The AI surveillance platform provider Palantir is no stranger to controversy. It brings in billions each year from controversial partnerships with groups like Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Israeli Defense Forces, something CEO Alex Karp isn’t keen on changing anytime soon.
In an interview at the New York Times’ DealBook Summit this week, Karp even took it a step further, arguing that legalizing US war crimes would open up a whole new market for Palantir.
The CEO was discussing the ongoing US air strikes on small boats in the Caribbean. The Trump administration has killed 83 South American civilians in 21 known operations so far, military actions which many scholars and legal experts consider to be war crimes in violation of the US constitution.
But in a hypothetical world where these strikes against innocent people were constitutional, Karp enthused that Palantir would stand to make a lot of money.
“Part of the reason why I like this questioning is the more constitutional you want to make it, the more precise you want to make it, the more you’re going to need my product,” the CEO said. “So you keep pushing on making it constitutional. I’m totally supportive of that.”
As Gizmodo points out, Karp has never been one to shy away from verbal support of violence. Unlike other moguls profiting off the military industrial complex who hide behind concepts like “democracy” and “national security,” the Palantir CEO isn’t afraid to put his mouth where his money is with disarmingly bombastic language.
In a letter to shareholders earlier this year, for instance, Karp quoted hawkish political scholar Samuel Huntington in arguing that the “rise of the West was not made possible ‘by the superiority of its ideas or values or religion… but rather by its superiority in applying organized violence.’”
While this could be seen as a damning indictment of Western civilization and its violent stranglehold over the world economy, Karp instead positions it as a source of inspiration. “Might makes right,” as the saying goes.
In another part of his interview at DealBook, the Palantir CEO reaffirmed his commitment to ICE, emphasizing the important role he plays in making immigrants lives worse.
“I’m going to use my whole influence to make sure this country stays skeptical on migration and has a deterrent capacity that it only uses selectively,” Karp said.
More on Palantir: CEO of Palantir Says He Spends a Large Amount of Time Talking to Nazis
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