The Seligman Tech Spectrum Fund, run by veteran tech investor Paul Wick, is holding firm on its high-conviction short against Tesla, maintaining the electric-vehicle maker as its largest short position at 4% of fund capital, according to a report by Institutional Investor,
In the fund’s Q2 investor letter Wick said that despite Tesla’s 22% year-to-date decline, he’s “frankly surprised” the stock has held up this well, and now sees even greater downside ahead amid deteriorating fundamentals and adverse policy shifts under the Trump administration.
The fund – long sceptical of Tesla – cited weakening car sales, margin pressure, executive turnover, and what it called a failed Robotaxi trial in Austin as key red flags. Wick also pointed to Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s soured ties with President Trump, warning that could invite renewed regulatory scrutiny from the SEC, FTC, and NHTSA.
Wick sees further pressure on Tesla’s bottom line from the elimination of EV tax credits by end-2025 and Trump’s decision to invalidate California’s zero-emission vehicle rules – a move that may erode Tesla’s high-margin regulatory credit revenue.
While many hedge funds guard their short books, Seligman continues to publicly name its bearish targets, including companies in quantum computing, nuclear energy, and space tech – what Wick calls “the worst of the worst.”
The firm’s other short positions include quantum computing firm IonQ, D-Wave, Rigetti, and Quantum Computing – which are all predicted to fall by 90–100% – nuclear sector businesses NuScale and Oklo – which are seen as lacking viable revenue models or NRC approvals, and space stocks Rocket Lab and AST SpaceMobile, which have been labelled Asas “speculative” and unprofitable despite lofty valuations.
Seligman was up 6% in June and 0.32% through 9 July , according to documents seen by Institutional Investor
