Sam Altman and Alex Karp are learning to hate one of Elon Musk's most frequent enemies

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Just like a long line of executives before them, leaders of some of the world's hottest firms are learning to hate an age-old enemy: short sellers.

Last month, Palantir CEO Alex Karp had a meltdown of sorts about the subject. When asked about short sellers, aka investors betting against the company's stock, Karp unloaded on the naysayers.

"They could pick on any company in the world.