Palantir Technologies Inc. Chief Executive Alex Karp appeared to go into meltdown mode during an interview with CNBC today where for 20-odd minutes he went off script after being asked to discuss his company’s ongoing deal with chip maker Nvidia Corp.
The conversation turned to the AI industry where he lambasted the U.S. government’s relationship with leading AI firms and railed against AI tokenization that he claimed has left enterprise customers feeling frustrated. He called the high prices being charged a “wealth tax” on businesses.
Speaking about the government’s reliance on OpenAI Group PBC and Anthropic PBC concerning the development of AI for military and national security applications, he asked, “Are we really going to outsource the battlefield of this country to the consensus view in Silicon Valley? That is effing insane.”
“And by the way,” he went on, explaining that “every single enterprise in this country,” despite their apparent reticence on the subject, are upset with the “nerds” of Silicon Valley. His meltdown then hit a high point when he alleged that some of those nerds were “on drugs,” adding that he, of course, abstains from such substances. “It starts with the billionaires… every single person at this table is going to be paying a wealth tax.”
“Livid” was the word he used to describe enterprise customers who are “paying for tokens that create no value,” while handing over their data to the major firms and, in the end, taxing the public who will end up paying for it in some form.
The reason, he ventured, was the “models have completely… irresponsibly been over-sold…a nd the sell is, it’s dangerous for everyone, which is why I can give it to all your adversaries, but I can’t give it to the Department of War.”
“You sound pretty angry,” the host interrupted.
He countered, his finger wagging, “No, this is the voice of American business that is being channeled through me and I’m telling you it is absolutely a problem for this country.”
Some media later referred to the interview as a “televised nervous breakdown.”
Photo: YouTube/CNBC
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