Michael Burry has moved to clear the air after reigniting debate around Tesla’s towering valuation, insisting that while he views the electric vehicle maker as “ridiculously overvalued,” he is not betting against the stock.

The Scion Asset Management founder made the clarification on Wednesday in a post on X, responding directly to a user who asked whether he was shorting Tesla shares.

“I am not short,” Burry wrote, drawing a clear line between his skepticism about Tesla’s valuation and an outright bearish position.

The comment followed an earlier post in which Burry described Tesla as dramatically overpriced, a view he had already shared with subscribers to his newly launched paid Substack newsletter earlier this month. The remarks quickly drew attention, given Burry’s reputation as the investor who foresaw the collapse of the U.S. housing market ahead of the 2008 global financial crisis, a bet later immortalized in the book and film The Big Short.

Burry’s Tesla remarks land at a sensitive moment for the company. Tesla recently took the unusual step of publishing its own compilation of analyst sales estimates, a move that appeared to temper market expectations. The company on Monday cited an average forecast of about 1.6 million vehicle deliveries for 2025, roughly 8% lower than its 2024 performance.

If borne out, that would mark a second consecutive annual decline in vehicle sales, an uncomfortable milestone for a company long priced as a high-growth juggernaut.

That softening outlook sits uneasily alongside Tesla’s stock performance. Shares recently touched an all-time closing high of $489.88, underscoring the disconnect that valuation-focused investors like Burry often point to. Tesla’s market capitalization continues to reflect expectations that stretch far beyond car sales, including autonomous driving, artificial intelligence, robotics, and energy storage — businesses that remain either early-stage or unproven at scale.

The stock’s journey this year has been anything but smooth. After a sharp selloff in the first quarter, driven by intensifying competition from Chinese electric vehicle manufacturers and reputational blowback tied to Elon Musk’s increasingly incendiary political rhetoric, Tesla shares rebounded strongly. Even so, the underlying pressures have not disappeared. Price cuts across key markets have squeezed margins, while rivals, particularly in China, have continued to roll out cheaper and increasingly sophisticated models.

Burry’s comments also come against the backdrop of his broader skepticism toward parts of the technology sector. He recently disclosed short positions targeting what he described as aggressive accounting practices at some of America’s largest companies, arguing that profits linked to the AI boom were being overstated. That context helps explain why his Tesla critique resonated, even without an accompanying short position.

For now, Burry appears content to voice concern without placing a direct wager. His message draws a distinction many investors grapple with: a stock can be seen as overvalued while remaining dangerously expensive to short, particularly one as volatile and narrative-driven as Tesla.

In premarket trading on Wednesday, Tesla shares were slightly lower. Despite the turbulence, the stock is still up more than 12.5% so far in 2025, underpinning that valuation warnings, even from famous skeptics, can take a long time to catch up with market momentum.

Meta Platforms’ acquisition of Manus for about $2 billion does more than add another artificial intelligence startup to Mark Zuckerberg’s expanding AI empire. It underscores a deeper shift now underway in Silicon Valley: after years of model demos, benchmarks, and eye-watering infrastructure spend, investors and regulators are zeroing in on which AI products actually make money — and where they come from.

Manus emerged into public view last spring with an unusually loud buzz for a relatively young startup. A demo video circulated widely among venture capitalists and engineers, showing AI agents performing end-to-end tasks that went beyond chat or simple retrieval. In the footage, Manus’ system screened job applicants, planned multi-leg vacations, and analyzed stock portfolios with minimal human guidance. The company said its technology outperformed OpenAI’s Deep Research, a claim that was not independently verified but nonetheless helped push Manus into elite AI conversations almost overnight.

Capital followed quickly. In April, Benchmark led a $75 million funding round that valued Manus at $500 million post-money, with Benchmark partner Chetan Puttagunta taking a board seat. Chinese media later reported that Manus had already secured backing from Tencent, ZhenFund, and HSG, formerly Sequoia China, through an earlier $10 million raise. That early mix of U.S. and Chinese capital would later become a sensitive issue.

By mid-December, Manus disclosed figures that few AI startups at its stage can point to. The company said it had attracted millions of users and was generating more than $100 million in annual recurring revenue from subscriptions to its membership service. At a time when much of the AI sector remains heavily loss-making, those numbers stood out. According to The Wall Street Journal, Meta began acquisition talks around that period, agreeing to pay roughly $2 billion — the valuation Manus was reportedly targeting for its next funding round.

