Short seller Jim Chanos is betting against “legacy” data centres that now face growing competition from the trio of tech giants that have been their biggest customers.
Chanos, who remains best-known for predicting the collapse of energy group Enron two decades ago, is raising several hundred million dollars for a fund that will take short positions in US-listed real estate investment trusts.
“This is our big short right now,” Chanos said in an interview. “The story is that although the cloud is growing, the cloud is their enemy, not their business. Value is accruing to the cloud companies, not the bricks-and-mortar legacy data centres.”