Episode 505 - I Read The Palantir Manifesto | The Corbett Report

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Episode 505 – I Read The Palantir Manifesto<br>by Corbett | Jun 24, 2026 | Podcasts, Videos | 4 comments

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You know, Palantir, right? And you know Alex Karp, Palantir’s deranged CEO? Have you read his manifesto? Well, I have! Do you want to know what he says? Then gather around for today’s episode of The Corbett Report!

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TRANSCRIPT

JAMES CORBETT : So, you know about Palantir, right? The "software services" company that specializes in creepy, AI-powered surveillance and targeting software for militaries and intelligence agencies around the world.

REPORTER : Founded in 2003 by billionaire Peter Thiel, alongside current CEO Alex Karp, Joe Lonsdale, Stephen Cohen and Nathan Gettings, Palantir’s tech helps detect unusual or suspicious patterns in large datasets using techniques that the founders learned working together at PayPal. The CIA was one of the company’s earliest investors and its only customer for a number of years. Eventually, other intelligence agencies like the FBI and the NSA jumped aboard.

SOURCE : How Palantir And Its Data-Mining Empire Became So Controversial

And you know Alex Karp, right? The self-declared "batshit crazy CEO" of Palantir, who seems only capable of giving uncomfortable interviews and public statements while apparently high as a kite.

ALEX KARP : 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 our enemies and on occasion kill them.

SOURCE : Palantir Technologies | Q4 2024 Earnings Webcast

[Explosion in Gaza]

ANA SORO : Alex, as always we have a lot of individual investors on the line. Is there anything you’d like to say before we end the call?

KARP : We’re doing it! We’re doing it! And I’m sure you’re enjoying this as much as I am!

SOURCE : Palantir Technologies | Q4 2024 Earnings Webcast

[Explosion in Gaza]

KARP : I was absorbing the full risk of our stupidity. You were absorbing the full risk of my stupidity by putting me on there and knowing all the crazy shit I was going to say. And you were going to have to sit there and listen to it. And you did it!

SOURCE: Palantir C.E.O. Alex Karp Defends Aiding Trump’s Immigration Policies

CORBETT : Well, in case you didn’t know, that self-same Alex Karp, CEO of Palantir, has co-written a manifesto. It’s called The Technological Republic, and I read it cover-to-cover. And, yes, it’s exactly as unhinged as you might expect it to be.

So, here’s what I found.

THE CORBETT REPORT THEME

Welcome back to another edition of The Corporate Report. I’m your host, James Corbett of corbettreport.com, coming to you from the sunny climes of Western Japan here in June of 2026 with Episode 505 of The Corporate Report podcast, "Episode 505 – I Read The Palantir Manifesto (and yes, it is totally unhinged!)"

And yes, as that title would indicate, today we are going to be talking about, the recently published manifesto by Palantir CEO Alex Karp and his co-author. But if you need to get caught up to speed on Palantir, you’ve just crawled out of a rock and have no idea what this is, well, boy, do I have some resources for you! Specifically, a couple of editorials that I’ve written along the way.

This 2022 editorial on "How Palantir Conquered the World" is a good overview to get you started, which notes that:

Founded by billionaire PayPal co-founder and Facebook early investor Peter Thiel, this plucky little Silicon Valley startup has long been the darling of the US military and the intelligence community, and it’s increasingly the darling of the corporate world. And—given Palantir’s ability to surveil, track and, ultimately, control every aspect of your daily life—it isn’t hard to see why.

And later on, I get into more of the nitty gritty details about Palantir. But before I do, I note some of the corporate whimsy that is part of the Palantir story:

Its offices are named after locations in the Tolkien fable. Thus, Palantir’s Palo Alto headquarters is The Shire, its office in McLean, Virginia (located just six miles from the CIA), is Rivendell; its Washington, D.C., branch is dubbed Minas Tirith, etc.

It has a hotline called the Batphone that allows engineers to anonymously report to company officials any customer requests that they consider to be unethical.

Two of its core analytic software programs, Gotham and Metropolis, are named after cities in the DC Comics universe.

One of the conference rooms in The Shire has been converted into a children’s ball pit.

Oh, how delightfully quirky! Surely no Silicon...