January 20, 2023: Palantir co-founder and CEO Alex Karp knows many technology workers in Silicon Valley have misgivings about his data-mining firm’s dealings with intelligence agencies and the military.

“You may not need an agreement with that and, bless you, don’t work here,” Karp stated at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland in a talk with David Rubenstein, co-chair of private equity firm The Carlyle Group.

Palantir sells software to administration and private sector organizations that help them analyze significant quantities of data. For years, the company has been closely tied to government work, which is often secretive.

On Wednesday, Karp defended his company’s work with the military and other administration agencies, which says it helped reduce terrorism and lose “human rights abuses done by adversaries to the West.”

Tech workers have been over-vocal in recent years opposing their employers’ contracts with the military. Firms like Microsoft, Google, Amazon and Salesforce have all faced pushback more than controversial deals.

Palantir is trying to set itself apart from the pack, welcoming administration work in the name of patriotism. In 2020, Palantir was moving its headquarters from Palo Alto, California, to Denver, Colorado, months following Karp’s complaint publicly to Axios on HBO regarding the “growing intolerance and monoculture of Silicon Valley.”

Two-thirds of the public in Silicon Valley don’t want to perform for companies such as Palantir, Karp stated in Davos. Therefore, he added, “one-third only wants to work for your

firm,” he further said.

Karp, the firm’s founder with Peter Thiel and many others in 2003, advocates for using technology in national defence.

“We don’t like people coming in and saying we want to destroy terrorists and just without data protection,” Karp stated. “Bless your soul if you want to provide carcinogens with your huge intellect in the form of the consumer internet.”

The CIA was a different investor in Palantir. The CIA is among the company’s clients, the FBI and the National Security Agency.