Palantir: Pariah to Power Player

The Journal.

The Wall Street Journal

Daily News, Business News, News

4.2 • 5.3K Ratings

🗓️ 11 August 2025

⏱️ 19 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The Silicon Valley company Palantir spent years treading water as a tech outsider in the S&P 500. The company's recent success, as WSJ’s Heather Somerville reports, is due in large part to CEO Alex Karp’s ability to find opportunities in crises, as well as to the Trump administration. Michelle Hackman hosts. Further Listening: - Inside ICE’s Aggressive Approach to Arresting Migrants- Why Trump Is Ready to Send Missiles to Ukraine - Iran May Be Running Out of Options Sign up for WSJ’s free What’s News newsletter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	We're here to serve the American people, and my version of service is the soldiers are happier, the enemies are scared.
0:15.1	That voice isn't a military general or a politician. It's the CEO of a major tech company, Alex Karp. He runs
0:24.7	Palantir, and for a tech CEO, he talks a lot about war. I don't think in win-lose, I think in
0:33.5	domination. That's because his company makes software that's used by militaries and government
0:39.9	agencies.
0:40.9	Our product is used on occasion to kill people.
0:45.3	No other CEO I have ever encountered talks the way Alex Karp talks.
0:50.9	That's our colleague Heather Somerville.
0:53.3	She covers tech and national security.
0:56.5	Palantir has, for most of its existence, been an outsider.
1:01.7	We were the most hated, most pariah.
1:05.7	Was very much dismissed or disliked.
1:09.7	Maligned for being pro-American.
1:12.2	It's really cultivated this cloak and dagger image over the years
1:15.8	as being this mysterious company that does something with data,
1:20.3	does something with intelligence and national security,
1:22.5	but nobody really knows what.
1:27.1	Palantir has been around for more than two decades.
1:30.7	For most of that time, they've flown under the radar.
1:33.7	But now...
1:34.7	You look at this name, Palantir up 600%.
1:37.2	Their revenue topped a billion dollars first time we've seen that.
	...

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