Billionaire investor John Paulson is bracing for higher inflation and expects a gold rush. He’s loaded up on mining and energy stocks in preparation.

Billionaire investor John Paulson is bracing for higher inflation and expects a gold rush. He’s loaded up on mining and energy stocks in preparation.

Billionaire investor John Paulson in a this week. His stock portfolio shows he's betting his beliefs, as he's loaded up on mining and energy companies that stand to profit from rising prices. Paulson is best known for betting on the housing bubble to burst, a wager that generated more than $15 billion for his fund. His big short was immortalized in the book "The Greatest Trade Ever: The Behind-the-Scenes Story of How John Paulson Defied Wall Street and Made Financial History." The investor - who converted his Paulson & Co. hedge fund into a family office last year - expects stubborn inflation to spur interest-rate hikes and spark an exodus from cash and bonds into gold, he told Bloomberg. The combination of a demand surge and limited supply could supercharge the precious metal's price, he added. Paulson's outlook likely explains why there were a dozen mining companies, including Barrick Gold and Novagold Resources, among the 40 holdings in his . His mining positions were worth a combined $800 million, representing 20% of his portfolio's total value. The investor also bet on energy companies last quarter, likely in anticipation of higher commodity prices. His family office bought stakes in the likes