Bears Pile Into AI Chips, Rental Cars, and Sandals

Short sellers made bold moves this past week. Four names saw short interest jump by more than 8 percentage points in seven days.

Cerebras Systems leads the movers. CBRS SI % FF leapt from 6.3% to 25.6% — a 19-point swing in one week. The AI chip firm has a cost to borrow of just 1.1%, meaning shorts are cheap to hold. Availability sits at 40%, so supply is still there for new short positions.

Grindr is next. GRND jumped from 12% to 22% SI % FF. Borrow is cheap at 0.6% and availability is ample at 137% — suggesting shorts are not yet squeezed.

Birkenstock is a standout squeeze candidate. BIRK SI % FF hit 30.2%, up from 21.9%. Cost to borrow is steep at 16.7%. Availability has collapsed to just 3.4% — very little room for new shorts to enter.

Rental car rivals are both heavily shorted. HTZ sits at 44.5% SI % FF and CAR at 45.8%, both up roughly 5-6 points on the week. ASTS shorts held firm post-earnings at 20.5%.

Meanwhile, NVDA and TSLA remain lightly shorted at 1.2% and 2.8% respectively — bears are not targeting the mega-caps.