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  ARM Give a man a fire and he's warm for a day, but set fire to him and he's warm for the rest of his life (Terry Pratchett, Jingo)

Palantir designed to 'power the West to its obvious innate superiority,' says CEO

(2025/02/04)


Palantir CEO Alex Karp says one of his aims when building the controversial spy‑tech company was to "power the West to its obvious innate superiority."

Speaking to investment analysts following Q4 results, Karp reckoned the founders and early employees had taken a "long bet over decades" in Palantir's positioning.

He said the company assumed that if it built the products its partners – particularly those in the West and the US – ought to build, rather than what they said they wanted to build or what investors or VCs said it should build, then it would be rewarded in time.

[1]

"That company would generate so much value that we would get a small percentage of that, and we would end up as a massive, significant, and much more importantly, impactful company that could power the West to its obvious innate superiority, expose things that weren't working, rebuild the whole infrastructure of a company," he said.

[2]

[3]

Palantir was founded by Peter Thiel, who made his money and name by co-founding PayPal. It attracted early investment from the US Central Intelligence Agency's venture capital arm In-Q-Tel, and won early contracts in US defense and intelligence applications of its data analytics technologies, [4]along the way supporting US Immigration and Customs Enforcement , which was accused of separating children from their families.

[5]We can't make this stuff up: Palantir, Anduril form fellowship for AI adventures

[6]Flanked by Palantir and AWS, Anthropic's Claude marches into US defense intelligence

[7]Key aspects of Palantir's Federated Data Platform lack legal basis, lawyers tell NHS England

[8]Palantir, Oracle cosy up to offer Karp firm's tech across Big Red's cloud

Karp strays from the well‑rehearsed narrative in which CEOs assure investors that their money is in safe hands, instead exploring his talent for geo‑historical bombast.

Last year, he claimed the only reason [9]goose-stepping had not returned to the streets of Europe was due to Palantir's products. He has also labeled the social justice movement "woke" as " [10]the central risk to Palantir, America, and the world ."

Palantir posted Q4 revenue up 36 percent on the same period last year to $828 million. Net income reached $76.9 million, down from the same quarter a year earlier, although full-year income for 2024 was up considerably on the previous year.

[11]

The company beat its Q4 estimates and saw its share price climb 18 percent in late trading following the financial update. ®

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[1] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/applications&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2Z6JHsPUkJZjo34YU3DpzHwAAAUQ&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0

[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/applications&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Z6JHsPUkJZjo34YU3DpzHwAAAUQ&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0

[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/applications&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33Z6JHsPUkJZjo34YU3DpzHwAAAUQ&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0

[4] https://www.theregister.com/2018/06/22/amazon_staffers_protest_firms_support_of_the_surveillance_state/

[5] https://www.theregister.com/2024/12/09/palantir_anduril_alliance/

[6] https://www.theregister.com/2024/11/07/anthropic_palantir_aws_claude/

[7] https://www.theregister.com/2024/09/05/fdp_lacks_legal_basis/

[8] https://www.theregister.com/2024/07/11/palantir_and_oracle_cosy_up/

[9] https://www.theregister.com/2024/05/07/palantirs_forecasts_disappoint_the_market/

[10] https://www.theregister.com/2024/05/07/palantirs_forecasts_disappoint_the_market/

[11] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/applications&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Z6JHsPUkJZjo34YU3DpzHwAAAUQ&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0

[12] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/



Elongated Muskrat

Something something "master race", something something, Peter Thiel is a Nazi...

I seriously hope our government is currently disentangling his spyware from our public services, but since Starmer appears to have been born without a spine, I don't hold out much hope.

Anonymous Coward

The UK is loudly and proudly attempting to integrate as much as is feasible of Palantir's technology into the public sector, because 'AI'. Starmer et al, like all politicians of any colour, doesn't understand or care how any of this works, and is simply drooling over perceived 'efficiencies' promised by the technocrats. The general public don't know anything about Palantir and assume it's a fertilizer. I suppose in a way it sort of is manure.

Oh well. T'was ever thus.

Nightkiller

Shouldn't you be claiming a modified Godwin's law for this post?

Whatever you say Alex, you're the master race

BartyFartsLast

Jesus that's scary, if I was working there I'd be walking out and writing my resignation letter immediately rather than being involved with that sort of corporate Nazi ideology.

Re: Whatever you say Alex, you're the master race

Ace2

If you had any moral scruples at all, you wouldn’t take a job there in the first place.

Ace2

Ah yes, preventing goose-stepping in the EU, and bringing it back in swinging style in the good ‘ole USA.

Elon walks like a fucking duck.

Mentat74

Yeah... but he is a quack....

cyberdemon

I didn't know ducks walked when they er ...

Police states

Omnipresent

There are facial recognition spy cameras going up on every street corner in every major city in America, and I'm not kidding about that. America is now a fascist police state by definition, and it's terrifying.

Re: Police states

Anonymous Coward

Excuse me, we do it way better in Blighty, amateurs.

Re: Police states

Omnipresent

I am in fear. The militia drones will be next. Then the thought police. I am seriously thinking of moving to mexico.

Transplanting eyeballs is about to become very profitable.

It's a dystopian nightmare.

Famous, adj.:
Conspicuously miserable.
-- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary"