Jim Chanos'' Next "Big Short Right Now" Is REIT-Owned Data Centers Jim Chanos'' Next "Big Short Right Now" Is REIT-Owned Data Centers One of the world''s most well-known short-sellers, Jim Chanos, is betting against "legacy" data centers facing increasing competition from technology giants that have been their biggest customers. Chanos and his firm Kynikos Associates are raising several hundred million dollars for a fund that will place bearish bets on data center REITs. "This is our big short right now," Chanos said in a Financial Times 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 centers ." Chanos''s thesis is that the largest cloud providers, Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud, and Microsoft Azure, are building their own data centers instead of leasing from REIT-owned data centers. He believes many of these REITs are overvalued and are on the cusp of experiencing a slump in revenue and faltering earnings growth.