BERLIN — His company is considered the technological backbone of some of the world's most powerful militaries. Alex Karp, CEO of the American data analytics firm Palantir, supplies software to the United States, Israel and Ukraine, among others. Yet Germany's Bundeswehr, its military, does not want to integrate his products.
Is this German skepticism justified? And can Germany's military buildup succeed without his battle-tested products? In an interview with BILD — which like Business Insider belongs to the Axel Springer Global Reporters Network — Palantir CEO Alex Karp expressed surprise at the Bundeswehr's stance and made the case for Ukrainian defense technologies.
Following a meeting with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Minister Mykhailo Fedorov in Kyiv, Karp praised Ukraine, saying : "They deserve a lot of credit for building one of the most important military defense systems in the world."
He does not share the pessimism of many Western observers: "Every person we dealt with believes they're going to win the war. They're very optimistic."
Karp is proud that his company is contributing to Ukraine's defense. He described his products "as an operating system for war," so "the same way you'd have an operating system for a company or anything or even a car, they have it for the modern battlefield."
