Palantir CEO: If You Do Not Support U.S. Military Work, ‘Don’t Work Here’

 

Defense Scoop: Palantir CEO to those who don't support U.S. military work: 'Don't work here' 

Palantir CEO Alex Karp reaffirmed his commitment to supporting the values of the West via his company’s algorithmic intelligence software on Wednesday, telling any current or prospective employees who don’t support that mission: “Don’t work here.” 

Asked by David Rubenstein, co-chairman of private equity firm the Carlyle Group, during an interview at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, about the tension many major tech companies face from “left-leaning” employees when working with the U.S. military and others, Karp stood firmly by Palantir’s mission to support the West from adversaries, whether that’s terrorist cells or developed nations like Russia and China who threaten democracy. 

“We are not everyone’s cup of tea. We may not be your cup of tea,” Karp said. “To make society work, there are basic functions that have to work, one of which is the reduction of terrorism, pushing back on, in my view, human rights abuses largely done by adversaries to the West. You may not agree with that, and bless you. Don’t work here.”  

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WNU Editor: Palantir has been on my radar when I first heard what they are doing years ago. Palantir CEO Alex Karp is currently in Davos (see the above two videos).

Is Developing AI Targeting Capabilities For Drones 'This Generation's Manhattan Project'?

U.S. airmen prepare a U.S. Air Force MQ-9 Reaper drone as it leaves on a mission at Kandahar Air Field, Afghanistan March 9, 2016. Picture taken March 9, 2016. REUTERS/Josh Smith

Business Insider: A Palantir exec described the company's secretive AI drone program as 'this generation's Manhattan Project'

* Palantir executive Shyam Sankar described the company's work developing AI targeting capabilities for drones as "this generation's Manhattan Project," according to two people familiar with the comments.
* The comments, made during a January all-hands meeting, come as the company expands its work on "Project Maven," a department of defense project which Google stopped working on in March following protests inside of the company.
* Sankar also told employees the company was profitable in 2019, the people said, though it's not clear by what metric.

Secretive data analytics firm Palantir believes its work helping drones autonomously identify enemy targets is as urgent and important as America's race to develop a nuclear weapon during World War II, two sources have told Business Insider.

At a company all-hands meeting earlier this month, Palantir President Shyam Sankar described Project Maven, the artificial intelligence defense initiative that Palantir joined after Google announced its departure in 2018, as "this generation's Manhattan Project," according to two sources with knowledge of the meeting.

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WNU Editor: I somewhat concur. Developing AI platforms for the military is a critical program for the military. And like nuclear weapons, it will redefine how future conflicts and wars will be fought.

Future Conflicts Will Be Determined By Software

Palantir office known as the “Jewel Box” in Palo Alto, California. Mark Neuling, CNBC

CNBC: Peter Thiel’s stealth start-up Palantir has unlocked a new opportunity to sell to the US military as revenue tops $1 billion

* Palantir had a huge year, breaking through a government contract barrier that had held it back from lucrative Pentagon deals and securing an $800 million contract with the Army that it had sought for nearly a decade.
* The company has also made progress on the enterprise front, expanding a significant partnership with Airbus and branching out in the automotive and pharmaceutical markets.

Palantir — the Silicon Valley data analytics company co-founded by PayPal founder and Trump advisor Peter Thiel — has made the CNBC Disruptor 50 list for six years running. But this year was perhaps the most disruptive of all for the company, which has attracted $2.8 billion in funding, raising its valuation to $20.5 billion, according to PitchBook.

In 2019, Palantir was able to leverage a favorable landmark 2017 court decision to break through government contracting barriers that formerly kept the firm out of the running for some of the Pentagon’s most lucrative contracts.

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WNU Editor: WNU has been following this company since the beginning .... The CIA's Investment In Tech Company Palantir Is Reaping Billions (December 10, 2013). I like this company because it values the importance of not only accumulating data, but knowing how to process and analyze it. I have always believed that future conflicts will be determined by using this same technology. Accumulating and processing the data from a battlefield, and then using it to target high-value targets.

Why Is A CIA-Backed Company Grabbing Commercial Real Estate In Palo Alto

CNBC: The CIA-backed start-up that's taking over Palo Alto

Downtown Palo Alto, the heart and soul of Silicon Valley and former home to Google, Facebook and PayPal, is slowly turning into a scene out of "Lord of the Rings."

Palantir Technologies, a highly secretive software developer whose name is derived from a magical crystal ball in J.R.R. Tolkien's fantasy novel, has been gobbling up real estate in the upscale home of Stanford University, and — according to critics — uprooting a vibrant start-up ecosystem in the process.

Unlike its start-up predecessors, which outgrew the cramped streets of Palo Alto and moved to more traditional corporate campuses in nearby Menlo Park and Mountain View, Palantir is intent on staying put and expanding. The company controls about 250,000 square feet of office space, or 10 to 15 percent of the commercial inventory, spread over 23 or so buildings. Some of its leases are for a decade or longer.

WNU Editor: My brother lives in San Mateo, and there was a time that I was thinking of moving and living in Palo Alto. I fell in love with the place on my first visit. I love Stanford University, the sunshine, the little stores, the restaurants, the overall positive energy of the place. As it turned out .... I had a better offer  ....  a personal decision that I have no regrets about. That is why I am not surprised that the people behind Palantir have made the decision to expand in Palo Alto .... my guess is that they want to tap into the brain power that exists in Stanford, and they want to entice the best and the brightest to work with them. If I was a betting man .... considering who they work for .... I am willing to bet that they are going to succeed.

The CIA's Investment In Tech Company Palantir Is Reaping Billions

Palantir's Valuation Jumps From $6 Billion To $9 Billion In Less Than Three Months -- Tech Spot

Palantir Technologies, a CIA-backed data analytics company, is now worth $9 billion. The valuation comes after the company on Thursday disclosed in a securities filing that it has raised around $58 million in the latest funding round. If the company achieves the expected $100 million mark in this round, its total backing and CEO Alex Karp's net worth would hit $800 million and $900 million respectively.

Palantir was founded in 2004 by Stanford computer scientists and PayPal alumni, and is headquartered in Palo Alto, California. It provides data organization and analysis tools to various public and commercial sector clients including CIA, FBI, JPMorgan Chase and more.

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Update #1: CIA-backed Palantir reportedly worth $9 billion, jumping 50 percent in two months -- The Verge
Update #2: Palantir - The $9 Bil CIA-Funded Co That Could Be Helping the NSA Spy on You -- BSN

My Comment: Storing data has always been big business .... i guess organizing it properly is even worth more money.

Software That Is Challenging The Intelligence Community

This Peter Thiel Company Is Ripping The Army Intelligence Community Apart -- Business Insider

Palantir is a company founded by Peter Thiel — of Paypal and Facebook renown — that has software which absolutely changes the game with intelligence.

It's one of the best programs at coordinating the vast databases accumulated by the U.S. intelligence apparatus. It's already in use in federal domestic security.

But it's also caused a massive fight inside the Army intelligence command.

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My Comment: This sounds like a more modern and sophisticated version of Able Danger Program. But Palantir has been around for a while .... I first talked about them in 2009.