Palantir CEO Alex Karp told CNBC on Thursday that artificial intelligence is giving the U.S. and its allies an edge in the escalating conflict in Iran and across the Middle East.
“What makes America special right now is our lethal capacities, our ability to fight war,” Karp said at Palantir’s AIPcon 9 in Maryland. He added that another major advantage is that “the AI revolution is uniquely American.”
Karp alluded to his company’s ability to link combat data between the U.S. and Middle East partners that were hit by Iranian airstrikes.
“If you were attacked and you needed to coordinate, you would have to have a coordinating function. There’s only one product that can actually do that for security,” Karp said, referencing Palantir’s platform.
Palantir’s Project Maven is a real-time AI surveillance capability that leverages satellite imagery. The platform was used with Anthropic’s Claude in the capture of Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Karp declined to comment on whether Maven was used to kill Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in a joint U.S.-Israel military operation two weeks ago.
“I have read that Palantir’s Project Maven is the core backbone of that,” he said, speaking generally about U.S. involvement in the Middle East. “And then I’ve also read that all the allies, Arab and non-Arab in the Middle East, may or may not be users of our platform as well, and that’s expanding rapidly.”
Experts and executives in the industry say AI is pushing the conflict to a new frontier. That was evident when Iran bombed three Amazon data centers in the Middle East last week.
U.S. data centers are increasingly seen as national security assets, hosting critical digital infrastructure used by governments and big companies.
“They’re evil, they’re not stupid,” Karp said. “Look who’s on the list, look who’s not. We’re in the middle of war. You would expect it to be a list of hardcore military companies. They are interested in the things they can’t produce.”
While Palantir may be best known for its defense technology, the company’s commercial business is booming. U.S. commercial revenue jumped 137% in the fourth quarter to $507 million.
Palantir shares are up 12% so far this month, while the Nasdaq is down about 1.6%.
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