Short Seller Andrew Left's Citron Doubles Down On Duolingo Short, Says Google's AI Tool Changes The Business

Activist short seller Andrew Left‘s Citron Research has renewed its bearish stance on Duolingo Inc. (NASDAQ:DUOL), citing Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) (NASDAQ:GOOG) subsidiary Google’s newly announced artificial intelligence translation technology as a significant threat to the language learning company’s business model.

What Happened: Citron acknowledged on social media platform X that the firm “got it wrong” with its initial short position before Duolingo’s last earnings report. However, it maintained that Google’s latest AI innovation has strengthened its bearish thesis rather than weakened it.

“Yesterday, Google changed the entire language learning market at I/O 2025,” Citron wrote, referencing Google’s developer conference where the tech giant unveiled Meet’s AI-powered speech translation feature.

Citron compared the potential impact to historical technological disruptions. “Saying Google’s new AI translation tool won’t impact Duolingo is like saying calculators didn’t reduce the need to learn arithmetic,” he stated.

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Why It Matters: The new Google Meet tool translates conversations in near real-time while preserving the speaker’s voice, tone, and expression.

According to Google, the Gemini-powered feature can translate between English and Spanish initially, with Italian, German, and Portuguese support planned for the coming weeks.

The service requires a subscription to Google’s AI Pro plan or the new AI Ultra subscription at $249.99 monthly, according to The Verge.

The short seller’s renewed pessimism contrasts sharply with recent Wall Street sentiment. JPMorgan analyst Bryan Smilek maintained an Overweight rating on Duolingo with a $500 price target earlier this month, projecting 20% revenue growth driven by user expansion and gamification features.

Duolingo currently serves 130 million monthly active users, representing approximately 18% of global online language learners.

Price Action: Duolingo Inc.’s stock closed at $514.30 on Wednesday, down 2.17% for the day. Year to date, the stock has gained 57.82%, according to data from Benzinga Pro.

Image Via Shutterstock

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