Alex Karp

Alexander Karp (born October 2, 1967) is an American businessman and the co-founder and CEO of the software firm Palantir Technologies.[3]

Alex Karp
Born
Alexander Karp

(1967-10-02) October 2, 1967[1]
NationalityAmerican
Alma materHaverford College (BA)
Stanford University (JD)
Goethe University Frankfurt (PhD)
OccupationCo-founder and CEO, Palantir Technologies
Known forPalantir Technologies
Net worthUS$3.2 billion (November 2020)[2]

Early life and education

The son of a Jewish father and an African American mother,[4] Karp was raised in a Jewish family in Philadelphia and graduated from Central High School in 1985.[5][6] He has said he struggled with dyslexia from an early age. [7]

Karp earned a bachelor's degree from Haverford College, a juris doctor from Stanford University, and a doctorate in neoclassical social theory from Goethe-Universität, Frankfurt, Germany.[8][2] Karp's thesis, supervised by Karola Brede, was titled "Aggression in der Lebenswelt: Die Erweiterung des Parsonsschen Konzepts der Aggression durch die Beschreibung des Zusammenhangs von Jargon, Aggression und Kultur", which means "Aggression in the life-world: The extension of Parsons' concept of aggression by describing the connection between jargon, aggression, and culture."[9]

Career

Karp has said he successfully invested in startups and stocks after receiving an inheritance from his grandfather.[3]

Karp founded the London-based money management firm Caedmon Group.[10][11]

In 2004, along with Peter Thiel (who had been a classmate at Stanford) and others, he co-founded Palantir as CEO.[12][13]

Other activities

Views

Karp has described himself as a socialist[16] and a progressive, and said he voted for Hillary Clinton.[17] In 2017, he was recorded during a Palantir company meeting claiming he turned down an invitation from President Trump, saying “I respect nothing about the dude.”[18]

He has said that technology companies like Palantir have an obligation to support the U.S. military.[17] He has defended Palantir's contract with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement during the controversy over family separations, saying that while separations are "a really tough, complex, jarring moral issue," he favors "a fair but rigorous immigration policy".[19] He has said the U.S. government should have a strong hand in tech regulation[20] and that western countries should dominate AI research.[21]

Personal life

Karp owns a property in Palo Alto, California, but currently lives in New Hampshire.[22][2]

He is described as a wellness fanatic who swims, skis cross country, practices Qigong meditation and martial arts, and keeps Tai Chi swords in his offices.[12][23]

References
  1. "Alex Karp". CNBC. Retrieved 8 July 2016.
  2. "Forbes profile: Alexander Karp". Forbes. Retrieved 29 January 2020.
  3. Greenberg, Andy. "How A 'Deviant' Philosopher Built Palantir, A CIA-Funded Data-Mining Juggernaut". forbes.com. Retrieved 20 April 2018.
  4. Richard Waters (October 2, 2020), Alex Karp, unconventional purveyor of powerful surveillance tools Financial Times.
  5. "Classmates". Retrieved 2016-12-30.
  6. Waters, Richard. "Alex Karp, unconventional purveyor of powerful surveillance tools".
  7. Steinberger, Michael (2020-10-21). "Does Palantir See Too Much?". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-12-11.
  8. "Alexander Karp". Bizjournals. Retrieved 12 February 2015.
  9. Karp, Alex. "Aggression in der Lebenswelt". scholar.googleusercontent.com. Retrieved 20 April 2018.
  10. Greenberg, Andy (13 August 2013). "How A 'Deviant' Philosopher Built Palantir, A CIA-Funded Data-Mining Juggernaut". Forbes. Retrieved 12 April 2015.
  11. "Alex Karp, CEO of Palantir Technologies". New Corner. 2015-12-30. Retrieved 2020-01-29.
  12. Hartmans, Avery. "The life and career of Alex Karp, the billionaire CEO who's taking Palantir public in what could be one of the biggest tech IPOs of the year". Business Insider. Retrieved 2020-07-26.
  13. "Alex Karp, CEO of Palantir Technologies". New Corner. 2015-12-30. Retrieved 2020-07-26.
  14. Catrin Bialek (September 24, 2020), Medienkonzern: Friede Springer bringt Döpfner als ihren Nachfolger in Stellung Handelsblatt.
  15. Karp resigns from the Supervisory Board of BASF SE BASF, press release of July 22, 2020.
  16. Brown, Rob Copeland and Eliot (2018-11-12). "Palantir Has a $20 Billion Valuation and a Bigger Problem: It Keeps Losing Money". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved 2020-07-26.
  17. Ross Sorkin, Andrew. "Silicon Valley Doesn't Like Trump. It Can Still Work With the Government". The New York Times. Retrieved 2020-07-26.
  18. "Here's How A Big Tech CEO Really Feels About Trump - YouTube". www.youtube.com. BuzzFeed News. Retrieved 2020-08-06.
  19. Chafkin, Max. "The Complicated Politics of Palantir's CEO". Bloomberg. Retrieved 2020-07-26.
  20. Bursztynsky, Jessica (2020-01-23). "Palantir CEO: Silicon Valley can't be on 'Palo Alto island' — Big Tech must play by the rules". CNBC. Retrieved 2020-07-26.
  21. Palmer, Annie (2019-08-22). "Palantir CEO says Google shouldn't rule A.I." CNBC. Retrieved 2020-07-26.
  22. Allen, Mike. "Palantir CEO hits Silicon Valley "monoculture," may leave California". Axios. Retrieved 2020-07-15.
  23. Schubarth, Cromwell. "Palantir CEO says startup may leave Silicon Valley due to 'monoculture'". Silicon Valley Business Journal. Retrieved 2020-07-26.


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