Palantir boss Alex Karp takes stock of the German tech scene – and explains why his company is indispensable.
Palantir boss Alex Karp feels misunderstood in this country. Germany is harming itself, ignoring Palantir’s role in counterterrorism and Ukraine defense and has a miserable tech scene, he tells the Handelsblatt. The head of the analysis software provider settles the score with Germany’s tech industry in an interview.
Palantir is considered one of the most valuable software companies in the world. With a market capitalization of around $430 billion, the group is now worth more than SAP. Palantir develops platforms that merge and analyze large, complex amounts of data from different sources.
Customers include companies as well as government organizations – particularly in the areas of security and defense. Secret services, militaries and police authorities worldwide use the software.
To most people I’m a mix between Darth Vader and the Lord of the Sith
While Palantir is growing strongly in the USA, the company has been met with criticism in Germany for years. Data protection advocates and civil rights organizations warn of a lack of transparency, interference with fundamental rights and strategic dependence on US technology. There are repeated protests against the use of the software.
Where is the thanks? Karp asks himself that
Karp doesn’t feel understood – and demands more recognition for Palantir’s work. The company is the “backbone” of Ukrainian defense. “Does anyone thank us? Is it mentioned in the media reports in Germany? No.” Instead, Palantir is being criticized for acting unconstitutionally, which is “complete nonsense,” said Karp.
“Anyone who has access to secret files in Germany knows that we have prevented several major terrorist attacks, on the scale of 9/11.” It cannot be verified whether this claim is true – secrecy is part of the company’s (marketing) strategy.
Karp is particularly outraged by the criticism of himself and Palantir co-founder Peter Thiel, who sits on the company’s board of directors. “Can Germany afford to go to court like this with Peter Thiel and me?” he asks. In the public perception, many see him as “a mixture of Darth Vader and the Lord of the Sith.” He describes Germany’s behavior as “idiotic and strategically wrong.”
At the same time, Palantir remains controversial. The company works, among other things, with the US immigration authority ICE, which has recently come under criticism for its harsh migration enforcement. Karp emphasizes that Palantir draws clear ethical boundaries. We reject requests about racial profiling. They refused to set up a database about Muslims.
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A cigarette manufacturer that wanted to sell menthol cigarettes specifically to black consumers was also turned away. “Our software was supposed to find Black customers. We refused.” At the same time, Karp defends partnerships with authoritarian regimes in the Middle East and describes monarchies there as more stable and more human rights-friendly than some democracies.
Karp takes stock of Germany’s tech scene
In the interview he also attacks the German tech scene head-on. It is “among the worst in the world,” he says. Germany hardly plays a technological and geopolitical role anymore. “Nobody talks about Germany anymore. Not in the Middle East, not in Asia, not in the USA.” A country that was admired for decades for its engineering skills has lost touch.
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According to Karp, Germany should actually play a central role in the world due to its history. “But in fact it doesn’t.” His solution: ex-Palantir employee. “I actually hope that our current employees will stay with us forever. But if they are going to leave, then please take their responsibility seriously and show Germany what they have learned when they return.”
Germany means a lot to him personally, says Karp. He lived here, studied, speaks the language and says: “I don’t want to live in a world in which Germany is weak and politically unimportant.”