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Investor Michael Burry, best known for predicting the US housing market collapse chronicled in The Big Short, has cast doubt on the massive valuations attached to both SpaceX and AI startup Anthropic, arguing that neither company currently justifies a trillion-dollar price tag.
Burry shared his views in subscriber discussions on Substack following SpaceX’s recent IPO filing and Anthropic’s latest fundraising round. SpaceX is reportedly targeting a valuation of around $2 trillion after revealing $18.7 billion in revenue and a net loss of $4.9 billion last year, while Anthropic recently raised capital at a reported $965 billion valuation, according to Business Insider.
Commenting on SpaceX, Burry said the company’s valuation appears driven more by market enthusiasm than financial fundamentals. He argued that the firm’s public filings do not support a valuation of $1 trillion, let alone the significantly higher figure reportedly being discussed ahead of its market debut.
Burry was equally skeptical of Anthropic, the company behind the Claude family of AI models. He questioned whether the AI developer could ever generate enough long-term value to justify a trillion-dollar valuation, despite investor excitement surrounding the generative AI boom.
A key part of Burry’s argument centers on the economics of artificial intelligence. He believes today’s rush to secure computing power and build massive AI infrastructure may be creating a misleading picture of future demand. In his view, computing resources could eventually become commoditized in much the same way internet access did, reducing the competitive advantages currently enjoyed by companies spending heavily on AI development.
His comments arrive as investors continue pouring hundreds of billions of dollars into AI infrastructure, data centers, and advanced chip production. The trend has helped fuel soaring valuations across the sector, with many startups attracting funding rounds that would have been unthinkable just a few years ago.
Whether Burry’s warnings prove accurate remains to be seen. The investor has built a reputation for identifying major market dislocations before they become obvious, but he has also made several bearish predictions that failed to materialize. Even so, his criticism highlights a growing debate over whether the AI boom represents a sustainable technological transformation or a period of excessive optimism.
