• Home
  • Latest
  • Fortune 500
  • Finance
  • Tech
  • Leadership
  • Lifestyle
  • Rankings
  • Multimedia

Trendingnow

1

As Big Tech showers employees with perks to win the talent war, Nvidia built a nearly $5 trillion company by making people pay for their own lunch

2

MacKenzie Scott alone accounted for one-third of America's $19.2 billion in megagifts last year

3

Current price of oil as of July 1, 2026

1

As Big Tech showers employees with perks to win the talent war, Nvidia built a nearly $5 trillion company by making people pay for their own lunch

2

MacKenzie Scott alone accounted for one-third of America's $19.2 billion in megagifts last year

3

Current price of oil as of July 1, 2026
FinanceShort Sellers

Wall Street Is Betting Against Tesla and Alibaba Like Never Before

Lucinda Shen
By
Lucinda Shen
Lucinda Shen
Down Arrow Button Icon
Lucinda Shen
By
Lucinda Shen
Lucinda Shen
Down Arrow Button Icon
June 14, 2017, 6:00 AM ET
Add Fortune on Google for similar content.

The two day tech stock sell-off has come to a stop, with major companies like Apple, Amazon, and Netflix all rebounding slightly in trading Tuesday.

While that’s good news for investors who held onto their shares, it’s less so for short sellers, who reap winnings by betting on a stock’s fall. Tech companies Alibaba, Tesla, and Apple are now the three most shorted stocks in the world, according to S3 Partners head of research Ihor Dusaniwsky. The amount of those companies’ shares held by short sellers, known as short interest, has grown by 62% since the start of 2017 alone.

And with Alibaba and Tesla in particular, Wall Street’s bets against those stocks have never been higher, Dusaniwsky says.

In fact, short sellers are now betting against $16.7 billion worth of shares of Alibaba (BABA), the most highly shorted stock on the market today, up 71% since the beginning of this year. Meanwhile, short interest in Apple (AAPL) has risen 61% to $9 billion, while bets against Tesla (TSLA) stock have grown 51% to $10.7 billion.

But short sellers who have been holding on to their bearish positions all year have yet to see their bets truly pay off. For example, Alibaba stock has jumped 50% in 2017, while Apple stock is up 27% and Tesla shares have risen 76%.

Still, investors have reason to doubt whether such tech stocks can continue their feverish ascent.

Over the past year, the market value that tech investors have added to the stock market is the equivalent of another two Amazons (AMZN): about $1.1 trillion since June 2016. In total, the market cap of 69 tech stocks on the S&P 500 has soared 18% to $4.9 trillion as of Tuesday. The broader market, meanwhile, is up half that much, just 9%.

It remains to be seen if tech companies can meet investors’ lofty expectations. Mizuho analysts downgraded shares of Apple to “hold” Monday, while Morgan Stanley recently did the same for shares of Tesla.

Goldman Sachs analysts went as far as to compare the recent tech rally to the dot-com bubble, writing: “Parallels to the ‘Nifty-fifty’ and 1999-2000 are growing as their performance is even more pronounced on a risk-adjusted basis.”

But despite the tech sector’s stock market rise in 2017, it’s not the dot-com bubble all over again, at least not according to investment strategist Ed Yardeni.

In a Tuesday note, Yardeni said that near the end of the dot-com boom in 2000, the total market capitalization of tech companies in the S&P 500 information tech index accounted for 32.9% of all S&P 500 companies. Yet they could only claim to have made, at most, 17.6% of the earnings.

The discrepancy between tech companies’ valuations and their actual earnings is much smaller today, despite the most recent stock market rally. In May, the market cap of tech companies on the S&P 500 rose as high as 22.9% of the entire index, but tech companies also accounted for 22% of all earnings among the S&P 500 members.

About the Author
Lucinda Shen
By Lucinda Shen
See full bioRight Arrow Button Icon
Add Fortune on Google for similar content.

