{"id":128665,"date":"2025-09-08T11:15:12","date_gmt":"2025-09-08T11:15:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/128665\/"},"modified":"2025-09-08T11:15:12","modified_gmt":"2025-09-08T11:15:12","slug":"why-short-seller-andrew-left-is-bullish-on-palantir-rival-databricks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/128665\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Short-Seller Andrew Left Is Bullish on Palantir Rival Databricks"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>To say Andrew Left has had an eventful past decade in the market would be an understatement.<\/p>\n<p>He burst onto the scene as a short-seller extraordinaire. As the founder of Citron Research, he made his name with a series of reports on Valeant Pharmaceuticals in 2015, which he called the &#8220;<a target=\"_self\" class=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.businessinsider.com\/a-short-selling-firm-is-accusing-valeant-of-being-enron-and-it-says-it-has-proof-2015-10\" data-track-click=\"{&quot;element_name&quot;:&quot;body_link&quot;,&quot;event&quot;:&quot;tout_click&quot;,&quot;index&quot;:&quot;bi_value_unassigned&quot;,&quot;product_field&quot;:&quot;bi_value_unassigned&quot;}\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">pharmaceutical Enron<\/a>.&#8221; The company ended up under scrutiny for the fraud he helped highlight.<\/p>\n<p>Left&#8217;s short calls were eventually so respected that the stocks of the companies in question started <a target=\"_self\" class=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.businessinsider.com\/andrew-left-short-seller-inside-look-how-he-chooses-stocks-2018-5\" data-track-click=\"{&quot;element_name&quot;:&quot;body_link&quot;,&quot;event&quot;:&quot;tout_click&quot;,&quot;index&quot;:&quot;bi_value_unassigned&quot;,&quot;product_field&quot;:&quot;bi_value_unassigned&quot;}\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">moving sharply<\/a> immediately after the release of reports.<\/p>\n<p>But the tide of public perception ended up turning against Left during the GameStop saga of 2021. He was caught short when the stock went on its notorious 2,000%-plus surge. The episode made him decide to <a target=\"_self\" class=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/markets.businessinsider.com\/news\/stocks\/citron-stop-publishing-short-seller-research-gamestop-squeeze-andrew-left-2021-1-1030020509\" data-track-click=\"{&quot;element_name&quot;:&quot;body_link&quot;,&quot;event&quot;:&quot;tout_click&quot;,&quot;index&quot;:&quot;bi_value_unassigned&quot;,&quot;product_field&quot;:&quot;bi_value_unassigned&quot;}\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">stop publishing short-seller research<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>And then there&#8217;s his ongoing legal issues. In July 2024, the <a target=\"_self\" class=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.businessinsider.com\/andrew-left-accused-fraud-citron-research-market-manipulation-short-selling-2024-7\" data-track-click=\"{&quot;element_name&quot;:&quot;body_link&quot;,&quot;event&quot;:&quot;tout_click&quot;,&quot;index&quot;:&quot;bi_value_unassigned&quot;,&quot;product_field&quot;:&quot;bi_value_unassigned&quot;}\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">SEC charged Left<\/a> with market manipulation and securities fraud, and attempts to have the case dismissed have since been rejected. His trial is scheduled to start in March 2026.<\/p>\n<p>Got all that? Well don&#8217;t call it a comeback, but Left recently showed some of the old magic that made him so high-profile in the first place.<\/p>\n<p>On August 14, Left <a target=\"_blank\" class=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.foxbusiness.com\/video\/6376884457112\" data-track-click=\"{&quot;click_type&quot;:&quot;other&quot;,&quot;element_name&quot;:&quot;body_link&quot;,&quot;event&quot;:&quot;outbound_click&quot;}\" rel=\" nofollow noopener\">went on Fox Business<\/a> and said <a target=\"_self\" class=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/markets.businessinsider.com\/stocks\/pltr-stock\" data-track-click=\"{&quot;element_name&quot;:&quot;body_link&quot;,&quot;event&quot;:&quot;tout_click&quot;,&quot;index&quot;:&quot;bi_value_unassigned&quot;,&quot;product_field&quot;:&quot;bi_value_unassigned&quot;}\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Palantir<\/a> \u2014 one of the <a target=\"_self\" class=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.businessinsider.com\/palantir-q2-earnings-pltr-stock-price-revenue-ai-alex-karp-2025-8\" data-track-click=\"{&quot;element_name&quot;:&quot;body_link&quot;,&quot;event&quot;:&quot;tout_click&quot;,&quot;index&quot;:&quot;bi_value_unassigned&quot;,&quot;product_field&quot;:&quot;bi_value_unassigned&quot;}\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">stock market&#8217;s foremost darlings<\/a>, up 144% for the year at that point \u2014 was <a target=\"_self\" class=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.businessinsider.com\/palantir-stock-short-seller-pltr-andrew-left-valuation-pe-multiple-2025-8\" data-track-click=\"{&quot;element_name&quot;:&quot;body_link&quot;,&quot;event&quot;:&quot;tout_click&quot;,&quot;index&quot;:&quot;bi_value_unassigned&quot;,&quot;product_field&quot;:&quot;bi_value_unassigned&quot;}\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">overvalued<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;&#8221;I&#8217;ve stopped even looking at the ratio because it&#8217;s become so absurd,&#8221; Left said about the company&#8217;s price-to-earnings. &#8220;There&#8217;s never been a company that has that type of multiple or that type of PE that&#8217;s not corrected 50%.