Palantir's Viral Manifesto and Its Impact
It is uncommon for a lengthy social media post from a US technology company to achieve viral status. However, a 22-point manifesto posted by Palantir, a US-based tech firm, has garnered over 30 million views on X.
The manifesto was authored by Palantir's co-founder and chief executive, Alex Karp, who has expressed controversial views including criticism of the notion that all cultures are equal and advocating for universal national service.
Karp also described the post-World War Two disarmament of Germany and Japan as an "overcorrection," supported the development of AI-enabled weapons, and condemned the "ruthless exposure" of the private lives of public figures.
Karp’s perspectives are significant given Palantir's expanding portfolio of contracts with UK government bodies, including the National Health Service (NHS), the Ministry of Defence (MoD), the Financial Conduct Authority, and 11 police forces.
In addition, Palantir holds multimillion-dollar contracts with the US government and other influential international governments.
As Palantir becomes increasingly integrated into public institutions, concerns have been raised regarding the influence and opinions of its leadership.
"Every alarm bell for democracy must ring," said Professor Shannon Vallor, chair of ethics of data and AI at Edinburgh University, in an interview with the BBC.
Palantir employees liken their work to "plumbing," connecting disparate data sources. Their products enable the analysis and search of large, often incompatible datasets, including through the use of commercial AI systems.
To this end, Palantir secured a £300 million contract to develop a data platform for the NHS, a role that has faced opposition from the British Medical Association (BMA) and remains a subject of intense debate.
Recently, Palantir's UK head, Louis Mosley, used X to respond critically to a cover story in the BMA's British Medical Journal.
Tom Bartlett, a consultant who previously led the NHS team responsible for delivering the Federated Data Platform built on Palantir software, told the BBC that Palantir was "uniquely suited to the messy NHS data problems that have been accumulating over the last 25 years."
Palantir, valued at approximately $400 billion (£297 billion), is also a major military contractor. Its AI-enabled "war-fighting" technology is employed by NATO, Ukraine, and the US, including in its conflict with Iran.
In the UK, the Ministry of Defence has signed a three-year contract worth £240 million with Palantir for technology intended to support the so-called "kill-chain," integrating data to provide faster options for targeting enemy forces.
Palantir reports employing around 950 people in the UK, representing 17% of its global workforce.
However, some critics argue that Palantir’s involvement with US immigration enforcement and Israel’s military operations should disqualify the company from government contracts.
Others cite the political views of Palantir co-founder and chairman Peter Thiel, a libertarian supporter of Donald Trump, and Alex Karp, as reasons for exclusion.
Alex Karp’s Views and the 22-Point Manifesto
The 22-point manifesto is a summary derived from a 2025 book by Alex Karp and Palantir lawyer Nicholas Zamiska titled The Technological Republic: Hard Power, Soft Belief, and the Future of the West.
The New Yorker’s review of the book stated that its central argument is that "the survival of the American experiment depends on the technological revitalization of the military-industrial complex."
Karp’s political stance is nuanced; he reportedly donated to the presidential campaigns of Democrats Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, yet he proudly describes Palantir as "anti-woke," a position likely to be unpalatable to many on the political left.
In his post on X, Karp asserted that some cultures have produced "wonders" while others are "regressive and harmful," and argued that the absence of criticism toward other cultures has resulted in a "hollow pluralism."
He criticized Western resistance to defining national cultures in the name of inclusivity.
"Protecting democracies required 'hard power'," Karp wrote, "while 'theatrical debates about the merits of developing technologies with critical military and national security applications' would see the US lose ground to its adversaries."
Karp argued that the era of nuclear deterrence is ending and will be replaced by deterrence based on artificial intelligence.
He stated that defending democracy is a shared obligation and advocated for national service to be "a universal duty," a proposition that has already attracted criticism in the US, where Palantir holds billions of dollars in military contracts.
Karp also criticized the post-war "neutering" of Germany and Japan, describing the "defanging" of Germany as "an overcorrection for which Europe is now paying a heavy price," likely referring to Europe’s efforts to counter the threat from Russia.
Holding a doctorate in social theory, Karp is among several wealthy tech leaders, including Elon Musk, who promote political and ideological theories.
In point 16 of the X post, Karp wrote:
"The culture almost snickers at Musk's interest in grand narrative, as if billionaires ought to simply stay in their lane of enriching themselves."
Professor Vallor commented that "unelected men" like Karp are "imposing their own 'grand narratives' of cultural superiority, militarised control, and public power without public accountability."
Dr Rhiannon Mihranian Osborne of the health campaign group Medact told the BBC:
"Every day that the NHS continues this contract with Palantir makes our health system complicit in Palantir's violent operations, such as AI warfare, and deeply alarming ideology, which includes powering America and its allies to their 'innate superiority'."
Medact runs a campaign called No Palantir in the NHS. Osborne authored the BMJ cover story that was criticized by Palantir UK boss Louis Mosley.
In a statement to the BBC, Palantir said it was "deeply proud to be helping the UK government to deliver more NHS operations, speed up cancer diagnosis, keep Royal Navy ships at sea for longer and tackle domestic violence."
The Department of Health referred to remarks made in April by Health Secretary Wes Streeting, who defended the use of Palantir’s technology but stated he was "not a fan" of the company’s leadership and described some of their statements in the US as "abominable."
Additional reporting by Tamzin Kraftman and Richard Irvine-Brown.
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