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’s bought shares in the company; the executive seemed to be referring to the retail investors who’ve flocked to Palantir even as Wall Street downgrades the high-flying stock.

Karp sat down with anchor Josh Lipton on Thursday for Yahoo’s Finance Invest event. They discussed topics such as whether the AI boom is really a bubble before Lipton pivoted to Palantir’s valuation, asking Karp to comment on the analysts who say the company’s stock is too expensive.

Karp quickly shot back, suggesting that those who criticize Palantir — including analysts, journalists, and politicians — over its valuation and role in “powering the surveillance state domestically” are merely persuasive.

“I do have a bone to pick with like traditional financial people, including their minions, the analysts… do you know how much money you’ve robbed of people with your views on Palantir?” Karp said.

Karp went on to say these analysts owe “the welder, plumber, [and] technician” money.

“By my reckoning, Palantir is one…if not the only where the average American bought and the average sophisticated American sat on the sidelines or sold,” Karp added. The average American was “a lot smarter” than these critics, Karp said, and was “not bigoted” or “held down” by “training beliefs that were wrong.”

“Does your enterprise have to be parasitic? Should it be a parasitic? Should the host essentially be paying for the privilege of making your company larger and getting no value except for a weird feeling that you get from the parasite that you’re better than you are? It’s like essentially replicating the whole woke mind virus in the enterprise,” Karp said of his critics’ “beliefs.”

Karp told Lipton that these average Americans weren’t “bigoted” against “obvious truths” he’s been saying for “20 years;” the executive went on to invoke his views on the U.S. border, meritocracy, and discrimination “against white males.”

Previously a critic of President Donald Trump and a backer of former President Joe Biden and former Vice President Kamala Harris, Karp has reemerged as one of Trump’s most prominent supporters during his second term.

Karp said he runs into people of “normal means” all over the world “who are rich because of Palantir.”

“You know who’s not rich because of Palantir? The people who read the analyst notes and the people who wrote them,” he said.

Palantir’s co-founder said these people are “still kind of angry” because “while they’re cruising along in their broken down car, the person cruising next to them in their beautiful Tesla is an actual worker…who may have gotten rich on Palantir.” Alex Karp, who “does not know how to drive,” is worth an estimated $16.3 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.