For Palantir’s Democrat-supporting CEO, the fact that cofounder and chairman Peter Thiel enthusiastically backed Donald Trump made things harder for the company.
CEO Alex Karp cofounded Palantir Technologies, the data analytics firm known for its defense contracts and ties to the CIA, with Thiel and three others in 2003, and since then has helped it grow into a $72 billion behemoth. But although Karp and Thiel are close friends and share many similar views, including on the supposed superiority of the West, they differ on politics.
Karp, who grew up in a leftist family with activist parents, describes himself as “progressive but not woke,” he told the New York Times. He previously backed and donated to President Joe Biden and now supports Vice President Kamala Harris for president. Meanwhile, Thiel is one of Trump’s biggest supporters in Silicon Valley.
Thiel’s public support of Republicans like Ron Paul, Ted Cruz, and most recently Trump, has made him a favorite Democratic target for years, and that criticism has often extended to Palantir as well. Karp said Thiel’s politics have at times complicated things in terms of government contracts, especially after he threw his support behind Trump in 2016.
“I didn’t enjoy it,” he said of Thiel’s public support of Trump. “There’s a lot of reasons I cut Biden a check. I do not enjoy being protested every day. It was completely ludicrous and ridiculous. It was actually the opposite. Because Peter had supported Mr. Trump, it was actually harder to get things done.”
Palantir did not immediately respond to Fortune’s request for comment.
With Trump in power, Palantir’s government contracts roiled the company’s employees, who split sharply on issues like the company’s work with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Washington Post reported at the time. In 2017, about 50 people gathered in front of Thiel’s home in San Francisco to protest the ICE contract. This past May, pro-Palestine protesters trapped Thiel in a building while he was visiting the U.K.’s Cambridge Union Society.
Thiel, who is also a cofounder of PayPal and an early Facebook investor, gave Trump $1.25 million in 2016, the Times reported at the time. After Trump won the election, Thiel joined Trump’s White House transition team and later organized a meeting of some of the world’s most influential tech CEOs at Trump Tower.
Although Palantir’s government contracts exploded under Trump, boosted by an $800 million Army contract it won in 2019, Karp wasn’t a fan of Thiel’s support of Trump, and he told him as much, he said.
“Peter and I talk about everything,” Karp told the Times. “It’s like, yes, I definitely informed Peter, ‘This is not making our life easier.’”
While Karp didn’t elaborate on how Thiel responded to the criticism, he said that Palantir has been less criticized lately.
“I think there’s a different perception of us now a little bit. A lot of that was tied to Trump, ICE work,” he said. “It built up, and we were definitely outsiders. We’re still outsiders, but I feel less resistance for sure. And people have a better idea of what we do, maybe. Defense tech is a big part of Silicon Valley now.”
Late last year Thiel rejected Trump’s plea to donate $10 million to his campaign, and has since said he won’t make donations to any presidential candidates (he said he’ll still vote for Trump).
Although Silicon Valley figures usually lean toward supporting Democrats, an increasing number have bucked the trend and backed Trump over the past few months.
Despite its usual leftward tilt, Karp said that Silicon Valley’s lavishness contributed in part to Trump’s rise.
“I don’t believe you would have a Trump phenomenon without the excesses of Silicon Valley,” Karp told the Times. “Very, very wealthy people who support policies where they don’t have to absorb the cost at all. Just also the general feeling that these people are not tethered to our society, and simultaneously are becoming billionaires.”