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The stock has declined 17% in the weeks since.<\/p>\n<p>When Business Insider spoke to Left this week, he was adamant that his days of being a widely followed short-seller are over, even after his successful Palantir call. He&#8217;s instead focused on the other side: going long companies he believes have high upside and strong fundamentals.<\/p>\n<p>                      Related stories<\/p>\n<p>                                <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazy-image \" viewbox=\"0 0 1 1\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/1756559549_931_placeholder.png\" alt=\"\"\/><\/p>\n<p>                            Business Insider tells the innovative stories you want to know<\/p>\n<p>                                <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazy-image \" viewbox=\"0 0 1 1\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/1756559549_931_placeholder.png\" alt=\"\"\/><\/p>\n<p>                            Business Insider tells the innovative stories you want to know<\/p>\n<p>One such opportunity that has him excited is a private AI company called Databricks, which is currently the <a target=\"_blank\" class=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/news.crunchbase.com\/unicorn-company-list\/\" data-track-click=\"{&quot;click_type&quot;:&quot;other&quot;,&quot;element_name&quot;:&quot;body_link&quot;,&quot;event&quot;:&quot;outbound_click&quot;}\" rel=\" nofollow noopener\">ninth-biggest unicorn<\/a> right now. Left outlined for BI why he&#8217;s so high on the company.<\/p>\n<p>Why he&#8217;s bullish on the Palantir rival<\/p>\n<p>When discussing Palantir, Left emphasized that his reservations stem strictly from the company&#8217;s valuation, which he reiterated are completely unsustainable. He says he&#8217;s been impressed by the company overall, and by CEO Alex Karp.<\/p>\n<p>But that hasn&#8217;t stopped him from looking elsewhere for AI upside. Enter Databricks, a cloud-based data intelligence platform, which he says is generating growth that&#8217;s currently outpacing Palantir.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;If you ask someone, aside from the hyper scalers, who the biggest competition for Palantir is going to be, it&#8217;s going to be Databricks,&#8221; Left told BI.<\/p>\n<p>The comment echoed an August 20 <a target=\"_blank\" class=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/CitronResearch\/status\/1958125729696059608\" data-track-click=\"{&quot;click_type&quot;:&quot;other&quot;,&quot;element_name&quot;:&quot;body_link&quot;,&quot;event&quot;:&quot;outbound_click&quot;}\" rel=\" nofollow\">post from Left on X<\/a>, on the account for Citron Research. He congratulated the startup for achieving a $100 billion valuation, and used it as an opportunity to point out how comparatively expensive Palantir shares are.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Give Palantir the same $100 billion valuation that Databricks just earned. Where does that put the stock? $40,&#8221; Left said, citing a level that&#8217;s nearly 75% below its current price.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Here&#8217;s the problem for Palantir bulls: most would agree Databricks is the stronger business today,&#8221; he also wrote, adding another key point of differentiation: &#8220;Unlike Palantir, it isn&#8217;t reliant on government contracts, it&#8217;s a true SaaS model, and it&#8217;s growing faster.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>But for those looking to get in on Databricks right now, it could be a while. The company has indicated no plan to go public anytime soon. Online betters currently rate it as having a 10% chance of announcing an IPO this year, down from a <a target=\"_self\" class=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.businessinsider.com\/figma-ipo-next-tech-company-debut-klarna-discord-fig-stock-2025-8\" data-track-click=\"{&quot;element_name&quot;:&quot;body_link&quot;,&quot;event&quot;:&quot;tout_click&quot;,&quot;index&quot;:&quot;bi_value_unassigned&quot;,&quot;product_field&quot;:&quot;bi_value_unassigned&quot;}\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">30% chance<\/a> on August 1.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"To say Andrew Left has had an eventful past decade in the market would be an understatement. He&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":128666,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[62,70601,276,277,4815,8623,49,48,70602,2539,49362,20403,3526,32201,1463,1660,2511,70603,61,39013,2813],"class_list":["post-128665","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-andrew-left","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-august","tag-business-insider","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-citron-research","tag-company","tag-databricks","tag-fraud","tag-market","tag-palantir","tag-point","tag-report","tag-stock","tag-such-opportunity","tag-technology","tag-valuation","tag-week"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128665","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=128665"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128665\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/128666"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=128665"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=128665"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=128665"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}