Today's Video Headlines: 11/17/25
convened by Chuck Schumer. The CEO of Palantir Technologies, a secretive data analytics giant, was given a place of prominence: seated next to Elon Musk. As the Tesla CEO made small talk during the press gaggle, Karp asked if he knew why they were seated together.
Musk said he had no idea.It was vintage Karp. Even at an event affirming his insider status, he darkly positioned himself as an inconvenient interloper that the establishment would “gladly off if only it weren’t so dependent on his software,” writes Michael Steinberger in “In 2020, Palantir’s Alex Karp was the highest-paid CEO of a publicly traded company, with a compensation package worth $1.1 billion — and speculation about Palantir’s role in killing Osama bin Laden has conferred an “enduring mystique,” writes author Mchael Steinberger in a new book.The new book chronicles Karp’s transformation from self-described “neo-socialist” to right-wing ally whose company sits at the nexus of terrorism, warfare and the How iconic NYC park's drug scene went from small-time weed to a gang turf war with two celebs' kids deadHarvard's Larry Summers stepping back from public commitments in fallout over Epstein emails “He has clearly shifted to the right, although he would probably say that he didn’t leave the left — the left left him,” Steinberger told The Post. Founded by Stanford students with the goal of fighting terrorism post 9/11, Palantir built software that sifts through enormous data quantities to identify connections human analysts might take months to find. The company’s fortunes have been closely linked to US intelligence and military, even though, Steinberger writes, “neither Thiel nor his associates had ever worked with the government … and had no clue as to how counterterrorism analysts wanted information presented.” The CIA became an early client. All six military branches now use Palantir, along with three dozen federal agencies. Over a dozen countries used its software to track COVID-19. Major corporations like BP and Airbus rely on it.Alex Karp made a dark joke while seated next to Elon Musk at a US Senate panel in 2023 — saying they were seated together “because the shotgun blast radius will only take out the two of us.”Since the launch of ChatGPT launched in late 2022 — when Karp announced: “Our strategy on AI is just to take the whole market” — new customers have poured in for boot camps: Lowe’s, General Mills, United Airlines, Cleveland Clinic, even Ferrari for Formula 1 racing. Stock went from under $8 to over $50. In 2020, Karp was the highest-paid CEO of a publicly traded company, with a compensation package worth $1.1 billion — and speculation about Palantir’s role in killing Osama bin Laden has conferred an “enduring mystique,” writes Steinberger. “What’s critical to understanding Karp is the sense of vulnerability that stalks him,” Steinberger said. “He is biracial, Jewish and severely dyslexic, and he says that he understood from an early age that he had what he saw as some strikes against him. You could say that Palantir exists to make the world safer for Alex Karp.” Karp, 58, grew up in a staunchly left-wing household — his father was a white pastor, his mother black — and, despite his learning disorder, excelled academically, majoring in philosophy at Haverford College in Pennsylvania before earning a law degree from Stanford, where he met classmate Peter Thiel.Karp’s own politics shifted dramatically after October 7, 2023, when Hamas killed 1,200 Israelis. Karp held a Palantir board meeting in Tel Aviv with Thiel and signed a defense contract with Israel’s Ministry of Defense.He went on to pursue a doctorate in social theory at Germany’s Goethe University Frankfurt, studying under Jürgen Habermas, Europe’s most acclaimed living philosopher. But Karp had no desire for an academic career. In 2004, when Thiel asked if he’d join a start-up building software to fight terrorism, he jumped at the opportunity. In a 2013 Forbes interview, Karp revealed his obsessive focus: “The only time I’m not thinking about Palantir is when I’m swimming, practicing Qigong or during sexual activity.” A lifelong bachelor, Karp maintains concurrent long-term relationships with two women. He has never learned to drive but skis 12 to 15 miles daily and owns multiple homes chosen for proximity to cross-country trails. At Palantir’s headquarters in Denver, which Karp calls the “schmattes factory” — Yiddish for cheap clothing — he regularly wears gear from an elite Norwegian ski team he has no connection to. At home, he puts his phone in a Faraday cage to block