Palantir CEO Alex Karp recently appeared for an interview on CNBC, during which he endorsed Elon Musk. He also advocated stifling free speech on college campuses, which he claims is to protect Western values but has admitted in the past that it has more to do with shielding Israel from criticism.

As CEO of the CIA-backed analytics company Palantir Technologies, Alex Karp has been using his position to push a new agenda, which is clearly laid out in his new book, “The Technological Republic.” His message weaponizes a wave of opposition to cancel culture, pushing back against identity politics unpopular with the populist American right while proposing that Western Capitalist and Zionist identity politics replace it.

“At some point, Silicon Valley lost its way,” Karp proclaims in his book, arguing that the problem the U.S. faces is that its private sector has been softened by its focus on consumer markets and should return to the American nationalist “collective project.” In his recent CNBC interview, after which Palantir Technologies stock soured, he focused on how university students have fallen victim to an environment in which they are critical of their government and resent Western imperial values.

“What you have been taught in college that you basically should have no beliefs, that the West is inferior” is incorrect, claims Karp, asserting that “the West is obviously superior.” He then says that “a pagan religion has infiltrated our universities,” “that pagan religion basically says everything that’s good about America, everything that actually works, is ipso-facto bad, and by the way, you can’t talk about it not working because it’s a religion.”

While the Palantir CEO rarely explains his disagreements in detail, he has explicitly aligned himself with Elon Musk, advocating a hawkish approach to foreign policy as a solution to America’s domestic woes.

Despite identifying as a “liberal,” Karp recently remarked that people “do not want to hear your Woke pagan ideology” about the Democratic Party while arguing that Americans will only be safe when their alleged foreign enemies are scared. Speaking at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation, Karp argued that the U.S. should focus on instilling fear in its adversaries, stating that America’s enemies should “wake up scared and go to bed scared.” He made this argument in the context of American citizens being taken captive. The only recent cases of such incidents have occurred in Gaza, where Israeli-Americans were seized by Hamas, and in Israel, where Palestinian-Americans have been detained by Israeli authorities.

In May of 2024, Karp let slip his motivation for opposing the intellectual traditions emerging on college campuses in the United States, that being his support for Israel. He strongly criticized the historic pro-Palestine encampments, stressing that they can not be taken as “a sideshow” and revealed the actual reason behind the need to confront them: “If we lose the intellectual debate, you will not be able to deploy any army in the West, ever.”

In early 2024, Palantir Technologies held its first board meeting of the year in Tel Aviv, a decision the company publicly celebrated on social media with the declaration, “We stand with Israel.” Yet Palantir’s involvement extends far beyond symbolic gestures or political endorsements. The American tech firm is not only an advocate for the military-industrial complex and foreign interventionism but also a direct player in aiding Israel’s ongoing war on Gaza.

As one of the most sophisticated data-mining companies in the world, Palantir has equipped the Israeli military and intelligence agencies with cutting-edge targeting capabilities for battlefield operations. Israel has leveraged these technologies in its military campaigns, resulting in the deaths of tens of thousands of civilians. Years ago, Palantir CEO Alex Karp acknowledged the lethal nature of his company’s products, admitting, “Our product is used on occasion to kill people.” He even reflected on the ethical implications, once wondering, “If I were younger at college, would I be protesting me?”

More recently, however, any reservations Karp may have once harbored appear to have diminished. In February, he spoke with enthusiasm about his company’s role in military operations, declaring, “Palantir is here to disrupt and make the institutions we partner with the very best in the world and, when it’s necessary, to scare enemies and on occasion kill them.”

Palantir’s growing involvement in Israeli military operations has also sparked concerns over how such technologies might be deployed in the United States. Israel’s reported use of artificial intelligence to generate kill lists has raised alarms about the broader implications of integrating similar AI-driven surveillance and targeting systems domestically.

In addition to Karp personally aligning himself with the views expressed by the self-styled alternative right, which has now built itself a network in new media, his company’s connections to the halls of power extend directly to US Vice President JD Vance. It turns out that Donald Trump’s second in command was groomed and supported by Palantir co-founder Peter Thiel, who even spent a record-breaking 15 million dollars to ensure his success in becoming a senator in Ohio.

Feature photo | Elon Musk, CEO of X, the company formerly known as Twitter, left, and Alex Karp, CEO of the software firm Palantir Technologies, take their seats as Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D, N.Y., convenes a closed-door gathering of leading tech CEOs to discuss the priorities and risks surrounding artificial intelligence and how it should be regulated, at the Capitol in Washington, Sept. 13, 2023. J. Scott Applewhite | AP

Feature photo | Elon Musk, CEO of X, the company formerly known as Twitter, left, and Alex Karp, CEO of the software firm Palantir Technologies, take their seats as Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D, N.Y., convenes a closed-door gathering of leading tech CEOs to discuss the priorities and risks surrounding artificial intelligence and how it should be regulated, at the Capitol in Washington, Sept. 13, 2023. J. Scott Applewhite | AP

Robert Inlakesh is a political analyst, journalist and documentary filmmaker currently based in London, UK. He has reported from and lived in the occupied Palestinian territories and hosts the show ‘Palestine Files’. Director of ‘Steal of the Century: Trump’s Palestine-Israel Catastrophe’. Follow him on Twitter @falasteen47

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