Palantir CEO Alex Karp criticizes Germany over reluctance to award military contracts

Palantir CEO Alex Karp criticized Germany after a senior Berlin official said the country did not plan to award military contracts to the US data analytics giant.

Last month, a senior military official told Handelsblatt newspaper that Germany’s armed forces did not intend to award contracts to Palantir.

German Digital Minister Karsten Wildberger also told POLITICO that, in the long term, he wanted a European alternative to the American data analytics company.

In an interview with Bild newspaper, Karp said he was surprised by the stance of the German Armed Forces, or Bundeswehr, and defended the widespread use of his company’s defense technologies.

“On every serious battlefield in the world, some components of Palantir are being used. There’s a reason for that,” the CEO said.

Karp said he understood that Germany and other major countries wanted their own autonomous systems, but added that he was surprised by German skepticism toward the company, particularly given that Palantir co-founder Peter Thiel was born in Germany.

Karp, an American entrepreneur, also studied in Germany and speaks fluent German.

“Peter and I are the leading Germanic and/or German-speaking businessmen in the world, and every other country would have found a way to embrace us,” Karp said.

“If we were French, the French would collectively force us to get French passports, speak only French, and change our name to Falantir… I don’t understand how Germany thinks it can afford this.”

Karp also argued that “at a general societal level, many of the debates sound as if people are talking about witchcraft.”

The use of Palantir software has become controversial in Germany, where critics warn about risks to data protection and fundamental rights, as well as dependence on a US provider.

Palantir provides a technological backbone for some of the world’s most powerful militaries and supplies software to countries including the US, Israel and Ukraine.

Karp’s interview followed a meeting in Kyiv with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and Minister Mykhailo Fedorov.

“They deserve enormous credit for building one of the world’s most important military defense systems,” Karp said.

Karp described Palantir’s products as “an operating system for war” and added:

“Just as you have an operating system for a company, for anything, or even for a car, they have one for the modern battlefield.”

Arguing that Ukraine managed the battlefield “the way a technology company manages its customers,” Karp said the key questions were simply different.

“How many Russian citizens are dying per square kilometer? And why? How? What are the payloads? What worked and what didn’t?”

Karp said he was proud of his company’s contribution to Ukraine’s defense and argued that other European countries should benefit from that expertise by purchasing proven Ukrainian technologies.

“What products is Europe going to buy to defend itself? Products tested in PowerPoint?… Or products that stopped a major military power on their own?”

Karp said Palantir did not have access to Ukrainian data through the military’s use of its software.

“When they are conducting air defense or targeting operations, almost all the code is written by them and controlled by them. We have no access,” he said.

“In that sense, in my view, there is no sovereignty issue. I cannot tell you what they are doing or how it is going, and I cannot stop them from doing it. They control it.”

Karp also criticized the way Europe was spending its massive defense budget.

“When I look at spending in Europe, I’m really worried because a lot of distribution is being done by people who have no idea how to spend this money,” he said.

“And this will create entrenched interests for politically powerful people producing inadequate and dysfunctional technologies. Then it becomes really difficult to get rid of that.”