“Big Short” investor Steve Eisman disclosed Thursday he is shorting credit scoring company Fair Isaac (NYSE:FICO), accusing the firm of years of aggressive price hikes that have alienated mortgage lenders.

Speaking on CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” the former Neuberger Berman portfolio manager said FICO has raised prices roughly 500% over many years and “ticked off literally everybody in the lending world.”

The named short follows Eisman’s warning last week about the next credit crisis brewing inside private equity’s software loan book.

Why Fair Isaac Is In Trouble

Fair Isaac built the FICO score, the three-digit number used in roughly 90% of U.S. consumer lending decisions, and earns royalties every time a lender pulls one.

That near-monopoly is what gave the company its pricing power, and what VantageScore is now contesting.

Eisman argued the math has shifted against the credit-scoring incumbent. FICO has cut prices in recent months to defend its position, but its mortgage pricing still sits well above what rival VantageScore plans to charge, leaving Fair Isaac at a disadvantage on every batch of mortgage applications a lender processes.

Also, Federal housing regulators have cleared Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to accept VantageScore for mortgage underwriting, opening up Fair Isaac’s most lucrative pricing channel.

Eisman flagged a parallel dynamic on the same broadcast, calling out ServiceNow Inc (NYSE:NOW) as down roughly 60% from its August 2024 peak as evidence that software pricing power is breaking.

Polymarket Read: No Recession, No Cuts, No Unwind

Three days ago, Polymarket’s AI bubble burst by…? contract priced just 11% on the 2026 outcome. It now sits at 17% on $2.2 million of volume.

The broader macro is still calm. The “US recession by end of 2026?” market is at 25%, down from its highs during the Iran war of 36%.

The market “How many Fed rate cuts in 2026?” still prices zero cuts as the favorite at 57% on roughly $22 million of volume.

That broadly lines up with how Eisman is positioned. He is long tech and banks, sees no systemic risk to the banking system from private credit even as a software loan cycle builds, and described the recent rally as a return to last year’s playbook of AI capex and a K-shaped economy.

The FICO short is a name-by-name call, not a market-wide one, and Polymarket is pricing the same picture: no recession, no Fed easing, no broad AI unwind.

FICO is trading under $1,000, down over 40% this year.

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