Alexander Karp | $10B+
Get in touch with Alexander Karp | Alex Karp is the co-founder and CEO of Palantir Technologies, a data analytics firm known for its work with governments, defense, and large enterprises. With a PhD in philosophy and a background in law, Karp brings a rare intellectual rigor to the tech world, combining privacy-conscious ideals with powerful data infrastructure. Under his leadership, Palantir has become one of the most influential and controversial companies in the global tech landscape.
Alexander Caedmon Karp (born October 2, 1967)[1] is an American businessman and the co-founder and CEO of software firm Palantir Technologies. He began his career investing in startups and stocks, and co-founded Palantir with Peter Thiel in 2003.[2] In 2025, Time magazine named him as one of the Time 100 of the world's most influential people.
Alex Karp
Karp attending the AI Safety Summit in London, November 2023
Born Alexander Caedmon Karp
October 2, 1967 (age 57)
New York City, U.S.
Education
Haverford College (BA)
Stanford University (JD)
Goethe University (PhD)
Occupation Businessman
Title Co-founder and CEO, Palantir Technologies
Signature
At times in 2025, his net worth has exceeded $12 billion, making him among the wealthiest 300 people in the world as reported by Forbes and the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Contents
Early life
Alexander Caedmon Karp was born in New York City,[2][3] the eldest son of Robert Joseph Karp, a Jewish clinical pediatrician,[4] and Leah Jaynes Karp, an African American artist.[5][6][7] He grew up with his younger brother, Oliver "Ben" Karp, in Philadelphia.[8][9][10] Like his father,[11] he attended Central High School in Philadelphia graduating in 1985.[6][12] He said he struggled with dyslexia from an early age.[7] Alexander Karp was influenced by his parents activism for civil rights and social justice during his youth and went to many protests.[13][2] Karp's paternal side of the family originally comes from Germany.[14] He said that before he came to Germany, he had underestimated how German his upbringing had been.[15]
Karp initially wanted to be a social theorist.[16] He earned a bachelor's degree in philosophy from Haverford College in Haverford, Pennsylvania in 1989,[17] then enrolled at Stanford Law School, where he earned a juris doctor (J.D.) in 1992.[18][19][3] While at Stanford, Karp met Peter Thiel.[2] Karp said that he felt different at "every institution I interacted with." At each, he would think, "I can navigate this place, but I am not a part of it."[2]
After his undergraduate studies and law school, Karp earned a PhD in neoclassical social theory from Goethe University Frankfurt in Germany in 2002.[18][19][3] His doctoral 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" (Aggression in the Lifeworld: The Extension of Parsons' Concept of Aggression by Describing the Connection Between Jargon, Aggression, and Culture).[20][21][22]
Karp is fluent in German and speaks French.[23]
Career
Karp began a career as a research associate at the Sigmund Freud Institute in Frankfurt.[2] He has said that he invested in startups and stocks after receiving an inheritance from his grandfather. His success led him to found London-based money management firm Caedmon Group to manage the money of high-net-worth individuals who were interested in investing with him.[24]
In 2004, along with Peter Thiel (who had been a classmate at Stanford) and others, Karp co-founded Palantir Technologies as CEO.[24][25] The New York Times ranked Karp the highest-paid CEO of a publicly traded company in 2020, the year the company went public, with compensation worth $1.1 billion.[26] In 2024, he was the highest-paid CEO of a publicly traded company in the United States, with a "compensation actually paid" of almost $6.8 billion.[27] The Economist chose Karp as the 2024 CEO of the Year.[28][29]
In 2024, Karp was 1143rd on the Forbes annual World's Billionaires List with a net worth of $2.9 billion.[30] In 2025 his net worth at times exceeded $12 billion, ranking him among the 300 wealthiest people in the world on the Forbes Real-Time Billionaires List[31] and the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.[32][33]
Board and advisory roles
Axel Springer SE, member of the board of directors (2018–2020)[34]
BASF, member of the board of directors (until 2020)[35]
Bilderberg Meeting, member of the steering committee[36][37]
The Business Council, member[38]
The Economist Group, former member of the board of directors[29]
Views
Political views
On the West
In 2025 Time magazine listed Karp as one of the world's 100 most influential people, calling him "the embodiment of a new kind of Silicon Valley billionaire: an unashamed techno-nationalist who evangelizes Western power."[39] In naming him to the Time 100 list, the magazine noted that in a letter to investors Karp quoted Samuel P. Huntington's The Clash of Civilizations, "the rise of the West was not made possible 'by the superiority of its ideas or values or religion ... but rather by its superiority in applying organized violence.'" Karp wrote that "Westerners often forget this fact; non-Westerners never do."[39] During a New York Times interview, Karp said "you scare the crap out of your adversaries" and "are we tough enough to scare our adversaries so we don’t go to war? Do the Chinese, Russians and Persians think we’re strong?" Maureen Dowd, a journalist, said the interview was "brim[ming] with American chauvinism".[8]
In 2024 The New York Times quoted Karp, saying that he and his company Palantir have "a consistently pro-Western view, that the West has a superior way of living and organizing itself".[8]
On US politics
