CNBC host Jim Cramer spotted a wave of short-dated call buying across memory and chip names Friday morning — more than $90 million in premium — and pointed at a familiar suspect.
“‘Someone’ just bought a boatload of short data (October2) calls Intel 115 $3.8 m; Marvell 250sm $3.8 million; Sandisk 1600s $41 million, Micron $1000s $44 million,” Cramer wrote in a post on X. “If i didn’t know any better I would say Leopold is back!!!”
- MRVL stock is moving. See the real-time price action here.
The Leopold in question is Leopold Aschenbrenner, whose AI-focused hedge fund, Situational Awareness, ran from roughly $225 million at inception to about $45 billion before leveraged AI bets unwound in days, with the portfolio sinking 67% in July and much of it sold to Citadel.
The fund still finished that stretch up 80% for the year, and the Securities and Exchange Commission has since sought information from banks that financed the trades.
Why the Nod Lands
Cramer’s shorthand carries weight because the fund has form in exactly these tickers. Situational Awareness held roughly $5.7 billion in Sandisk and $5.6 billion in Micron at the end of June, before the blowup.
And the fund has already resurfaced in the derivatives market: CNBC reported last week that the firm has been buying options tied to Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ:AMD), Bloom Energy (NYSE:BE) and CoreWeave (NASDAQ:CRWV).
Whether Friday’s flow belongs to the fund is unconfirmed.
Where the Strikes Sit
Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:MU) traded near $990.48, up 1.33%, putting the $1,000 strike at the money against a 52-week high of $1,255.
Sandisk Corp. (NASDAQ:SNDK) changed hands around $1,669.28, up 3.40% and already above the $1,600 line, well off a peak of $2,354.39.
Intel Corp. (NASDAQ:INTC) sat at $109.42, up 0.57%, leaving $115 only a modest hop away.
Marvell Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:MRVL) was roughly flat at $240.86.
It is worth noting that the October expiration falls after Micron’s fiscal fourth-quarter report, a print that tends to move the whole memory complex.
Cramer has stayed constructive on the group, arguing in August that AI data-center demand and supply discipline have reset a boom-and-bust industry. Short-dated calls in the size flagged by Cramer Friday morning leave no room for patience.
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