
Michael Burry made a contrarian move into Chinese tech stocks with aggressive purchases from the fourth quarter of 2022. Now, it appears the investor famous for his billion-dollar bet against the mid-2000s US housing bubble is shifting gears.
In the first quarter, Burry’s Scion Asset Management cut the size of its portfolio to just seven stocks, down from 13 the previous quarter, according to a regulatory filing on Thursday.
The filing showed Burry bought bearish put options on Chinese tech companies Alibaba, Baidu, JD.com, and PDD Holdings, the parent of Temu. He also had put options on Chinese online travel booking platform Trip.com and AI chip giant Nvidia.
Meanwhile, Scion doubled its long position on beauty giant Estée Lauder, to 200,000 shares.
Scion Asset Management managed about $155 million as of the end of March, per its latest filing. The firm did not respond to Business Insider’s request for comment sent outside regular business hours.
Burry is widely known as a value investor who targets stocks trading at depressed levels.
The investor first came into the limelight after he correctly predicted and profited from the US housing market crash of 2008. His massive bet against the housing bubble at the time was featured in the book and movie “The Big Short.”
His initial move into Chinese tech raised eyebrows, as the sector had been pummeled by Beijing’s regulatory crackdown and a broader economic slowdown.
Although he began trimming those holdings in late 2024, Scion still held stakes in Alibaba, Baidu, JD.com, and PDD Holdings at year-end.
Chinese tech shares surged this year following the rise of DeepSeek, with Alibaba, Baidu, JD.com, and PDD Holdings all posting strong gains — until President Donald Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariff announcement.
Tech stocks have been broadly boosted by Washington and Beijing’s temporary tariff truce this week.
Alibaba, Baidu, and PDD Holdings shares are 46%, 6%, and 22% higher year to date, respectively. JD.com’s stock is 1% lower amid fierce competition in the food delivery space with rival Meituan.
Estée Lauder shares have struggled over the past year, weighed down by ongoing economic challenges in China and recession fears in the US. The stock is down 15% year to date, but it rose 3.9% in after-hours trading on Thursday, following the disclosure of Burry’s increased stake.
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