Inside the Tech Company Powering Trump’s Most Controversial Policies
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What role does Palantir play in Trump's controversial policies?
This is Andrew Ross Sorkin, the founder of Dealbook. Every year, I interview some of the world's most influential leaders across politics, culture, and business at the Dealbook Summit, a live event in New York City. On this year's podcast, you'll hear my unfiltered conversations with Gavin Newsom, the CEO of Palantir and Anthropic, and Erica Kirk, the widow of Charlie Kirk. Listen to Dealbook Summit wherever you get your podcasts.
From The New York Times, I'm Nathalie Kitrowef. This is The Daily.
President Trump pushing ahead with sweeping plans to trim the size of the federal government.
President Trump is ramping up deportations in Democrat-led cities. The U.S. has attacked three nuclear sites in Iran.
At the heart of many of President Trump's most controversial policies, there's been one company, Palantir.
The core mission of our company always was to make the West, especially America, the strongest in the world, the strongest it's ever been.
According to Palantir's CEO, the company exists to defend Western ideals.
But to its critics... Some worry that Palantir could give the government sweeping, almost futuristic surveillance capabilities...
Palantir is enabling the administration's illiberal tactics. Today, Times contributor Michael Steinberger on how Palantir's CEO, who's described himself as a lifelong Democrat, became a champion of President Trump, how his political transformation shaped one of the most secretive companies in the world, and the impact that transformation could have on American democracy.
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.
It's Tuesday, December 16th. Michael, welcome to the show.
Thank you for having me.
You just published this book. It's called The Philosopher in the Valley about Palantir and its CEO, Alex Karp. And in the process of working on that book, you spent a lot of time with Karp and inside the company, this company that is playing a very unique role in the second Trump administration. So I can't think of anyone better to ask. What exactly does Palantir do?
Well, first, I should say that it's a quite secretive company. A lot of its work is done with intelligence services, the military. So there's a lot of stuff they do that they can't talk about that we can't know about. The work is also technologically quite complex. Essentially, Palantir makes software that enables organizations to make faster, better use of their data. Typically, we're talking about large organizations that collect sizable quantities of data to Palantir's software pulls in all the data, merges it, and then finds patterns, trends, connections in that data, stuff that might elude the human eye. One very powerful example of Palantir's work was in the war in Ukraine. Palantir's software is the backbone for the Pentagon's AI-driven targeting program.
And this was used extensively in the first months of the war to help the Ukrainians withstand the Russian assault. So a lot of satellite data was being pulled in by the U.S. military, along with intercepted Russian communications. And the U.S. military was able to say to the Ukrainians, OK, here's where there's a troop formation. There's a general here. If you fire a missile at these coordinates, you might be very happy with the results. And Palantir's technology was instrumental to this and played a very significant role in enabling the Ukrainians to withstand the initial Russian assault.
So that example of the war in Ukraine obviously shows the value of this software. But this is a company that also prompts a lot of concern, right? Can you just explain that part?
It not only prompts a lot of concern, many people regard Palantir as possibly the most dangerous company in the world. Part of this is some of the clients it has. It's used by the CIA. In fact, the CIA was an early investor in Palantir. It's also used by the Mossad and other clandestine services. It's used extensively by law enforcement.
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Chapters
6 chapters
1
What role does Palantir play in Trump's controversial policies?
0:00–6:02
2
How did Alex Karp's political views evolve over time?
6:02–9:09
3
What is the core mission of Palantir according to its CEO?
9:09–12:07
4
How has Palantir's technology been utilized in the Ukraine war?
12:07–15:56
5
What concerns are raised about Palantir's government contracts?
15:56–19:54
6
How is Palantir involved in ICE's deportation efforts?
19:54–40:23