Palantir CEO Alex Karp Refutes 'Ridiculous' Surveillance Reports, Says Company Is 'Winning'

Palantir Technologies Inc PLTR CEO Alex Karp denied claims on Thursday suggesting the company is aiding the government in unlawful surveillance.

What Happened: The New York Times reported last week that the Trump Administration has tapped Palantir to collect data on Americans after President Donald Trump signed an executive order in March calling on the federal government to enable the sharing of data across agencies.

Thursday on CNBC’s “Squawk On The Street,” Karp refuted the report.

“The Palantir platform, despite what you might read at The New York Times, is actually the most secure, the hardest platform in the world to manipulate and change … If you wanted to use the Deep State to unlawfully surveil people, the last platform in the world you would pick is Palantir,” Karp said.

Palantir recently secured new contracts with the Department of Homeland Security and the Pentagon. The New York Times report indicates that Palantir representatives are also in talks with the Social Security Administration and the Internal Revenue Service, and argues that wide government adoption of a single platform creates an easy path for Trump to combine data from different agencies.

Karp told CNBC that the article is “ridiculous” and shows that the publication doesn’t have proper technical knowledge. He noted that a random engineer could find 15 to 20 errors in the article in 90 seconds.

If you spent 10 minutes looking at the architecture of the Palantir platform, you would see how ridiculous the report is, he said.

“By the way, writing ridiculous sh** in a highly-charged environment is dangerous, and The New York Times should take responsibility for the dangers they’re putting out in the world. There really are people that believe that crap,” the Palantir CEO said.

The New York Times report shows that Palantir is winning, he said, adding that U.S. government revenue is up 46% and U.S. commercial revenue is up 71%. He told CNBC that the company is seeing strong growth because the product is the best in the world. The Trump administration is buying the best, most secure product available, that’s cheaper and more efficient, and replacing older systems, he said.

“You know what we’re doing in the DOD, we’re scaring the bejeebers — I’m trying not to use the F word — out of our adversaries by making them scared at night … installing productized software that runs algorithms against data that’s been lawfully collected. And you can’t unlawfully use it in our platform, which is one of the main reasons people buy it and keep it,” Karp said.

Palantir said in its earnings report last month that the company’s customer count grew 39% year-over-year and 8% on a quarter-over-quarter basis. Palantir raised its guidance for full-year U.S. commercial revenue, adjusted income from operations and adjusted free cash flow. 

PLTR Price Action: Palantir shares are up approximately 64% year-to-date. The stock was down 5.58% at $122.67 at the time of publication Thursday, according to Benzinga Pro.

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Photo: Sundry Photography/Shutterstock.