Palantir CEO Alex Karp lashes out at ‘parasitic’ critics
In an interview with Yahoo, Palantir CEO Alex Karp attacked his critics and praised the “average American” who bought stock in the $415 billion tech company. By “average American,” the executive appeared to be referring to retail investors, who flocked to Palantir even as Wall Street downgraded the high-flying stock.
Karp spoke with host Josh Lipton on Thursday for Yahoo’s Finance Invest event. They discussed topics such as whether the AI boom was actually a bubble before Lipton turned to Palantir’s valuation, asking Karp to comment on analysts who say the company’s stock is too expensive.
Karp quickly hit back, suggesting that those who criticize Palantir – including analysts, journalists and politicians – over its valuation and its role in “strengthening the surveillance state domestically” are simply persuasive.
“I have a problem that I need to deal with, like the mainstream financiers, including their minions, the analysts… do you know how much money you have stolen from people who have your views on Palantir?” » said Karp.
Karp added that these analysts owe “the welder, the plumber, [and] technician’s money.
“By my estimates, Palantir is one…if not the only one where the average American is buying and the average sophisticated American is staying away or selling,” Karp added. The average American was “much smarter” than these critics, Karp said, and was “not bigoted” or “held back” by “beliefs that were false.”
“Should your business be parasitic? Should it be parasitic? Should the host essentially pay for the privilege of growing your business and get no value except the weird feeling you get from the parasite that you are better than you are? It’s like essentially breeding the woke mind virus into business,” Karp said of his critics’ “beliefs.”
Karp told Lipton that these average Americans were not “bigoted” against the “obvious truths” he has been saying for “20 years”; the executive then invoked his views on the American frontier, meritocracy, and discrimination “against white men.”
Previously a critic of President Donald Trump and a supporter of former President Joe Biden and former Vice President Kamala Harris, Karp re-emerged as one of Trump’s most prominent supporters during his second term.
Karp said he meets people of “normal means” all over the world “who are rich because of Palantir.”
“You know who isn’t rich because of Palantir? The people who read the analyst notes and the people who wrote them,” he said.
The Palantir co-founder said these people are “always a little angry” because “while they’re cruising around in their broken-down car, the person driving next to them in their nice Tesla is a real worker… who may have gotten rich on Palantir.” Alex Karp, who “can’t drive,” is worth about $16.3 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