signals. “The Chinese would be crazy not to try to listen to my calls,” he told Steinberger of Palantir’s intelligence work.Karp donated $180,000 to a New Hampshire hermit known as “River Dave” whose cabin burned down, according to the book.For years, his salary was capped at $125,000, even when the company had a $20 billion valuation. “I only make money when you make money,” he told colleagues.In his “most notorious interview,” Karp met Louis Mosley, an Oxford graduate whose grandfather Oswald Mosley was the British fascist leader during World War II and once named “worst Briton of the twentieth century.” As soon as Mosley sat down, Karp began reciting from memory, for several minutes, one of Oswald’s 1939 speeches demanding Britain seek peace with Nazi Germany. When finished, Karp executed tai chi moves and walked out without saying goodbye.Mosley sat stunned, convinced his family’s past had torpedoed him. Instead, he was hired and now runs Palantir’s UK business. In August 2021, when the Afghanistan evacuation was collapsing, the Pentagon called Palantir. Within days, engineers built a data ecosystem merging information from every military branch and civilian agency, including a group chat among troops at Kabul’s airport. Over 17 days, nearly 125,000 people were evacuated. But tragedy marred the mission: a suicide bomber killed more than 180 people, including 13 American soldiers, and a mistaken drone strike killed 10 Afghan civilians.Karp’s own politics shifted dramatically after October 7, 2023, when Hamas killed 1,200 Israelis. Karp held a Palantir board meeting in Tel Aviv with Thiel, visited the Kfar Aza kibbutz where over 60 Israelis were murdered, and signed a defense contract with Israel’s Ministry of Defense. The company’s software was used in hostage rescues and helped repel Iranian missile attacks. Karp told student protesters critical of Israel’s Gaza campaign, “You are not welcome at my company,” and announced 180 Palantir positions for students fleeing campus antisemitism. Critics suggested the program could face legal challenges for appearing to discriminate based on religion. “My lawyers are having heart attacks,” Karp told Steinberger with a satisfied grin. “October 7 and its aftermath — the protests on college campuses, which he believed were suffused with antisemitism — cemented the break ,” Steinberg said “Karp now speaks glowingly of Donald Trump, which is a big change from the first Trump presidency when he was sharply critical of him.”“Whereas in the past Karp made clear that defending the West ipso facto meant defending liberal democracy, he no longer talks about defending liberal democracy,” Steinberger said. “Instead, he talks of the West now as a cultural entity, and a superior culture. What defending the West means — which aspects of the West the company is actually defending — has changed.” How iconic NYC park's drug scene went from small-time weed to a gang turf war with two celebs' kids deadHarvard's Larry Summers stepping back from public commitments in fallout over Epstein emails‘Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery’ LA premiere red carpet: Kerry Washington, Janelle Monáe, Mila Kunis and moreBill Maher Skewers Trump Over Epstein Docs in Blistering ‘Real Time’ Monologue ‘The Golden Bachelor’s Cindy Cullers Walked Out On Mel Owens In The Season 2 Finale: “I Don’t Think I Need To Convince A Man To Love Me” ‘Selling The OC’ Star Kaylee Ricciardi Says Mattress Actress Riley Reid Is Truly The “Ariana Grande Of Porn” Eddie Murphy Revisits David Spade’s Infamous Diss That Sparked ‘SNL’ Feud in ‘Being Eddie’: “F–k Y’all, That’s What Y’all Think of Me?”In 2020, Palantir's Alex Karp was the highest-paid CEO of a publicly traded company, with a compensation package worth $1.1 billion — and speculation about Palantir’s role in killing Osama bin Laden has conferred an “enduring mystique,” writes author Mchael Steinberger in a new book.Alex Karp made a dark joke while seated next to Elon Musk at a US Senate panel in 2023 — saying they were seated together “because the shotgun blast radius will only take out the two of us.”Karp's own politics shifted dramatically after October 7, 2023, when Hamas killed 1,200 Israelis. Karp held a Palantir board meeting in Tel Aviv with Thiel and signed a defense contract with Israel’s Ministry of Defense.Karp donated $180,000 to a New Hampshire hermit known as “River Dave” whose cabin burned down, according to the book.How iconic NYC park's drug scene went from small-time weed to a gang turf war with two celebs' kids dead
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