GME Stock Holds Its Ground as Michael Burry Quietly Builds His Stake

Even after the big squeeze five years ago, GME stock still has a certain weight that most tickers don’t. After-hours trading pushed it back up a little to 24.57 after it closed Tuesday at 24.46, down 1.85%. Not very dramatic. Nothing went viral. Another session in which the rest of the market chewed through headlines about Iran and anxiety over Tesla’s earnings while GameStop quietly held its ground. However, it’s difficult to ignore the fact that the company currently has about $9 billion in cash and a market capitalization of just over $10 billion, a ratio that would cause any activist investor to reconsider.

This week’s quiet news isn’t about guidance or earnings. According to reports, Big Short investor Michael Burry is increasing his stake in GameStop. Not because Burry is a cheerleader—he is renowned for not being one—but rather because his thesis has always relied on downside protection and optionality, that detail quickly spread throughout the Superstonk corners of the internet. Given GameStop’s substantial cash reserves, low debt, and Ryan Cohen, the company’s CEO, who has alluded to a “transformational acquisition,” Burry seems to see a floor. It remains to be seen if he also perceives a ceiling.

The mid-April launch of Power Packs provided the stock with a small narrative boost. In essence, it’s a digital-to-physical trading card platform where users purchase a digital pack that costs between $25 and $2,500, unlock a real PSA-graded card that is stored in a vault, and have the option to sell, ship, or hold it. For a business that was primarily known for selling used Xbox games until recently, that is an oddly elegant turn of events. PSA grading adds a premium that moves liquid in the real money trading card market. It’s still unclear if Power Packs will be a significant source of income or just another intriguing experiment, similar to the NFT marketplace that was quietly shut down.

Avis Budget Group, a car rental company, is currently performing its own GameStop impression. With short interest stacked and an RSI close to 97, it was up 383% in April alone. This parallel is significant because it indicates that the meme-trade playbook is still in use. It simply scans the area for new tickers. GME is the original and continues to be the standard by which all subsequent squeezes are evaluated. Days-to-cover is between 8 and 10, and short interest on GameStop itself is close to 15% of the float. These numbers are high, but they are not nearly as high as they were in 2021. The energy has subsided. It hasn’t been loyal.

Ryan Cohen continues to make purchases. According to insider information, he spent more than $21 million of his own funds to add about a million shares in recent months. That level of conviction from a CEO-chairman who already owns a sizable portion of the business either indicates that he is anchoring sentiment or that he truly thinks a significant move is imminent. Most likely a combination of the two. Operational ambition is indicated by the new 700,000-square-foot fulfillment facility in York, Pennsylvania. Something more is suggested by the mysterious SEC filings, which include total return swaps, warrants, and odd positioning. In an attempt to decipher them, individual investors have created whole Reddit threads.

It feels different to watch GameStop in 2026 than it did in 2021. More waiting, less chaos. The story seems to be continuing, albeit in a more subdued manner. The core retail business is still contracting, as evidenced by the Q4 2025 revenue of $1.1 billion, which was down roughly 14% year over year. However, Cohen continues to make purchases, Burry continues to observe, and somewhere in a headquarters in Grapevine, Texas, decisions are being made that the market won’t know about until they are finished. That’s what’s worth seeing.