Co-founder and chief executive of data and defence software company Palantir, Alex Karp, accused AI companies of imposing a “wealth tax” on businesses and questioned the value of their offerings in a rambling interview on CNBC’s Squawk Box.
Karp spoke largely uninterrupted during the 20 minute segment, cutting off hosts multiple times to decry what he described as the “effing insane” business model of the AI industry.
He argued that major players including Anthropic are overcharging for their software, asking “if it [AI] was so valuable, wouldn’t I say I’ll make you a billion dollars and take 30 per cent? Why are they charging for tokens if it’s so valuable?”
Later in the interview, he suggested that these companies do not protect their users’ confidential data and business advantages. “The ‘I’m going to trust to trust you, you should trust me because I’ve never lied’ bs thing, that just doesn’t cut it at this level”, Karp said.
After one of the hosts commented “you sound pretty angry”, Karp responded by saying that “the voice of American business is being channelled through me,” and that leaders were privately “twice as livid” as him.
He claimed that these complaints were “outsourced” to him because companies prefer if they come from the “neurodivergent crazy person that apparently is on drugs, the one thing I don’t do.”
When not attacking other AI companies despite repeatedly saying he was not “throwing shade”, Karp was talking up his alternative, which he said is the only model that uses critical infrastructure.
At the end of the interview, Karp told his interviewers “I feel like I’m going to be kicked out of the room”, and asked them if they were off camera. The broadcast continued for around a minute after this point.
The interview comes soon after the 29 June announcement of Palantir’s partnership with Nvidia that it said will allow US government agencies to deploy Nvidia’s models in secure, sovereign environments.
Palantir said the initiative has security capabilities including offering explicit data authorisation, architecturally-enforced customer-specific isolation, data portability and full auditability. In addition, customers will own their models, which are able to post-train on data provided by the user.
Despite its stated focus on privacy, Palantir has been criticised globally for helping to expand government surveillance and its close ties to the current Trump administration. On 1 July, it was reported that the Spanish government has told state-backed firms not to sign new contracts with the company over concerns that it could expose sensitive national security information.
Palantir’s shares closed up 7.8 per cent Wednesday.
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