Latest in Finance

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025

Most Popular

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Fortune Secondary Logo
Rankings
  • 100 Best Companies
  • Fortune 500
  • Global 500
  • Fortune 500 Europe
  • Most Powerful Women
  • World's Most Admired Companies
  • See All Rankings
  • Lists Calendar
Sections
  • Finance
  • Fortune Crypto
  • Features
  • Leadership
  • Health
  • Commentary
  • Success
  • Retail
  • Mpw
  • Tech
  • Lifestyle
  • CEO Initiative
  • Asia
  • Politics
  • Conferences
  • Europe
  • Newsletters
  • Personal Finance
  • Environment
  • Magazine
  • Education
Customer Support
  • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Customer Service Portal
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms Of Use
  • Single Issues For Purchase
  • International Print
Commercial Services
  • Advertising
  • Fortune Brand Studio
  • Fortune Analytics
  • Fortune Conferences
  • Business Development
  • Group Subscriptions
About Us
  • About Us
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • About Us
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • Facebook icon
  • Twitter icon
  • LinkedIn icon
  • Instagram icon
  • Pinterest icon

Latest in Finance

rn
CommentaryCryptocurrency
Former Iran director at NSC: Crypto legislation is a ticket to sanctions evasion
By Richard NephewJuly 2, 2026
2 hours ago
Trump stopped talking about these media stocks, but his portfolio didn’t stop trading them
InvestingDonald Trump
Trump stopped talking about these media stocks, but his portfolio didn’t stop trading them
By Mia OsmonbekovJuly 2, 2026
2 hours ago
m
CommentaryManufacturing
McKinsey chairs: Building a more resilient industrial base may require $2 trillion in investment
By Eric Kutcher and Shubham SinghalJuly 2, 2026
2 hours ago
Current price of Bitcoin for July 2, 2026
Personal FinanceCryptocurrency
Current price of Bitcoin for July 2, 2026
By Joseph HostetlerJuly 2, 2026
2 hours ago
Current price of Ethereum for July 2, 2026
Personal FinanceEthereum
Current price of Ethereum for July 2, 2026
By Joseph HostetlerJuly 2, 2026
2 hours ago
Top CD rates from major banks July 2, 2026: Chase CDs, Bank of America CDs, Citibank CDs, and more
Personal FinanceCertificates of Deposit (CDs)
Top CD rates from major banks on July 2, 2026: Chase CDs, Bank of America CDs, Citibank CDs, and more
By Joseph HostetlerJuly 2, 2026
2 hours ago

Most Popular

As Big Tech showers employees with perks to win the talent war, Nvidia built a nearly $5 trillion company by making people pay for their own lunch
Big Tech
As Big Tech showers employees with perks to win the talent war, Nvidia built a nearly $5 trillion company by making people pay for their own lunch
By Marco Quiroz-GutierrezJuly 1, 2026
1 day ago
MacKenzie Scott alone accounted for one-third of America's $19.2 billion in megagifts last year
Success
MacKenzie Scott alone accounted for one-third of America's $19.2 billion in megagifts last year
By Sydney LakeJune 25, 2026
7 days ago
Current price of oil as of July 1, 2026
Personal Finance
Current price of oil as of July 1, 2026
By Joseph HostetlerJuly 1, 2026
1 day ago
Trump got a $78K pension from the Screen Actors Guild in 2025 because he appeared in Home Alone 2 in 1992
Politics
Trump got a $78K pension from the Screen Actors Guild in 2025 because he appeared in Home Alone 2 in 1992
By Sasha RogelbergJuly 1, 2026
23 hours ago
Philanthropy leader at Warren Buffett and Bill Gates’ Giving Pledge says children of billionaires are pushing them to give their wealth away faster
Success
Philanthropy leader at Warren Buffett and Bill Gates’ Giving Pledge says children of billionaires are pushing them to give their wealth away faster
By Preston ForeJune 27, 2026
5 days ago
CEO of $248 billion cybersecurity company says workers are about to face a ‘Darwinian moment’ thanks to AI: Evolve or get cut
Success
CEO of $248 billion cybersecurity company says workers are about to face a ‘Darwinian moment’ thanks to AI: Evolve or get cut
By Emma BurleighJuly 1, 2026
1 day ago

© 2026 Fortune Media IP Limited. All Rights Reserved. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy | CA Notice at Collection and Privacy Notice | Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information
FORTUNE is a trademark of Fortune Media IP Limited, registered in the U.S. and other countries. FORTUNE may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice.