Palantir CEO Alex Karp calls AI industry 'Marxist' after record quarter

Palantir CEO Alex Karp on Monday again cautioned that leading AI labs are not trustworthy enough for enterprise clients. In the company's quarterly letter to shareholders, he wrote that many builders of large language models intend, knowingly or otherwise, to capture the means of production of their purported partners. Karp, who holds a PhD in social theory, said there are Marxist overtones and undertones in the business.

The warnings did not overshadow a strong quarter for Palantir, which has benefited from soaring AI usage. The company reported $1.9 billion in revenue for the second quarter, up 93% year over year, and $1.1 billion in profit. Karp noted that the single-quarter profit was larger than the total revenue in the same period a year earlier.

During a conference call with Wall Street analysts, Karp expanded on his comparison with language common among defense tech companies. He asked whether companies would buy into a future where their work helps adversaries win and a small, privileged group controls the country's means of production. He also argued that enterprise customers are paying for symbolic indulgences at a real cost, while allowing AI developers to migrate their intellectual property, know-how and expertise into models that could eventually make their businesses unnecessary.

Karp's broader point echoes criticism voiced elsewhere, including by Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. The argument highlights cases where companies paid or partnered with Anthropic and OpenAI even as those labs launched competing ventures spanning design tools, healthcare, legal services and drug discovery. Despite the sharp rhetoric, the rapid growth of the AI market leaves room for all, as Palantir's own results demonstrate. None of these companies are economic heroes or villains, the source suggests.