Palantir CEO Alex Karp confronts short sellers amid stock selloff

With Palantir Despite a better-than-expected earnings report, the stock is down more than 11% this week. CEO Alex Karp took aim at investors betting against the software company.

Karp, who co-founded Palantir in 2003, went after short sellers in two separate interviews on CNBC this week. After “Big Short” investor Michael Burry announced his bets against Palantir NvidiaKarp accused short sellers of “market manipulation” on Tuesday.

He repeated that message in an interview with CNBC’s Sara Eisen on Friday, once again busting Burry’s bet against the stock.

“To get out of his position, he had to destroy the entire economy by tarnishing the best financials ever that helped the average person as an investor. [and] On the battlefield,” Karp said.

Despite Palantir’s decline this week, the stock is up 135% in 2025 and is up 25x over the past three years; This long-term rise increased the company’s market value to over $420 billion. While revenue and profit have grown rapidly, multiples have risen much faster, and the stock now trades at around 220 times forward earnings, a ratio that rivals that of Tesla.

Nvidia and Metain contrast, forward price-to-earnings ratios are approximately 33 and 22, respectively.

In August, Citron Research Andrew Left, a prominent short seller, called Palantir “disconnected from fundamentals and analysis” and said shares should be priced at $40. It closed at $177.93 on Friday after late-day gains pushed the stock into the green.

Palantir, which makes analytics tools for large companies and government agencies, reported earnings and revenue above analysts’ estimates on Monday and issued a forecast that was ahead of Wall Street estimates.

But the stock fell nearly 8% following the report and then tumbled nearly 7% on Thursday. Karp told Eisen that the recent rise in Palantir’s share price isn’t just for Wall Street.

“We deliver startup results for retail investors,” he said.

While Palantir has faced a hefty dose of short interest in the past, there are relatively few investors betting big against it right now. Short interest, or the percentage of outstanding shares sold short, peaked at more than 9% in September and is now just over 2%, nearly the lowest since the company went public in 2020.

Still, voicing skeptics is a common occurrence for Karp, who previously said on CNBC that people should “exit” if they “don’t like the price.”

In May, after stocks fell sharply following earnings, Karp said, “You don’t need to buy our shares.”

“We are happy,” he said. “We will partner with the best people in the world and we will excel. You can join the journey, or you don’t have to.”

The company also faced backlash for its work with government agencies such as U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and Karp admitted that its strong pro-Israel stance caused some people to leave the company.

The loud CEO has been particularly vocal this week. On Monday’s earnings call, he asked how happy people were who didn’t invest in the company and told them to “buy some popcorn.”

And he directed much of his ire at Burry after the investor revealed on CNBC his short positions in Palantir and Nvidia.

“The two companies he sells to make all the money, which is very strange,” Karp told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on Tuesday. “The idea that chips and ontology are what you want to shorten is ridiculous.”

WRISTWATCH: Palantir CEO Karp on short selling