Palantir, the AI giant that preaches U.S. dominance
Palo Alto — Palantir, an American data analysis and artificial intelligence company, has emerged as Silicon Valley's latest tech darling — one that doesn't hide its macho, America-first ethos now ascendant in Trump-era tech culture.
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The company's reach spans the global economy, with banks, hospitals, the U.S. government, and the Israeli military among its ever-expanding client roster.
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'We want and need this country to be the strongest, most important country in the world,' Alex Karp, Palantir's CEO, recently declared at a client conference in Palo Alto, California, where AFP was the only media outlet present.
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In armed conflicts — most notably in Ukraine — Palantir's tools help evaluate potential targets in real-time, using multiple sources, including biometric data and intercepted phone calls.
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'I'm super proud of… what we do to protect our soldiers… (using our AI) to kill our enemies and scare them, because they know they will be killed,' the graying, curly-haired billionaire continued, wearing a tight white T-shirt.
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Washington has been filling Palantir's coffers.
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In the first quarter, the company received $373 million from the U.S. government – a 45 percent jump from the previous year — and it's not all military spending. This spring, federal immigration authorities (ICE) awarded the company a $30 million contract to develop a new platform for tracking deportations and visa overstays.
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The company then secured an investment of nearly $800 million from the U.S. military, adding to the $480 million contract signed in May 2024 for its AI platform supporting the Pentagon's 'Project Maven' target identification program.
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This marked Palantir's first billion-dollar contract, elevating it alongside government contracting stalwarts like Microsoft and Amazon's AWS.
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However, financial results 'are not and will never be the ultimate measure of the value, broadly defined, of our business,' Karp wrote in his letter to shareholders in early May, where he tossed in quotes from Saint Augustine, the Bible and Richard Nixon.
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'We have grander and more idiosyncratic aims.'
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Palantir was founded in 2003 by Peter Thiel — Silicon Valley's preeminent conservative — Karp, and others with CIA backing. The company takes its name from the magical seeing stones in Tolkien's 'Lord of the Rings.'
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