Michael Burry is betting against a bulldozer company in the middle of an AI boom and the logic is more coherent than it first sounds. In a Substack post dated June 30, 2026, Burry disclosed new short positions in Caterpillar, Nvidia, Tesla, Applied Materials and a semiconductor ETF, after strong rallies in each. Caterpillar was reportedly his first-ever short on the name, a stock that had been one of the best performers in the S&P 500 this year. He added to that Caterpillar short in August at roughly $844, writing that "data center plans are already aging," and he increased a semiconductor ETF short around $533 in the same round of disclosures. Why Caterpillar at all? The AI buildout needs far more than chips. Hyperscale data centers routinely need 50 megawatts or more, and grid interconnection can take years, so developers lean on large reciprocating engines, gensets and turbines for primary and backup power. That has turned Caterpillar's Power & Energy business into its largest and ...