Palantir summons specter of nuclear conflict as share price collapses
- Reference: 1652202006
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2022/05/10/palantir_share_price_collapses/
- Source link:
Disappointing investors, the company lost 21 percent of its stock market value before close yesterday.
In its [1]first-quarter results , revenue hit $446 million, 31 percent up on the same period last year. However, for Q2, it offered guidance of $470 million in revenue, with a "wide range of potential upside." Analyst expectations had put Q2 revenue at $483.7 million, [2]per FactSet .
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Against this backdrop, CEO Alex Karp took the unusual step of addressing shareholders directly [4]in a published letter .
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"The world significantly underestimates the threat of nuclear conflict in Eastern Europe. The understandable desire to intervene must be targeted and strategic, balanced against the risk of further escalation," he said.
"The war is itself a protracted negotiation with a heavily armed opponent. One must, in domestic politics and foreign affairs alike, inhabit the mind and aims of an adversary in order to prevail over the long term."
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In his address to shareholders, Karp also seemed to reference the global culture wars which threaten to define global politics.
[8]Palantir expands from Covid role, wins $90m deal with US Department of Health
[9]Former NHS AI leader joins US spy-tech company Palantir
[10]Palantir abandons any attempt at curating nice-guy image with 'Global Information Dominance Experiments'
[11]Of all the analytics companies in the world, why is Palantir getting its claws into UK health data?
"We built a company on the premise that the construction of something of consequence requires relentless exposure to unpopular and dissenting opinions. A willingness to engage in honest and open inquiry about the inherent risks of building new technology is essential.
"But a genuine discourse in this country has all but withered, in significant part because so few are either willing or able to say what they actually think."
Palantir built its reputation creating bespoke solutions such as [12]digital profiling tools for organizations like the CIA and controversial US immigration agency ICE. Palantir was co-founded by Peter Thiel who helped finance and support the political campaigns of former president Donald Trump, who was impeached twice and seems unable to avoid saying what he actually thinks.
Elsewhere, Karp seemed to admit that going around the IT and procurement departments may not have been the best move in terms of gaining traction in mainstream businesses.
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"We have also historically had what might be characterized as an antagonistic relationship with some of the IT organizations that exist within our customers," he said. "This is changing and must continue to do so. The building of such coalitions with internal procurement organizations has begun to move from the exception to the rule." ®
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[1] https://investors.palantir.com/news-details/2022/Palantir-Reports-Revenue-Growth-of-31-for-Q1-2022-US-Commercial-Revenue-up-136-YY-in-Q1-2022
[2] https://www.cnbc.com/2022/05/09/palantir-stock-down-15percent-in-premarket-on-earnings-miss.html
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2Ynrgim6lQ8eRAXVi-UI4-gAAAJA&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[4] https://www.palantir.com/newsroom/letters/letter-to-shareholders/may-9-2022/
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Ynrgim6lQ8eRAXVi-UI4-gAAAJA&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33Ynrgim6lQ8eRAXVi-UI4-gAAAJA&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[7] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Ynrgim6lQ8eRAXVi-UI4-gAAAJA&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2022/05/05/palantir_leaps_from_covid_role/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2022/04/22/nhs_ai_leader_joins_palantir/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2021/08/13/palantir_global_information_dominance/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2021/06/15/palantir_uk_sci_tech_committee/
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2020/08/26/palantir_s_1_ipo_filing_ice/
[13] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33Ynrgim6lQ8eRAXVi-UI4-gAAAJA&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[14] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
While I have nothing but happy fluffy feelings for a man that would fund multiple 3rd party lawsuits against media outlets that told the truth about him
Fascism Inc. will do well
Considering I expect Elon Musk to connect the Twitter backdoor to his friend's business Fascism Inc. Palantir to filter out non-human users, and with the renewed popularity of authoritarianism, I expect Palantir to have a bright future. This is just a blip.
"But a genuine discourse in this country has all but withered, in significant part because so few are either willing or able to say what they actually think."
This seems backwards. The internet has shown that plenty of people are willing and able to tell us what the actually think. Repeatedly. It is rather quite annoying. Discourse may have withered because people don't listen or are unwilling to countenance different thoughts.
GDPR...
A single line in today's Queen's Speech...
"The United Kingdom’s data protection regime will be reformed [Data Reform Bill]."
[1]https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/queens-speech-2022
That will be the government deviating for GDPR as implemented when UK was part of the EU.
That would no doubt leave the data slurpers of the IT world salivating at the orgy of data gathering that they will be allowed to get away with by consent of the government
[1] https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/queens-speech-2022
Palantir summons specter of nuclear conflict
I expected the story to announce that Peter Thiel had built his own private nuclear arsenal and had issued his ransom demands when I read that.
But no, he's blaming IT departments for foiling his dastardly plans, staffed as they are by people thoughtful enough to recoil from the potential consequences of his company's products. And able to spot an authoritarian wolf dressed up as a libertarian sheep.
I'm not a fan of what Palantir does, nor of the founder's politics. But this line...
"Palantir was co-founded by Peter Thiel who helped finance and support the political campaigns of former president Donald Trump, who was impeached twice and seems unable to avoid saying what he actually thinks."
...seems needlessly close to an ad hominem argument. Needless, because the rest of the article makes it clear that the company is underperforming and all the CEO is doing about it is trying to distract everyone.
I always misread Peter Thiel as Peter Thief. Given the active harm this company has done, it can't go bust soon enough. Just when you think they can't go any lower, they throw in we're actually all more likeily to be nuked that you know, now give us some money.