In 2018, Karp said he is a socialist[40] and a progressive. In additon he said he voted for Hillary Clinton.[41] Current Affairs editor Nathan J. Robinson wrote in 2024 that Karp "seems to have some idiosyncratic personal definition in mind that has nothing in common with the socialist tradition".[42] In 2024, Karp said that while he is "not thrilled" with the direction of the Democratic Party that he would still be "voting against Trump".[43]
Karp has condemned "woke" ways of thinking, calling them the central risk to his company Palantir, and to the United States as a whole.[44] He has called Palantir a "counter-example" to companies he considers "woke".[44]
On the United States government
See also: Palantir Technologies § U.S. military, intelligence, and police
Karp said that technology companies like Palantir have an obligation to support the U.S. military.[41] He said that he and Palantir are "active in defending the values of the West" and "our belief that the West is a superior way to live".[44] He defended Palantir's contract with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) 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".[45] He said the U.S. government should have a strong hand in tech regulation[46] and that western countries should dominate AI research.[47]
On the Gaza war
See also: Palantir Technologies § Israel
Karp made a number of remarks on the Gaza war strongly supporting Israel. He has strongly condemned the 2024 pro-Palestinian protests on university campuses, calling their views a "pagan religion" and "an infection inside of our society".[48][49] He remarked that "the peace activists are war activists" at the AI Expo for National Competitiveness[48] and said that protestors should be sent to North Korea.[49] In December 2023 during the demonstrations at Columbia University in Manhattan, New York, he said "There is literally no way to explain the investment in our elite schools, and the output is a pagan religion—a pagan religion of mediocrity, and discrimination, and intolerance, and violence."[50][8] Palantir announced that they would set aside 180 positions for Jewish college graduates, citing alleged antisemitism on college campuses related to the protests.[44][50][8]
Business views
Karp is a critic of short sellers, and said he loves "burning the short sellers".[51] He compared them to cocaine addicts and said that they "just love pulling down great American companies".[51] In 2024, he received criticism for selling $1.9 billion of Palantir shares.[52] In February 2025, during a talk promoting his book, he said "I love the idea of getting a drone and having light fentanyl-laced urine spraying on analysts that tried to screw us."[52]
Personal life
Karp lives in Grafton County in New Hampshire.[53] When a reporter observed that he owns "10 houses around the world, from Alaska to Vermont, from Norway to New Hampshire", Karp joked that "You have to reframe that as I have 10 cross-country ski huts."[54][8]
He is described as a wellness fanatic who swims, skis cross country, and practices martial arts. He has stated that he practices tai chi and that it should not be confused with qigong. He keeps tai chi swords in his offices. He is highly skilled with handguns, and a reporter observed him "expertly hit targets... from 264 yards" with a BUL Armory SAS II Bullesteros 9mm competition pistol.[25][55][8]
Karp never learned to drive a car. He said, "I was too poor. And then I was too rich.”[8] He said the thought of having children "gives me hives".[23] His uncle, Gerald Jaynes, is the A. Whitney Griswold Professor of Economics, African American Studies, and Urban Studies at Yale.[8][56] Like his friend Thiel, Karp always only uses German cars when travelling.[57]
In media
Karp is the subject of the 2024 German documentary film Watching You: The World of Palantir and Alex Karp, directed by Klaus Stern [de], which explores Palantir's influence and Karp's career, and includes interviews with former colleagues, politicians, and critics; Karp chose not to participate in the documentary.[58]
Karp is the co-author with Nicholas Zamiska of a No.1 book on The New York Times Best Seller list, The Technological Republic: Hard Power, Soft Belief, and the Future of the West. Published by Vintage Books in February 2025, and identified as ISBN 1529945399, the book offers a critical perspective on Silicon Valley's complacency and the West's waning ambition, arguing that the software industry must partner with government to tackle urgent challenges, particularly the AI arms race.
Join UHNWI direct Affiliate Program
Earn Passive Income by Sharing Verified Contact Information of Billionaires, Centi-Millionaires, and Multi-Millionaires on the UHNWI Direct Platform
Maximize your earnings potential by sharing direct and validated contact information of the ultra-wealthy, including billionaires, centi-millionaires, and multi-millionaires. Join the UHNWI Direct platform and tap into a lucrative passive income stream by providing valuable data to those seeking high-net-worth connections. Start earning today with UHNWI Direct.
You may also be interested in reviewing other UHNWIs profiles.
To find the person you want to contact, start typing their name or other relevant tags in the search bar.
Please note: Our database contains over 10,000 direct contacts of UHNWIs, and it is highly likely that the individual you are seeking is already included. However, creating individual profiles for each contact is a meticulous and time-intensive process, So, if you are unable to find the profile of the individual you are looking for, please click here.
Filter by Net Worth: All | Billionaires | Centi-Millionaires | Multi-Millionaires
Filter by Location: All | USA | Canada | Europe | UK | Russia & CIS | Asia | MEIA | Australia | Latin America
Filter by Age: 1920-1930 | 1930-1940 | 1940-1950 | 1950-1960 | 1960-1970 | 1970-1980 | 1980-1990 | 1990-2000
Related People
UHNWI direct
