During an interview with CNBC on Wednesday, Palantir CEO Alex Karp criticized short sellers, who wager on a company’s stock price falling.
“I love burning the short sellers,” Karp told CNBC’s Sara Eisen on “Money Movers.” “Almost nothing makes a human happier than taking the lines of cocaine away from these short sellers, who, like, are betting against a truly great American company. Not just ours, but we like bringing down great American corporations so they can pay for their coke.”
Palantir’s stock rose 9.8% on March 6 when the company revealed that the US Army had picked its Tactical Intelligence Targeting Access Node. TITAN employs artificial intelligence to give missile targeting information.
When a stock rises, short sellers must buy back shares, potentially at a significant loss.
“The best thing that could happen to them is we will lead their coke dealers to their homes after they can’t pay their bills,” Mr. Karp added. “You know, do your thing, we’ll do our thing.”
Palantir stock has up almost 47% this year. As of late February, approximately 5% of the company’s outstanding publicly traded shares were sold short.
Karp also told CNBC that the company has lost staff and expects to lose more due to his vocal support for Israel.
Palantir, which is well-known for its government contract work in defense and intelligence, has provided technology to support the Ukrainian and Israeli militaries in their separate wars.
