Palantir CEO Alex Karp was raised in a liberal household outside Philly. Now he’s a top Trump admin contractor

In the first year of President Donald Trump’s administration, Palantir Technologies has secured major contracts to compile data on Americans, assist the president’s federal immigration enforcement, and play a key role in the height of the Department of Government Efficiency’s efforts to shrink the federal government.

But just a few years ago, it seemed unlikely that billionaire Alex Karp, CEO of Palantir — a publicly traded data software company that Karp in 2011 described as “deeply involved in supporting progressive values and causes" — would ever strike such deals with Trump.

Karp grew up in Philadelphia in a politically left-leaning household, and was critical of Trump during his first White House term. But over time, and catalyzed by Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel, his opinion and habits shifted. Quickly, he went from being a major Democratic Party donor to writing a big check to Trump’s 2024 inaugural committee.

As of May, Palantir has received more than $113 million in federal spending. The company, which builds software to analyze and integrate large data streams for major companies, including defense contractors, sees itself as a beneficial power, but critics are concerned about data being misused or people being surveilled in violation of civil liberties, according to The New York Times’ The Daily podcast.

And some employees are opposed to the optics of Palantir carrying out the president’s controversial political agenda.

Here’s what to know about Karp and Palantir.

Palantir is a data analytics company that was cofounded by Karp, Joe Lonsdale, Nathan Gettings and Stephen Cohen, the company’s president, and Peter Thiel, a billionaire tech investor and co-founder of PayPal. Thiel is a libertarian and is a staunch supporter of right-wing ideology.

Palantir, the artificial intelligence software company based in Denver, was a brainchild of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States and a desire to help improve national security.

According to The Daily podcast guest, Michael Steinberger, who spent six years interviewing Karp for a book, said one of Palantir’s major contractors has been the CIA, which was only one of its early investors. Palantir’s technological products also played a key role in assisting Ukraine during the early months of Russia’s war on the country.

The company started its partnership with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement during former President Barack Obama’s administration, but that contract didn’t draw controversy until Trump’s first term in the White House when his immigration crackdown became a key priority, said Steinberger, also a contributing writer to the Times, said.

This summer, it was reported that Palantir landed a $10 billion software and data contract with the U.S. Army, months after reports showed Trump tapped the company to compile data on Americans, prompting scrutiny from privacy advocates, labor rights organizations, and student unions.

Karp was born in New York, but grew up in the Philadelphia suburbs, he told the World Economic Forum in 2023. He went on to attend Central High School.

As Steinberger describes it, “He’s a Philly kid. He grew up in Philadelphia. Grew up in a very left-wing household.” Karp is the son of a Jewish pediatrician and a Black artist. And he’s dyslexic, Steinberger said.

“It’s like I have this weirdly structured brain,” Karp said in an interview with Steinberger. “The motor is just structured differently.”

Karp and his younger brother spent time going to anti-war and anti-nuclear protests, and the older Karp attended Haverford College, Steinberger said. There, he closely identified with his Black heritage, getting involved with Black student Affairs and organizing an antiracism conference at Yale University.

Karp insists that he did not put much effort into his schooling at Haverford, but Steinberger, who was also a classmate of Karp’s in college, appears to think otherwise.

“I think his path in life would suggest otherwise. I think the library saw a lot more of him than it did of me, which may go some way to explaining why he became a billionaire and I did not,” Steinberger said.

After Haverford, Karp attended Stanford Law School where he met and became close with Thiel — who had the opposite political views of Karp. Years later, Karp and Thiel reunited after 9/11. Thiel was looking for a CEO for Palantir.

“Thiel interviews a couple of people for the CEO position, but then he and the other people involved in founding Palantir realized Karp is probably the right guy for the job,” Steinberger said.

In an interview with Steinberger, Karp admitted that his background made him an unlikely choice for CEO.

“I wasn’t trained in business, I didn’t know anything about startup culture. I didn’t know anything about building a business. I didn’t know anything about financing a business,” Karp said.

In Steinberger’s telling, Hamas’ terrorist attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023 gave rise to a political environment that would solidify Karp’s rightward shift.

Over time, Karp had become discouraged with the left’s criticisms of Palantir, but that reached a fever pitch when Palantir offered its services to Israel as the country began its military invasion of Gaza amid protests, including internal dissent from employees, Steinberger said.

Steinberger said Karp — once a protester himself — became increasingly troubled by college campus protests against Israel’s war in Gaza.

“He thinks the protests are riddled with antisemitism,” Steinberger said. “They’re very dangerous and he sees this as reflective of a broader rot in his mind on the left.”

Karp continued to back former President Joe Biden, who was supportive of the Israeli government, but in December 2023, Karp posed a sort of ultimatum at the Reagan National Defense Forum in California regarding liberals’ stance on Israel and a desire for the Democratic Party to denounce the college campus protests.

“I’m one of the largest donors to the Democratic Party and, quite frankly, I’m calling it out, and I’m giving to Republicans. If you keep up with this behavior, I’m going to change. A lot of people like me are going to change. We have to really call this out. It is completely beyond the bounds,” Karp said.

Over time, Karp started donating more “aggressively” to Republicans, Steinberger said, and makes clear his support for Trump. Karp writes a $1 million check to the Trump-Vance Inaugural Committee and later begins publicly praising Trump on national security.

Karp, for his part, still thinks of himself as a progressive.

“I didn’t shift my politics,” Karp said. “The political parties have shifted their politics. The idea that what’s being called progressive is any way progressive is a complete farce.”