For Zuckerberg, the appeal is straightforward. Meta has tied its future growth narrative to artificial intelligence, yet investors have grown uneasy about the scale of spending required to compete with rivals such as Microsoft, Google, and Amazon. Meta plans to spend around $60 billion on AI infrastructure, part of a broader, industry-wide surge in debt-backed investment in data centers, chips, and energy capacity. Manus offers a counterpoint to those concerns: a consumer-facing AI product that is already producing significant revenue.

Meta said it will keep Manus operating independently while integrating its AI agents into Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. Those platforms already host Meta AI, the company’s in-house chatbot, suggesting Manus’ technology may be used to power more autonomous, task-oriented features rather than simple conversational tools. If successful, that integration could help Meta demonstrate clearer returns on its AI spending by embedding monetizable services directly into its social platforms.

However, the deal also arrives with geopolitical baggage. Manus’ founders are Chinese nationals who launched its parent company, Butterfly Effect, in Beijing in 2022 before relocating to Singapore earlier this year. That background has already drawn scrutiny in Washington. Senator John Cornyn, a senior Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee, criticized Benchmark’s investment in Manus in May, raising concerns about American capital supporting firms with Chinese origins.

Cornyn’s stance reflects a broader, bipartisan posture in Congress, where skepticism toward China’s role in advanced technologies has hardened. Lawmakers across party lines have increasingly called for tighter oversight of cross-border investments, especially in AI, semiconductors, and data-heavy platforms.

Meta has sought to pre-empt regulatory resistance. The company told Nikkei Asia that, after the acquisition, Manus will have no remaining Chinese ownership and will cease operations in China altogether.

“There will be no continuing Chinese ownership interests in Manus AI following the transaction, and Manus AI will discontinue its services and operations in China,” a Meta spokesperson said.

Whether those assurances will be enough remains an open question. U.S. regulators are paying closer attention not just to current ownership structures, but also to where technology was developed and how it might be repurposed. That scrutiny could shape how quickly Meta can close the deal and how Manus’ technology is deployed globally.

Beyond the politics, the acquisition highlights a turning point in the AI boom. The early phase was defined by spectacle — powerful demos, soaring valuations, and promises of transformation. Meta’s move suggests the next phase will be judged more harshly, with revenue, user adoption, and regulatory risk carrying far more weight.

In that environment, Manus is valuable not just for what its AI can do, but for what it represents, which is proof that, at least for some players, artificial intelligence is starting to pay its way.

Good People, join me in congratulating Chairman Tony Elumelu as Heirs Energies, Africa’s leading indigenous integrated energy company, celebrates a milestone acquisition of the 20.07% equity stake in Seplat Energy Plc previously held by Maurel & Prom S.A. This transaction, valued at approximately $500 million, cements a legacy of indigenous dominance in the continental energy landscape.

In the traditions of the Igbo Nation, it is said that it takes the killing of just one leopard to be recognized as a killer of leopards; by adding this stake to a portfolio that includes Transcorp Power and AEDC, Chairman has conquered the market-leopards, ensuring all roads to the Ikoro Square are open for his ascension as the King of Africa’s Energy sector!

As I have noted here before, Chairman Elumelu played a defining role in my own transition from being a teacher to becoming a businessman. I once sought an audience with him while he was on transit in Boston. The instruction was simple: if you can make it before 7pm, we could see. I rushed to the airport; he had already checked in, but he came out. We spoke for 15 minutes. I wanted to do things in Nigeria but needed clarity from real players.

Later, when I needed clarity again, I reached out while in Nigeria. He asked me to meet him at Transcorp Hilton Hotel, Abuja. For over 45 minutes, he provided guidance. And the best part? He paid for the meal at the Bukka.

Then he invited me to join the board of the $100 million TEEP Fund. For the first time, a village boy sat in a boardroom where real decisions were being made. He later invited me to UBA Group retreats, exposing me to the physics of business and markets. Yes, inside those rooms, I met humans and that brought confidence that I could be like them!

Today, we’re doing very fine; yesterday, I reported that one of our portfolio companies rang the bell in NASDAQ. We have invested in many dozens of companies globally. And in Q1 2026, we will open one of our largest offices in Nigeria, in Owerri, as we begin operations in a new sector.

Chairman, I wish you a Happy New Year ahead with more bigger wins, and thanks for the kindness to this village boy. You will visit Owerri to ceremonially open our new business. When everything is ready, I will send the email.