Tesla shares showed extreme price fluctuations in 2025 – with consequences for investors and short sellers. Despite the volatile year, Michael Burry criticizes the stock as continuing to be overvalued.
• Tesla shares see big swings in 2025 – tough year for longs and shorts
• Shortsellers are sitting on billions of dollars in losses
• Burry warns of Tesla overvaluation and criticizes Musk’s compensation plan
Ups and downs for Tesla shares
Tesla shares experienced ups and downs on the US tech stock exchange NASDAQ in 2025. After the shares rose sharply from autumn 2024, Tesla shares were quoted at $403.84 on December 31, 2024 and then started the year 2025 below $400. But the shares were able to regain the round mark as early as January. However, things then went steeply downwards: until the spring, the shares temporarily fell to $214.25 – their current 52-week low. Then things went up again – with temporary setbacks. On November 28th, the electric car maker’s shares cost $430.17.
Short interest in focus
With these ups and downs, 2025 was also exciting for Tesla short sellers. Short interest fluctuated significantly in 2025, as data published by Nasdaq every two weeks shows. Short interest in Tesla stock was 67,379,077 shares as of December 31, 2024. At the end of January 2025, short interest was still at 59,612,004 shares, but in mid-September it was significantly higher again at 86,213,226 shares. The last short interest was 78,303,390 shares on November 28th.
Positive development of the share – bad news for short sellers
If you take the Tesla share price from December 31, 2024 (US$403.84), subtract the price from November 28, 2025 (US$430.17), the result is a value of -26.33. Halving the sum of short interest from December 31, 2024 (67,379,077) and November 28, 2025 (78,303,390) results in an average short position of 72,841,233.5. If you multiply this by the price difference, the short sellers have a loss of $1.92 billion as of the end of November. However, this is an estimate. Among other things, the exact time of individual shorts, the exact price at which they were opened or closed and the lending fee are not taken into account.
In the spring of 2025, when Tesla shares suffered significant losses, things looked even better for short sellers. At the time, it was reported that Tesla short sellers had earned $16.2 billion from short selling within three months.
Michael Burry views Tesla shares as “grotesquely overvalued”
“Big Short” investor Michael Burry still describes Tesla shares as “grotesquely overvalued.” “Tesla’s market capitalization is grotesquely overvalued today and has been for some time,” Fortune quotes Burry from a post on his newly opened Substack account. He also warned that Elon Musk’s trillion-dollar compensation plan would only make the situation worse. In his opinion, the company is diluting its shareholders through share-based compensation for its employees without corresponding share buybacks. Musk’s trillion-dollar package would only make things worse.
It remains to be seen how Tesla shares will perform in 2026 and whether short sellers can benefit from the price development.
Editorial team finanzen.net
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