Flying Too Close to the Sun? Palantir’s Ambitions and the Future of Warfare

The Philosopher in the Valley
By Michael Steinberger
Avid Reader Press / Simon & Schuster, 304 pages, $33

Michael Steinberger’s The Philosopher in the Valley argues that Palantir’s unprecedented influence over U.S. military operations stems not from technological superiority but from CEO Alex Karp’s ideological mission to defend the West against external threats, including terrorist organizations and near-peer competitors. Rather than a celebratory business biography, Steinberger’s book presents a case study in how a tech company gained a pivotal role in the Western defense apparatus. The iconoclastic and quotable Karp built Palantir from a start-up into the most controversial and consequential software company in the world. Palantir’s influence now extends to critical military processes, including the kill chain, inextricably linking the firm to the success of Western military operations. Steinberger’s book succeeds in capturing Karp’s distinctive worldview and Palantir’s rise, while raising concerns about a defense ecosystem dependent on one private firm.

Steinberger’s access to and interviews with Karp give the book much-needed nuance and depth. Karp’s identity as a biracial, dyslexic, Jew shaped his worldview in which Palantir’s mission became personal: creating systems to identify threats before they materialize. Steinberger uses these details to provide a clearer understanding of how Palantir navigated its lean years and what has enabled its meteoric rise. Even as Karp and Palantir gained profitability and inclusion in the S&P 500, Karp continued to lash out at competitors and detractors, fueling the perception that Palantir would forever remain outsiders, no matter the number of contracts they won or how high the stock price rose.

The Pentagon has traded technological stagnation for vendor lock-in. By anticipating the future needs of its clients, not just their stated requirements, Palantir and Karp captured clients by delivering products they never knew they needed and can no longer live without. When Google abandoned Project Maven, Palantir stepped in and now controls the most pivotal space in the DOD’s contract suite — the software that makes sense of the battlefield, feeding life and death decisions. Critics raise oversight concerns, but the effectiveness of Palantir’s products goes largely unquestioned.

Karp’s distinctive pessimist worldview, formed by upbringing and ethnic background, sees the world as hostile to his interests — a view embedded in Palantir’s thinking. Using Tolkien’s language, Karp and Palantir protect the “Shire” or the West. Since its founding and Karp’s appointment as CEO in 2005, the firm has held fast to this worldview. In the ensuing two decades, failures in Iraq and Afghanistan and the invasion of Ukraine prove Karp prescient, not pessimistic. This foresight remains a competitive advantage. Palantir’s clarity of purpose and consistent worldview, not just its technology, have allowed Palantir to anticipate the needs and wants of clients in an ever more dangerous and volatile world. In a recent interview, Karp went further, connecting Palantir to the middle class and soldiers, who bore the brunt of these massive risk miscalculations. This distinction further separates Palantir from the Big Tech giants focusing on fragmenting and monetizing attention.

Karp’s outsider perspective proved ideal for leading a tech start-up. Karp, a former law school classmate of Palantir co-founder Peter Thiel, assumed the role of CEO upon returning to California following the completion of his doctorate in Germany. The unconventional academic pedigree gave the young start-up invaluable advantages. For Palantir, data ontology, not just lines of code, provided its clients with the framework to make sense of and use its data. Data ontology provides structure and organization to information. This philosophical foundation created a technical advantage, but also a lock-in. Karp stated, “Palantir’s software was a philosophical system at heart.” Steinberger notes that Palantir further differentiated its software by constructing a “dynamic ontology.” Once an organization structures its data around Palantir’s ontological framework — creating “digital twins” of operations continuously updated and augmented — switching vendors becomes prohibitively complex. The Defense Department didn’t just buy software; it adopted a way of thinking about its own operations.

The framework gave the young firm viable, effective products, but Palantir struggled to find commercial viability and raise venture capital in a Silicon Valley leery of supporting national security start-ups post-9/11. A well-timed investment from In-Q-Tel, the CIA’s venture fund, gave the firm much-needed funding. More importantly, In-Q-Tel gave Palantir access to its ideal user: intelligence analysts. Access to the CIA touched off a recurring pattern — early users of Palantir products began proselytizing within their organizations for the adoption of Palantir products. The evangelizing of Palantir created a fervor for its products, a fortunate break for a firm without a salesforce. Karp and Palantir pursued and won a lawsuit to break into the entrenched defense establishment to win contracts.

During its existence, Palantir has responded to crises by organizing, managing, and streamlining data sets. From the surge in Afghanistan in 2010 where IED facilitation networks decimated American units to the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic to Ukraine’s response to the Russian invasion in 2022, Palantir products gave decision makers the tools needed to navigate these crises. These crises exposed how Western governments, overwhelmed by information streams, lacked tools to gain situational awareness, a gap Palantir exploited to its advantage. Palantir’s ability to solve the most vexing problem sets in a time of need demonstrates its value proposition and how underinvestment in information infrastructure leaves governments vulnerable.

Even as a child, while visiting art museums with his father, both father and son lingered in front of a statue of Icarus, exposing Alex to the dangers of unchecked ambition. Today, Karp and Palantir’s ambitions leave their fierce critics to wonder if they will melt from the sun’s unforgiving gaze. The Palantir success story, intertwined with its inherent risks, now irreversibly binds its clients, especially Western militaries, to the company. The company that began as a niche firm led by a philosophy Ph.D. is now a juggernaut making headlines, delivering gains, and shaping the modern battlefield. Karp and Palantir may fly too close to the sun. But unlike Icarus, Palantir’s flight is not sole, carrying many passengers: its inventors, its clients, and the future of Western warfare.  

Major Benjamin Van Horrick, USMC serves at the Department of Defense Inspector General. The views expressed are those of the author and do not reflect the official policy or position of the United State Marines Corps, Department of Defense, or the U.S. Government.