By Steve Goldstein

Jeremy Grantham, known for his frequent warnings about the stock market, is a big investor in the tech industry through his venture-capital holdings.

Jeremy Grantham, the 87-year-old co-founder of Boston fund management firm GMO and prolific writer, got a little bit of a ribbing on Friday when CNBC host Joe Kernen pressed him for the frequency of his warnings about the stock market, even during boom periods like the 2010 decade.

But a viral social-media post this weekend took Grantham-bashing a step further by looking at the investing legend's own investments.

Thomas Braziel, who has made a name for himself in finance brokering bankruptcy claims and more recently tariff refunds, looked at the public tax filings of the The Grantham Foundation for the protection of the environment, a charitable organization that Grantham set up and where he has directed the lion share of his net worth. MarketWatch also examined the filings to verify the accuracy of Braziel's comments.

Braziel pointed out that Grantham's foundation invested in the leading venture-capital firms of the day - firms like Thrive, Lux Capital and the Founders Fund. "These aren't vanilla managers. They're some of the best investors in AI, software, robotics, biotech, climate tech, semiconductors, defense tech and frontier technology anywhere in the world," he wrote. He added some of the funds are invested in SpaceX (SPCX), a company whose IPO Grantham has derided.

Grantham's foundation also has invested directly in stocks like QuantumScape (QS), which hasn't generated product revenue, yet alone made a profit since its 2020 merger with a special-purpose acquisition company.

"Top-down he's a permabear," wrote Braziel. "Bottom-up he's paying elite venture investors to own frontier technology. Those two stories don't really line up."

That set off a firestorm of comments about whether or not Grantham was a hypocrite.

Grantham himself has addressed the apparent contradiction. He's praised the U.S. venture-capital industry numerous times, saying that all the best and brightest first get their start by being funded by VC firms. "It's far and away the most virile part of American capitalism," he said in one 2021 interview.

Still, while VC firms undoubtedly get the chance to invest in high-growth companies at lower valuations than stock-market investors do, they also do so at an earlier stage where many go bust.

The S&P 500 SPX ended Friday just 3% away from a record high. U.S. stock market futures (ES00) pointed to opening gains on Monday.

-Steve Goldstein

This content was created by MarketWatch, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. MarketWatch is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.