Investing

Tesla Short Scott Burg Makes Multibillion-Dollar Bet Against Elon Musk's Firm

The firm added puts on 4.8 million Tesla shares last quarter
Options buoyed Deer Park’s returns through first half of 2022

Elon Musk, chief executive officer of Tesla Inc., waves to the media on arrival at the Tesla Inc. Gigafactory construction site in Gruenheide, Germany, on Friday, Aug. 13, 2021. Photographer: Krisztian Bocsi/Bloomberg

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By Miles Weiss

August 19, 2022 at 4:26 PM UTC

Updated on

August 19, 2022 at 6:31 PM UTC

This article is for subscribers only.

While Elon Musk has plenty of Wall Street detractors, Scott Burg may be the first distressed-bond manager to make a multibillion-dollar options bet that Musk’s Tesla Inc. will be “squashed like a bug.”

Burg, the chief investment officer of Deer Park Road Management Co. who made the prediction in a 2020 tweet, acquired put options on almost 4.8 million Tesla shares during the second quarter, according to a regulatory filing this week. The shares covered by the puts had a face value of about $3.2 billion at the end of June, though the amount the firm has at risk would be far lower.