Palantir CEO says 'poor people' are 'the only people who pay the price for being wrong in this culture'
Alex Karp argues business leaders get bailed out after 'stupid decisions' while ordinary Americans 'get nothing'
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Palantir CEO Alex Karp on Wednesday argued that Americans have lost trust in major institutions because powerful executives routinely avoid consequences for their failures, saying "poor people" are "the only people who pay the price for being wrong in this culture."
Speaking at The New York Times' annual DealBook Summit during a discussion about whether the federal government should take equity stakes in strategically important companies, Karp accused major corporations of running to the White House for help after making "stupid decisions," while ordinary Americans are left with nothing.
"No one believes the institutions are credible … and I struggle to believe they're credible too, because these business leaders make completely stupid decisions, and they get bailed out," Karp said. "A year later, they're getting huge bonuses. And what do the American people get? Nothing. That's a huge problem."
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Alex Karp speaks onstage during The New York Times DealBook Summit 2025 at Jazz at Lincoln Center Dec. 3, 2025, in New York City. (David Dee Delgado/Getty Images for The New York Times / Getty Images)
Karp also defended Palantir’s long-term strategy, arguing that many of its decisions, which were once dismissed as "stupid," are now being copied across the tech industry.
"Every decision Palantir made … every single one of those was viewed as stupid," he said. "All the people who made the right decisions went broke are going out of business or now have to copy us."
Karp argued that companies that seek help from the government after making "stupid decisions" should face the full consequences of their actions.
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New York Times columnist Andrew Ross Sorkin and Palantir co-founder and CEO Alex Karp speak onstage during the 2025 New York Times Dealbook Summit at Jazz at Lincoln Center Dec. 3, 2025, in New York City. (Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images / Getty Images)
"If you want to make your stupid decisions, and then you go to the White House and ask for money, you should absorb the full risk of that," Karp said. "Somehow your salary should be capped to the point where you make a lot of money for the American people.
"We at Palantir absorb the full risk of our failure, and everyone else should too."
The chief executive also claimed that "poor people" are "the only people who pay the price for being wrong in this culture."
"The rest of us somehow outsource all the times we're wrong and stupid to the whole society," Karp said. "But if you're poor and you're a soldier, or you're poor in the ghetto, when you're wrong, you go to prison or you die."
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A woman walks under a Palantir sign ahead of the World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos May 22, 2022. (Fabrice Coffrini/AFP via Getty Images / Getty Images)
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At the summit, Karp also defended Palantir’s work with both the Trump administration and the Israeli government and denied that the company is building surveillance tools for the U.S. government, The New York Times reported.
Earlier this month, Karp argued during an earnings call that the tech giant is the "first company to be completely anti-woke" and voiced support for the Trump administration's military strikes against suspected drug-smuggling boats.
Palantir did not immediately respond to FOX Business' request for comment.
FOX Business' Marc Tamasco contributed to this report.