Burry just tapped the brakes on chip mania

The chip party hit a speed bump

Semiconductors have been on one of those absurd, can’t-miss, everything-goes-up runs — and Monday, the music finally stuttered. The iShares Semiconductor ETF (SOXX) fell 2%, snapping an 18-session winning streak after Michael Burry disclosed fresh bearish bets on chips.

Burry showed up with the “too hot” sign

On Substack, the Big Short guy said he bought January 2027 puts on SOXX and Nvidia, with the SOXX strike at $330. That’s basically Burry saying, “this thing has gotten a little too euphoric, don’t you think?” He also tossed in longs on Microsoft, Adobe, PayPal and MSCI, which makes the trade feel less like a doom spiral and more like a rotation from hardware into software.

Why the move matters now

The uncomfortable part for chip bulls is timing. SOXX had ripped 18 days straight, was trading way above its 200-day moving average, and was flashing an RSI near 85 — the kind of overheated setup that makes momentum traders sweat through their hoodies.

• Big drags: Marvell, AMD, Teradyne, Applied Materials, Credo, Monolithic Power and Astera Labs
• Better behaved: Nvidia and Micron, which held up while the second-tier names got whacked
• Catch: seven SOXX constituents report earnings this week, so this isn’t just a vibes-based selloff — it lands right in front of a real fundamentals checkpoint

Big picture

No single bad headline caused the selloff. That’s almost the point. When a trade gets this crowded, sometimes it only takes one famous bear to remind everyone that trees don’t grow to the moon — even the AI-flavored ones.