Alex Karp Goes to War

A lot of Jews, me included, feel affinity to Israel but also feel that what’s happening in Gaza is intolerable.

If you have five Jews, you have 50 opinions. The issue for Palantir is, do you support Israel? Not do you support every micro decision that Israel is making?

We’re not talking about a little thing here.

Israel is a country with a GDP smaller than Switzerland, and it’s under massive attack. Some critiques are legitimate, but others are aggressive in attacking Israel. My reaction is, well, then I’m just going to defend them. When people are fair to Israel and treat it like any other nation, which I don’t think they do, I will be much more willing to express in public the things I express in private to Israelis.

When you get a letter from 13 former employees saying that Palantir’s leadership has failed to stand up to authoritarianism, do you take that seriously?

You have to steelman everything that’s lobbed at you. When The New York Times says we’re eviscerating human rights, blah, blah, blah, that’s complete malarkey. Everyone knows it’s malarkey. They know it’s malarkey. I certainly steelman [the critiques from] ex-Palantirians and current ones. Anybody making decisions all day is wrong sometimes. But if you attack me irresponsibly, that will harden my view.

Do you have a relationship with Trump?

It depends how you define “relationship.” He’s the president of the United States, and I very much respect that. I agree with him on some things, and probably on some things I don’t.

Do you like him?

I think he’s done a much better job than you think he’s done.

Let’s not use me.

In the positioning of your question, you’re not neutral. Talking to you is just like talking to my family. It’s like where me and my family disagree. And I’ll tell you where those places are. They’re on the border, they’re in Israel, and they’re in Ukraine. I get yelled at all day about those three issues.