'Big Short' Michael Burry Could Make Over $100M This Year — Not From Stock Trades But Over 300K Substack Subscribers

“The Big Short” investor Michael Burry may be on pace for a nine-figure year, with the potential payday primarily coming from Substack subscriptions rather than stocks or options.

Burry said on Sunday that his Cassandra Unchained newsletter had crossed 300,000 subscribers just 231 days after launch, turning his market commentary and trade disclosures into one of the fastest-growing investing communities on Substack. The publication charges $39 per month or $379 per year, with a free tier.

Based on the annual subscription price, Burry's reported 300,044 subscribers represent an annual revenue of about $113.7 million if every subscriber were a paying annual member. Burry has not disclosed how many subscribers are on paid plans, and Substack's subscriber count includes both free and paid readers. This calculation does not account for the fee Substack may charge.

For perspective, that hypothetical gross revenue exceeds the year-to-date gains generated by investing $1 million in each of the S&P 500’s 10 best-performing stocks.

In sum, a million dollars invested in each of the above stocks would be worth $34 million now — or about a third of what Burry’s annual gross subscription revenue from his newsletter.

Michael Burry’s Substack Tops 300,000 Subscribers 

In a post titled "Short & Thankful: 300," Burry revealed that Cassandra Unchained had reached 300,044 subscribers and 346,680 followers after nearly eight months.

The accompanying chart showed steady growth from roughly 218,000 followers in January to nearly 347,000 in July. He added that subscribers now come from all 50 U.S. states and 212 countries, with 52% based outside the U.S.

Burry launched Cassandra Unchained in November 2025, shortly after  his hedge fund with the SEC, returning to social media and reviving his criticism of the AI boom. The newsletter quickly attracted more than 60,000 subscribers as he published his first AI-focused essays and intensified his criticism of Nvidia Corp. (NVDA) over stock-based compensation, hyperscaler spending and accounting practices. Since then, Cassandra Unchained has evolved into Burry's primary platform for publishing real-time portfolio updates, valuation work and detailed "Trading Posts" revealing his entry prices and investment rationale.

Burry’s Top Stock Picks Revealed

Burry's first major trade disclosures were in April, when he revealed a 3.5% position in PayPal Holdings (PYPL) at about $49, ranking it ahead of Fiserv (FI) and Adobe (ADBE) in his software-and-payments universe. He later added around $45 to PayPal and also disclosed purchases of Fiserv. In the same month, Burry initiated positions in Adobe, Autodesk (ADSK), and Veeva Systems (VEEV), saying that fears of AI disruption had driven software valuations below intrinsic value. He also identified Salesforce (CRM) and MSCI (MSCI) as potential future additions.

Also in April, Burry reaffirmed his conviction in Molina Healthcare (MOH) after earnings, calling investor expectations "rock bottom low" and saying that he planned to keep adding shares because the thesis was based on normalized earnings several years out.

In June, Burry turned his attention to Lululemon Athletica (LULU), repeatedly adding to the stock while saying that Wall Street was focusing too heavily on management mistakes, tariffs, and slowing growth. "Bad management is a value investor's best friend," Burry said, calling Lululemon a long-term value opportunity rather than a broken business.

His portfolio also expanded to include MercadoLibre (MELI), Microsoft (MSFT), Sprouts Farmers Market (SFM), Zoetis (ZTS), Fannie Mae (FNMA), Freddie Mac (FMCC) and sports-betting stocks including DraftKings (DKNG) and Flutter Entertainment (FLUT).

Meanwhile, Burry disclosed a more than 6% stake in Alibaba (BABA) in April and repeatedly added to JD.com (JD). Last week, he called JD one of his top three positions, saying that money would rotate into Hong Kong and Chinese equities as enthusiasm around AI and memory stocks faded.

NVDA, MU And PLTR Lead Burry’s Bearish Bets

Alongside these value bets, Burry also steadily expanded his bearish positions against AI and semiconductor stocks. In April, he disclosed additional Nvidia put options, including January 2027 $115 contracts while retaining earlier $100 puts. By June 30, Burry had escalated the trade into a direct short position in Nvidia at $198.09. The same update revealed fresh shorts in Applied Materials (AMAT), the iShares Semiconductor ETF (SOXX), Tesla (TSLA) and Caterpillar (CAT) as he compared today's semiconductor boom to the dot-com bubble.

"The proximate cause of today's rally is big spending announced out of Korea. Well, I see that as the beginning of the end," he said. Earlier this month, Burry disclosed a direct short in Micron Technology (MU), saying that the memory-chip maker had become more extended above its 200-day moving average than at any point since 1984.

He has also maintained one of Wall Street's highest-profile bearish calls on Palantir Technologies (PLTR) since first disclosing the position in November last year. Although he partially covered the trade, Burry reiterated in June that there was "no sign of capitulation or exhaustion among sellers yet." Burry also briefly built a position in GameStop (GME) earlier this year before later exiting it.

However, the stocks behind Burry’s bearish bets have significantly outperformed the broader market this year. While the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY) is up 22% and the Invesco QQQ Trust (QQQ) has gained 31%, NVDA is up 29%, AMAT has surged 206%, and MU has soared 697%.