Michael Burry’s Latest Bet: Why This OG Meme Stock Could Be His Next ’Big Short’ Windfall

Michael Burry just placed a massive bet on the original meme stock—and Wall Street's scrambling to decode his playbook.

The 'Big Short' legend's move signals a seismic shift in retail market dynamics. Forget the crypto bros and NFT hype—Burry's targeting the ground-zero of social trading mania.

Why This Time Is Different

Burry's track record speaks for itself. He doesn't follow trends—he anticipates collapses. His GameStop revelation isn't about fundamentals; it's about understanding how narrative drives modern markets better than any spreadsheet ever could.

The Retail Revolution 2.0

Social media platforms transformed investing into a spectator sport. Now, with payment-for-order-flow under regulatory scrutiny and dark pool trading facing unprecedented backlash, the original meme stock represents more than nostalgia—it's a litmus test for market structure itself.

Wall Street's worst nightmare? A generation of traders who treat stocks like cryptocurrency—volatile, community-driven, and utterly unpredictable to traditional models. Burry's betting they've created a permanent distortion in the market's fabric.

One cynical finance jab: The same analysts who dismissed meme stocks as 'irrational' now charge $500/hour to explain their 'sociological significance' to institutional clients.

Burry's wager exposes the uncomfortable truth—modern markets run on narrative first, numbers second. And the original meme stock's story is far from over.

Key Takeaways

• Shares of GameStop surged Monday after famed investor Michael Burry reportedly revealed a stake in a Substack newsletter.
• Burry, best known for predicting the 2008 crash, said he believes GameStop CEO Ryan Cohen is raising cash to "make a big buy of a real growing cash cow business."

An OG meme stock just got a vote of confidence from a famous investor.

Michael Burry, the former founder and CEO of Scion Asset Management—who inspired the film and book "The Big Short" and is best known for predicting the 2008 financial crisis—said he's now putting his weight behind a $10 billion video-game and trading-car retailer: GameStop (GME).

"I own GME. I have been buying recently," Burry wrote in his Substack newsletter Monday, according to CNBC. Burry could not be reached in time for publication.

Why This Is Significant

Burry's backing could help boost confidence in shares of GameStop, which has struggled to reinvent its business as falling sales have pressured it to shutter stores.

Shares of GameStop jumped more than 4% Monday following the post, extending a recent rally. The shares have added about a fifth of their value in 2026, though they remain well off the early 2021 highs that marked the height of the meme-stock craze.

Burry reportedly said in his post that he believes GameStop CEO Ryan Cohen “has a crappy business, and he is milking it best he can while taking advantage of the meme stock phenomenon to raise cash and wait for an opportunity to make a big buy of a real growing cash cow business.”

The company has so far made forays into expanding its collectibles business and buying up bitcoin as part of its efforts to redefine its strategy.

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Gamestop shares got a boost last week after a regulatory filing showed Cohen bought up 1 million shares of GameStop.

Burry, for his part, late last year discussed a shift to "better things" after appearing to step back from his hedge fund. His Substack—it goes by "Cassandra Unchained," the same name by which he for years has gone on X—now has more than 200,000 subscribers and, it says in its description, "is now Dr. Michael Burry’s sole focus."