To say Andrew Left has had an eventful past decade in the market would be an understatement.
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 "pharmaceutical Enron." The company ended up under scrutiny for the fraud he helped highlight.
Left's short calls were eventually so respected that the stocks of the companies in question started moving sharply immediately after the release of reports.
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 stop publishing short-seller research.
And then there's his ongoing legal issues. In July 2024, the SEC charged Left 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.
Got all that? Well don't call it a comeback, but Left recently showed some of the old magic that made him so high-profile in the first place.
On August 14, Left went on Fox Business and said Palantir — one of the stock market's foremost darlings, up 144% for the year at that point — was overvalued.
""I've stopped even looking at the ratio because it's become so absurd," Left said about the company's price-to-earnings. "There's never been a company that has that type of multiple or that type of PE that's not corrected 50%."
The stock has declined 17% in the weeks since.
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's instead focused on the other side: going long companies he believes have high upside and strong fundamentals.
One such opportunity that has him excited is a private AI company called Databricks, which is currently the ninth-biggest unicorn right now. Left outlined for BI why he's so high on the company.
Why he's bullish on the Palantir rival
When discussing Palantir, Left emphasized that his reservations stem strictly from the company's valuation, which he reiterated are completely unsustainable. He says he's been impressed by the company overall, and by CEO Alex Karp.
But that hasn't stopped him from looking elsewhere for AI upside. Enter Databricks, a cloud-based data intelligence platform, which he says is generating growth that's currently outpacing Palantir.
"If you ask someone, aside from the hyper scalers, who the biggest competition for Palantir is going to be, it's going to be Databricks," Left told BI.
The comment echoed an August 20 post from Left on X, 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.
"Give Palantir the same $100 billion valuation that Databricks just earned. Where does that put the stock? $40," Left said, citing a level that's nearly 75% below its current price.
"Here's the problem for Palantir bulls: most would agree Databricks is the stronger business today," he also wrote, adding another key point of differentiation: "Unlike Palantir, it isn't reliant on government contracts, it's a true SaaS model, and it's growing faster."
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 30% chance on August 1.
