Alex Karp


Alexander Karp is an American billionaire businessman who is the co-founder and CEO of the software firm Palantir Technologies.

Early life and education

Karp was raised in a Jewish family in Philadelphia and graduated from Central High School in 1985. His father was a pediatrician and his mother is an artist who chronicled her life growing up as a black woman.
Karp earned a bachelor's degree from Haverford College, a juris doctor from Stanford University, and a doctorate in neoclassical social theory from Goethe-Universität, Frankfurt, Germany. Karp's thesis, supervised by Karola Brede, was titled "Aggression in der Lebenswelt: Die Erweiterung des Parsonsschen Konzepts der Aggression durch die Beschreibung des Zusammenhangs von Jargon, Aggression und Kultur", which means "Aggression in the life-world: The extension of Parsons' concept of aggression by describing the connection between jargon, aggression, and culture."

Career

Karp has said he successfully invested in startups and stocks after receiving an inheritance from his grandfather.
He founded the London-based money management firm Caedmon Group.
In 2004, along with Peter Thiel and others, he co-founded Palantir as CEO.
Karp is a board member of Axel Springer SE and previously BASF, resigned July 2020.

Views

Karp has described himself as a socialist and a progressive, and said he voted for Hillary Clinton.
He has said that technology companies like Palantir have an obligation to support the U.S. military. He has defended Palantir's contract with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement during the controversy over family separations, saying that while separations are "a really tough, complex, jarring moral issue," he favors "a fair but rigorous immigration policy". He has said the U.S. government should have a strong hand in tech regulation and that western countries should dominate AI research.

Personal life

Karp owns a property in Palo Alto, California, but currently lives in New Hampshire.
He is described as a wellness fanatic who swims, skis cross country, practices Qigong meditation and martial arts, and keeps Tai Chi swords in his offices.