Palihapitiya argues short sellers create chaos and innuendo under free speech guise rather than uncovering real malfeasance.
“There is supposed to be a check on financial malfeasance, but it's not that. When you look at these short selling firms, for every one of them that actually uncovers malfeasance, what it really is is them creating chaos and innuendo under the guise of their right to free speech.”
Palihapitiya claims it is extremely hard to impossible to commit financial fraud as a public company in 2025.
“It's extremely hard to impossible to commit financial fraud as a public company in 2025.”
Palihapitiya says a billion-dollar short position would have gotten his attention, unlike the erroneously reported amount.
“If you saw a yard short, I mean, yeah, like, that would have probably gotten my attention had I read it. A billion dollars is, you know, reasonable position to have.”
Palihapitiya argues big tech cash gets little valuation credit, so companies should spend aggressively on products.
“If you actually look at the DCF of the enterprise value of these businesses, it gets very little credit for that cash almost to the point where it's worthless.”
Palihapitiya predicts hyperscalers will become heavily leveraged industrial businesses within five years due to infrastructure spending.
“They'll have all kinds of different vehicles and term loans and revolvers and all of this stuff. And so they're gonna look like this big bulky industrial business in five years.”
“That's the biggest problem with with running either massively levered long or massively levered short.”