Michael Burry has placed a new big bet against a handful of Wall Street stocks, days after his latest warning that investors could face a market crisis reminiscent of 1987.

For anyone who needs a reminder, that crisis took the form of a massive crash that hit Wall Street on October 19, 1987, when the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged 22.6% and the US market wiped out roughly $500 billion in market capitalization in a single day. The violent sell-off spilled over into global equities, with panic spreading rapidly through markets around the world.

That episode, one of the darkest chapters in the history of American finance, could according to Burry play out again. So much so that «Mr. Big Short» — the nickname he earned for betting against the subprime mortgage market and anticipating the 2008 global financial crisis — has now sharpened his attack on one specific name.

Michael Burry goes against the grain and strengthens his short against Palantir stock

On Monday, August 10, 2026, it emerged that Burry had further reinforced his short attack on Palantir Technologies Inc. (PLTR), reopening out-of-the-money put option positions.

The move came at a time when the shares of the software company — active in the artificial intelligence market — continue to trade close to their all-time highs.

Burry himself disclosed the decision, writing in his Cassandra Unchained report that he had bought put options on PLTR expiring in March 2027, with a strike price in the low-to-mid $100s.

The step followed a partial covering of his short position when Palantir was trading around $107.

According to the report, Mr. Big Short took advantage of a drop in implied volatility, which had pushed option premiums back to their lowest levels in months.

His choice to restore the bearish position on the AI company was also driven, he wrote, by the fact that the stock had returned to trading at almost 69 times sales.

Burry versus AI stocks: the names he is shorting, and the fear of a 1987-style market crisis

In recent months Burry has repeatedly drawn attention with his large short bets against AI stocks.

He has not stood out only for his short selling, however, since he has also placed some bets to the upside.

That said, what has prevailed is his pessimism toward equity markets, and especially toward AI stocks, which in his view are the object of buying that is not justified by fundamentals.

That helps explain the comment in which, last week, the billionaire investor wrote that he fears markets could relive the Black Monday crash of 1987 — an event triggered by fears of a recession similar to the Great Depression.

It is worth noting that the anxiety that set off the massive selling which sank Wall Street never materialized into an actual downturn. The crash nonetheless produced a series of negative consequences, including layoffs in the financial sector and a sharp drop in the number of IPOs.

Recalling that episode, Burry drew a comparison with the current situation, writing on Substack that he continues «to believe it is possible that we are near an important top, and perhaps a 1987-style crash».

Mr. Big Short added, however, that «the fact that the S&P 500 is hitting new highs will probably draw fresh liquidity into the market».

He is not willing to change his mind, though — to the point of reaffirming that he continues to bet against the iShares Semiconductor ETF (SOXX) and against shares of Micron, Nvidia, Caterpillar, Palantir, Tesla and Applied Materials.

For Michael Burry, the intrinsic value of Palantir stock is below $1 over the long term

The Palantir news came in the last few hours, despite the pressure markets are exerting on anyone holding bearish positions on the stock — especially following the release of strong earnings, fueled by surging demand for the company’s Artificial Intelligence Platform (AIP) from both commercial and government customers.

Palantir has in fact seen impressive growth in revenue and profits, which immediately sparked a jump in its shares.

The rally was strong enough to force short sellers into a defensive posture, while renewed market enthusiasm toward artificial intelligence has pushed valuation multiples to extreme levels.

But Michael Burry has just reinforced his bearish view on Palantir stock — indeed, strengthening it.

Mr. Big Short believes the positive narrative around the company’s business masks deep structural risks.

Noting that, over the past year, Palantir granted its employees 31.3 million shares — worth roughly $5 billion, about six times its stock-based compensation expense — Burry argued that Palantir shows the widest accounting gap among the 66 companies he has recently analyzed.

The investor also observed that non-cancelable contractual commitments to purchase infrastructure, which are not recorded on the balance sheet, have more than tripled since the start of the year — leading him to conclude that the intrinsic value of Palantir stock, over the long term, is below even $1.

Palantir shares are trading around $175, after a rally of nearly +8% over the last five trading sessions and a gain of more than 31% over the past month. Over the last three months the trend amounts to a rise of almost 29%, while year-to-date the performance remains distinctly weak, at a decline of about 1.4%.

Editor’s note

This article was originally published in Italian on money.it by Laura Naka Antonelli on August 11, 2026 as «Perché Michael Burry ha rafforzato la scommessa short su Palantir. L’alert sulla crisi come nel 1987». It has been translated and adapted for an international audience by the Money.it International desk.