Famed short-seller Jim Chanos said that the fundamental story for Caterpillar has not changed and that he is still betting against the company.
"The collapse has not happened. The unwind has not happened. That's ahead of us, not behind us," the founder of Kynikos Associates said Wednesday in an interview with CNBC's Scott Wapner on "Halftime Report."
While investors have seen Caterpillar as a way to invest in construction and growth in China, Chanos explained that the bubble in real estate and debt in the country hasn't happened yet.
"The supercycle in commodities that peaked out in '11 and '12, you've heard me say this, was a once-in-a-lifetime kind of thing. The overcapacity that exists in mining, mining equipment, construction equipment is serious," he said, speaking from the sidelines of Vanity Fair's New Establishment Summit in San Francisco.
Caterpillar declined to comment, citing its quiet period ahead of its scheduled earnings release on Tuesday.
Chanos, who is famous for his previous shorts or bets against once high-flying companies like Enron, has been outspoken about his wagers against Tesla Motors and SolarCity. Short selling is a form of trading in which traders can bet against a company by selling shares they do not own and buying them back at a lower price.
In September, at the Delivering Alpha conference sponsored by CNBC and Institutional Investor, Chanos previously called the proposed merger between the companies "crazy" and "the height of folly" as he estimated the combined company would burn through $1 billion per quarter.
On Wednesday, Chanos renewed his criticism of the companies and said the potential merger was "completely perplexing" and "makes no sense." He continued to criticize both companies on the stage of Vanity Fair's event on Wednesday.
"The whole thing is just sort of this melange of publicly traded and privately traded science projects, sort of gone awry. So, we'll see how it all works out," Chanos said.
Tesla is expected to make a product announcement on Wednesday, according to CEO Elon Musk. The electric automaker is also scheduled to release fiscal third-quarter results on Oct. 26.
Tesla and SolarCity did not immediately respond to CNBC's request for comment.
— CNBC's Vincent Caruso and Jacob Pramuk contributed to this report.