Alex Karp unplugged: Palantir CEO on "The Axios Show"
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Alex Karp, co-founder and CEO of Palantir, tells me on a new episode of "The Axios Show" that AI could lead to dysfunction and even violence if benefits aren't spread broadly to workers at all levels.
- "Does the person on the factory floor in America — vocationally trained, with specific knowledge of their domain — do they participate [in the prosperity]?" asked Karp, an outspoken mogul who's at the forefront of how AI is reshaping government, business and the workplace.
- Karp — whose AI-driven software company has won big government contracts and soared in value since President Trump took office — gestured around the room in Manhattan where we taped the hour-long interview this week and added: "How well does your camera person do?"
Why it matters: I invited Karp to "go dark with me" about AI and he complied, warning about the consequences of the U.S. losing to China. But he said AI is already increasing American prosperity and productivity, and will raise the standard of living for many in the working class.
🔭 Zoom out: Karp, an unabashed American patriot ("The chance of world survival goes up as America becomes stronger, more dominant," he told me), is the subject of a new biography out this week, "The Philosopher in the Valley." A new article by The Economist, "Why Palantir's success will outlast AI exuberance," argues: "Its valuation looks bonkers. Its business isn't."
I pressed Karp, 58, on winners and losers from AI. He warned of dire risk for a high-IQ graduate of Yale, for instance, who has "generalized knowledge, but it's not specific."
- "You're effed," Karp said. "The Yale grad will have to learn something specific — domain expertise."
- Examples Karp gave of specific knowledge that'll be valuable are: "How do I actually write a script that allows me to target terrorists? ... How do I put the cement in a factory with such precision that you can build a factory like it was built in Taiwan, in America?"
- He said AI is going to help many people with vocational training, but no college degree, "make a lot more money" because of the value being created.
Other key points Karp made in our wide-ranging interview:
- 🤖 The stakes in the AI race: "We are going to be the dominant player, or China's gonna be the dominant player. And there will just be very different rules depending on who wins." He said he's "concerned that we fail in America and that we don't dominate," because of too much emphasis on "discussion about human rights that obviously only serves people who, like, somehow wanna live in a world that doesn't work."
- On tech moguls building bunkers: "I think they have the same fears you do. They just have more money," he said. Karp added that it's all about the odds: "When you talk to [political] campaigns, they're like: 'We have a 25% chance of losing.' ... And anyone in tech is like: 'You have a 25% chance of non-recoverable death,'" or loss of brain function.
- 👁️ On people being suspicious of Palantir: Karp said almost all his clients "started off as Palantir skeptics." He said the "people I care about," including those "on the front line in factories, the people driving trucks," depend on Palantir technology.
- 🧔♂️ On the Democratic Party's mistake with men: "Democrats just completely neglect males. ... It's admirable to be a ... high-testosterone male. And ... you have the general vibe in the Democratic Party that there's something wrong. ... I don't find it very appealing as a dude."
- 🫏 On his advice to his Democratic friends: "You have to grow a spine because a lot of these people actually agree with me in private." He said that when he's talking privately, the proportion of Democrats who tell him that the democratic socialist plans of New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani can never work "is very high."
- 🗳️ On Mamdani voters: "I think the average Ivy League grad voting for this mayor is highly annoyed that their education is not that valuable, and the person down the street who knows how to drill for oil and gas, who's moved to Texas, has a more valuable profession. And I think that annoys the f--k out of these people."
- 🛌 On getting enough sleep: "I'm primarily a creative human. ... My best work is done if I get eight hours' sleep. I can't always do that 'cause I'm traveling. ... But I really strive for eight hours' quality sleep because what I notice is I just feel better, my brain works better."
Watch the full episode above.
