Michael Burry Net Worth: What Is Confirmed and What Is Estimated

Michael Burry net worth in 2026 is commonly estimated at 200 million to 350 million dollars. The figure is not publicly disclosed. This overview separates confirmed events, such as the 2008 trading profit and past fund filings, from newer income that remains estimated, including options positions and a paid newsletter.

Michael Burry Net Worth in 2026

Public estimates of Michael Burry net worth generally fall between 200 million and 350 million dollars, with 300 million cited most often across financial commentary. Burry has never confirmed a personal net worth figure, and he does not appear on wealth rankings published by Forbes or Bloomberg. The estimates rely on a mix of historical trading results, past fund filings, and newer income sources that are only partly disclosed.

Michael Burry Net Worth Estimates and Why They Vary

Several factors explain the spread between estimates. Burry is not required to disclose personal wealth, since that kind of reporting applies to public companies and to funds disclosing client assets, not to an individual's private holdings. His fund's 13F filings disclosed positions held on behalf of the fund, not his personal balance.

After Scion Asset Management ended its SEC registration in November 2025, even that limited window into his fund activity closed. In practice, wealth estimates for private investors in this position are built from older, verifiable events combined with reasonable assumptions about ongoing income, rather than from one disclosed number.

Who Is Michael Burry

Michael Burry is a physician turned investor best known for identifying the subprime mortgage crisis before it unfolded in 2007 and 2008.

Education and Early Career

Burry studied economics and pre-med at the University of California, Los Angeles, before earning a Doctor of Medicine degree from Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. He began a neurology residency at Stanford University Medical Center but left before completing it to pursue investing full time. He has retained his medical license with the California Medical Board.

Transition From Medicine to Investing

While still in medical training, Burry spent his free time analyzing stocks and posting his research on early investing message boards, including Silicon Investor and MSN Money. His writing drew attention from institutional readers. In 2000, he used personal savings, loans from family, and a small inheritance to start Scion Capital, applying a value investing approach influenced by Benjamin Graham.

How Michael Burry Built His Wealth

The Subprime Mortgage Bet (2005 to 2008)

Starting in 2005, Burry concluded that large portions of the subprime mortgage market were built on loans unlikely to perform once interest rates reset. He arranged credit default swaps with several Wall Street firms, effectively betting against mortgage backed securities tied to those loans. His role in this trade, and in the broader lead up to the 2008 financial crisis, was later portrayed by Christian Bale in the film adaptation of Michael Lewis's book The Big Short.

Confirmed Outcome

When the housing market declined in 2007 and 2008, the trade produced approximately 700 million dollars for Scion Capital's investors and approximately 100 million dollars for Burry personally. He closed the fund in 2008 after returning gains to investors.

General Understanding

For nearly two years before the trade paid off, Scion Capital made ongoing premium payments to maintain the position while the housing market kept rising, a stretch widely described as having strained his relationship with some investors. This part of the story is broadly reported but rests on secondhand accounts rather than a single disclosed record.

Scion Asset Management (2013 to 2025)

Burry founded Scion Asset Management in 2013, registering it as an exempt reporting adviser. The fund's later holdings reportedly included positions tied to water rights, farmland, and specific technology companies.

Confirmed Fact

A March 2025 SEC filing reported that Scion Asset Management held about 155 million dollars in regulatory assets at that time.

Confirmed Fact

In November 2025, Scion Asset Management terminated its SEC registration, ending the fund's public filing requirements and returning outside capital to investors, according to Bloomberg.

The GameStop Position (2019 to 2021)

Between 2019 and 2020, Scion Asset Management accumulated a large position in GameStop shares at a low average cost, and Burry publicly pressed the company's board to pursue share buybacks.

Confirmed Fact

Burry sold most of his GameStop position in 2020, before the stock's sharp rise in January 2021 driven by retail trading activity. Reports describe a profit in the range of 100 million dollars from the position, though his full exit timeline was not disclosed in detail.

What Is Michael Burry Doing in 2026

The AI Short Position

In its final 13F filing, submitted in November 2025, Scion Asset Management disclosed put options on Nvidia and Palantir shares.

Confirmed Fact

The filing reported a combined notional value of roughly 1.1 billion dollars across the two positions. Notional value reflects the size of the underlying shares covered by the options, not the amount of money Burry actually spent.

General Understanding

Analysts have pointed out that the premiums paid for these options were reportedly a small fraction of the notional figure, meaning the capital actually at risk was considerably lower than the headline number suggests.

Confirmed Fact

Palantir's chief executive publicly criticized the position on television, calling it "batshit crazy," as reported by CNBC, and Burry responded that the criticism was based on a filing released with a reporting delay.

Cassandra Unchained Newsletter

After closing Scion Asset Management, Burry launched a paid newsletter called Cassandra Unchained, a reference to Warren Buffett describing him as a Cassandra during congressional testimony after the financial crisis.

Confirmed Fact

The newsletter reported more than 300,000 subscribers by mid-2026, according to Yahoo Finance, and carries Substack's Bestseller badge, awarded once a publication passes a minimum paid subscriber threshold.

General Understanding

Because Substack does not disclose exact paying subscriber counts, income estimates vary widely. A minimum figure can be calculated from the badge threshold and the subscription price, but higher estimates that assume most readers pay the full rate remain speculative. In practice, subscription based publications rarely convert their full free readership into paying subscribers, so headline subscriber counts tend to overstate revenue.

Is Michael Burry's Net Worth Publicly Verified

What Is Confirmed

Several individual figures tied to Burry's career are documented in filings or were widely reported at the time they occurred, including his 2008 trading profit, his fund's assets at specific filing dates, and the newsletter's subscriber milestones.

What Is Estimated

A single, current net worth figure is not confirmed. It depends on the value of open options positions that change with market prices, undisclosed newsletter revenue, and any personal investments outside his former fund, none of which are publicly reported in full.

Conclusion

Michael Burry net worth in 2026 is best understood as an estimated range rather than a fixed number. Confirmed events, including his 2008 trading profit and fund filings, sit alongside newer, less verifiable income from options positions and a paid newsletter.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Michael Burry a billionaire

No. Public estimates place his net worth well below one billion dollars, generally between 200 million and 350 million dollars. He does not appear on billionaire wealth rankings published by major financial outlets.

How did Michael Burry make his money

His wealth traces mainly to profits from betting against subprime mortgage securities before the 2008 financial crisis, along with fees and gains from Scion Capital and Scion Asset Management in the years that followed.

Why did Michael Burry shut down Scion Asset Management

Scion Asset Management terminated its SEC registration in November 2025 after returning capital to outside investors. Public reporting has not described a specific reason beyond the fund's shift to managing only Burry's own money.

What is Michael Burry currently invested in

His most recently disclosed positions included put options against Nvidia and Palantir, along with a reported short position against Oracle discussed through his newsletter rather than a regulatory filing.

Does Michael Burry own Bitcoin

He has not reported owning Bitcoin. He has publicly described it as a speculative asset rather than a hedge, and has said its price behaves like a leveraged risk asset during periods of market stress.