# Alex Karp — "to scare enemies and, on occasion, kill them" > [!quote] "Palantir is here to disrupt and make the institutions we partner with the very best in the world and, when it's necessary, to scare enemies and, on occasion, kill them." > — Alex Karp, Palantir Q4 2024 earnings call, February 3, 2025 ## Context [[Alex Karp]] — the Habermas-trained philosopher who runs [[Palantir]] — delivered this on the company's Q4 2024 earnings call, two weeks into Trump's second term, as Palantir's stock and government contracts surged. The line landed amid a broader pitch that what is "good for America" is "very good for Palantir." It is the blunt counterpoint to Karp's usual register of philosophical reluctance: here the surveillance-and-targeting business is stated plainly as a business that kills. ## Why this matters Karp's public brand is the "reluctant warrior" who agonizes over the tools he builds (see his [[Alex Karp]] profile). Quotes like this one strip the agonizing away and reveal the product: Palantir's [[Project Maven]] and targeting systems exist to locate and end human lives, and the CEO is comfortable saying so to investors. The contrast with [[Palmer Luckey]] is aesthetic, not substantive — Luckey celebrates the "warrior class," Karp cites philosophers, but both monetize lethality. That a defense contractor markets killing as a shareholder selling point is the receipt that collapses the philosophical cover. ## Verification - **Reporting:** [Gizmodo](https://gizmodo.com/palantirs-billionaire-ceo-just-cant-stop-talking-about-killing-people-2000560597); [Techdirt, February 11, 2025](https://www.techdirt.com/2025/02/11/palantir-ceo-sures-seems-pleased-his-tech-is-capable-of-getting-people-killed/); [Sherwood News earnings-call roundup](https://sherwood.news/tech/the-weirdest-best-unhinged-quotes-from-palantirs-q4-earnings-call/). - **Status:** Verbatim, undisputed; said on a public earnings call. ## Related quotes - [[Alex Karp - heads cut off]] — from the same earnings call, on DOGE. - [[Palmer Luckey - warrior class enacting violence]] — the enthusiastic counterpart.