Palantir CEO Alex Karp ‘not going to apologize’ for military work
Data analytics company Palantir has faced criticism and even protests over its work with the military, police and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, but co-founder and CEO Alex Karp has no interest in an “apology show.”
In a lengthy New York Times profile, Karp told writer Maureen Dowd that the company has a “consistently pro-Western outlook” and that its critics “believe we must appease Iran, Russia and China.”
“I’m not going to apologize for protecting the U.S. government at the border, protecting special operations, bringing people back home,” he said. “I’m not going to apologize for delivering our product to Ukraine or Israel or a number of other places.”
Karp doesn’t give a lot of interviews, so it’s interesting to see him speak at length about everything from his political views (which he describes as “progressive but not conscious”) to his friendship with Palantir co-founder Peter Thiel and his dating preferences.
But that’s all he’s willing to say about Palantir’s work. When asked if the company played any role in finding Osama bin Laden, Karp demurred, saying, “If your reputation is to talk about what the pope said when you meet him, you’ll never meet the pope again.”