‘Big Short’ Michael Burry Warns of Chip Cycle Reversal, Adds to Micron Short

Chip Stocks Decline Amid "Big Short" Warning

U.S. stock markets opened lower on Wednesday, September 23, with the three major indices all in negative territory. As of press time:

• Dow Jones Industrial Average: -0.13%
• S&P 500: -0.55%
• Nasdaq Composite: -1.13%

Prominent investor Michael Burry, known as the "Big Short," intensified his bearish bet against Micron Technology, warning that a cyclical reversal could trigger a "violent sell-off." Chip stocks led the decline, with notable losses including:

• SK Hynix: down over 4%
• Lam Research, Intel, KLA Corporation: down over 3%
• ASML, Microchip Technology, Broadcom, AMD, Micron Technology, Qualcomm, Marvell Technology: down over 2%
• Arm, Nvidia: down over 1%

Gold and Silver Prices Retreat

International precious metals prices also fell sharply on Wednesday. As of press time:

• London spot gold: down over 1%, falling below the $4,300 per ounce mark
• London spot silver: down over 3%

U.S. Mortgage Rates Breach Key Threshold

According to data released Wednesday by the Mortgage Bankers Association, the contract interest rate for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage rose 15 basis points to 7.12% for the week ending September 18 — the highest level since May 2024. In contrast, the rate for adjustable-rate mortgages with a five-year fixed period unexpectedly fell 13 basis points to 6.1%.

Rising mortgage rates are expected to further pressure the U.S. housing market, which has already been constrained by high home prices and weak sales. Key data points include:

• Existing home sales in August fell to their lowest level in over a year.
• Homebuilder confidence matched its lowest level since late 2022, as higher interest rates deterred potential buyers and rising costs for building materials and fuel added to expenses.
• Employment in the residential construction sector peaked in September 2024 and has since trended downward.

Analysts suggest that inflationary pressure from energy prices, combined with expectations of further tightening, is being transmitted through long-term financing markets to corporate investment and homebuying costs.

Notable Investor Bets on Autonomous Ride-Hailing

Prominent investor Jason Calacanis announced on social media that he has begun buying shares in two autonomous ride-hailing operators — WeRide and Pony.ai — as well as two electric vehicle manufacturers, Lucid and Rivian. He cited the race for autonomous ride-hailing as a catalyst for potential acquisitions.

Calacanis stated: "Based on the significant progress being made by Tesla, Waymo, and Uber, consolidation in the autonomous driving space is coming. I believe these four companies will be acquired within the next 24 months, and I expect my investment as a group to double in less than two years."

He described these as "small bets" and said he views them as one- to four-year investments, compared to his typical holding period of over a decade.

As of press time, none of the four companies had responded to requests for comment.

IonQ Announces Major Breakthrough in Quantum Computing

IonQ's stock surged 10% at the open on Wednesday before paring gains. The company announced it had completed the industry's first demonstration of an end-to-end real-time quantum error correction decoder.

According to a press release on IonQ's website, this technological milestone allows a single standard general-purpose processor to run continuously in the background, detecting, parsing, and fixing errors generated during quantum computation in real time. The successful test could help resolve a major industry bottleneck: previous systems often experienced computational overload when handling error correction for sensitive quantum systems, leading to processing delays.

Nikolay Delfoso, IonQ's Head of Quantum Research, said: "Demonstrating real-time decoding capability in scenarios involving hundreds of logical qubits and millions of logical operations is an important milestone. More importantly, the decoder runs on just a single CPU, paving a viable path toward commercially scalable fault-tolerant quantum computing."

IonQ's partners include Amazon Web Services (AWS), Nvidia, and AstraZeneca.

*Editor: Li Dan Proofreader: Zhu Tingting*

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