In This Story
Former President Donald Trump’s political success — and widening class divisions — was enabled by Silicon Valley, according to Palantir PLTR+2.06% CEO Alex Karp.
“I don’t believe you would have a Trump phenomenon without the excesses of Silicon Valley,” Karp told The New York 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,” he added.
Karp pointed to a lack of support from wealthy tech entrepreneurs and executives toward law enforcement agencies, such as the Department of Defense. He himself is a strong supporter of the U.S. military and Palantir PLTR+2.06% makes much of its money by supplying data-mining and analytics software to government agencies. The firm has faced criticism and protests over its work with police departments and Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
“I don’t even know how you explain to the average American that you’ve become a multibillionaire and you won’t supply your product to the D.O.D,” Karp said. “It’s jarringly corrosive.”
Karp, who describes himself as “progressive but not woke,” said Palantir moved its headquarters to Denver in 2020 because of the “regressive side” of progressive politics. He also cited issues with political correctness and the nation’s focus on racism, as opposed to classism, telling the Times that the “primary thing that’s bad for you” is to be born poor.
“I think part of the reason we have a massive cleavage in our culture is, at the end of the day, by and large, only people who are middle- and working-class do all the fighting,” Karp said.
Karp’s comments on Silicon Valley somewhat echo those recently made by Cost Plus Drugs founder and “Shark Tank” star Marc Cuban, who has been a staunch critic of some in Silicon Valley’s push to back Trump’s re-election campaign. While speaking with “The Daily Show” host Jon Stewart last week, Cuban said much of tech executives’ support comes from their overwhelming wealth and belief they know what is best for the country.
“They’ve gotten to the point now where they feel like they should control the world and that there should be a CEO in charge of everything,” Cuban told Stewart. “Because they’re rich as f—k,” he added.
Cuban added that “you get to that point sometimes where I think they’ve lost the connection to the real world,” before pointing to Tesla CEO and SpaceX founder Elon Musk’s ambitions to reach Mars and, what Cuban calls, his attempts “to be the most influential man in the world.”
Several prominent tech leaders, many of whom have ties to crypto, have recently said they would support Trump’s re-election campaign. Besides Musk, that list includes Andreessen Horowitz’s Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz, billionaire Winklevoss twins, and David Sacks, among others.