Cost to borrow on HCAI has exploded to 864%. That is up 88% in a week and nearly 585% over the past month. The borrow market is under acute stress — and earnings are ten days away.
Availability has collapsed. The lending pool is almost fully tapped, with the borrow pool now 93.58% utilised — just 5.66 percentage points below the 52-week peak of 99.24% hit on April 10.
That peak came during a violent short-interest episode when estimated short shares topped 2.8 million. Since then the position was largely unwound. Short shares fell to just 4,529 by April 29.
The recovery has been fast and aggressive. Short shares are now back at 56,314 — a 362% surge in one week. Yet the borrow pool has not expanded to match. The result is a sharp tightening in availability, with cost to borrow nearly doubling in seven sessions.
This is a painful setup for short sellers. HCAI is up 51% in a single session on May 4. It has gained 175% over the past week and 330% over the past month.
Short sellers adding exposure into that rally are paying 864% annually to borrow shares. Each day that cost compounds against a rising price. The ORTEX short score sits at 61.1 — elevated, and tracking broadly with the tightening borrow conditions.
The next earnings event is scheduled for May 15. Historical prints have been muted — the stock moved just 1.7% after the May 2025 report and fell roughly 1% after the December 2025 report. Neither print triggered a large directional move.
But the setup today is different. Short interest is rebuilding fast into a rallying stock, the borrow market is nearly exhausted, and cost to borrow is at an all-time high for the dataset. The combination creates a volatile backdrop ahead of the report.
Ownership is highly concentrated. The top five holders — all named individuals — collectively hold around 86% of shares, leaving a very thin float for the borrow market to operate on.
See the live data behind this article on ORTEX.
Open HCAI on ORTEX →ORTEX Market Intelligence content is generated by AI from a snapshot of ORTEX's proprietary data. Content is informational only and does not constitute investment advice.
