Roy Suryo
The viral manifesto of ‘anti-woke’ tech boss with NHS and defence contracts has ignited a firestorm of criticism, with experts and campaign groups raising alarm bells about the implications of Palantir’s growing influence on public services. The controversial 22-point social media post by Alex Karp, co-founder and CEO of the data analytics giant, has garnered over 30 million views on X, outlining his views on cultural relativism, universal national service, and the necessity of "hard power" in international relations.
Karp’s pronouncements, which include the assertion that not all cultures are equal and a call for Germany and Japan’s post-World War Two disarmament to be viewed as an "overcorrection," are particularly potent given Palantir’s substantial and expanding portfolio of contracts with sensitive public bodies in the UK. These include significant deals with the National Health Service (NHS), the Ministry of Defence (MoD), the Financial Conduct Authority, and eleven police forces, alongside lucrative agreements with governments worldwide.
The company’s role in the UK public sector is multifaceted. Palantir won a £300 million contract to develop a data platform for the NHS, a move that has faced staunch opposition from the British Medical Association (BMA) and continues to be a subject of intense public debate. Palantir’s UK boss, Louis Mosley, recently took to X to publicly challenge a critical cover story in the BMA’s British Medical Journal, underscoring the friction surrounding the company’s involvement. However, consultant Tom Bartlett, who previously led the NHS team responsible for the Federated Data Platform built on Palantir’s software, has stated that the company is "uniquely suited to the messy NHS data problems that have been accumulating over the last 25 years."
Beyond healthcare, Palantir is a major player in the defence sector. The company’s AI-enabled "war-fighting" technology is utilized by NATO, Ukraine, and the US, including in its military operations. In the UK, the MoD has entered into a controversial three-year contract worth £240 million for technology designed to enhance the "kill-chain" – the process of identifying, targeting, and engaging enemy threats by fusing data for faster decision-making. Palantir reports employing approximately 950 individuals in the UK, representing 17% of its global workforce.
However, critics argue that Palantir’s work with US immigration enforcement and the Israeli military should disqualify it from public contracts. Furthermore, the outspoken political and ideological stances of its leaders, including Karp and co-founder and chairman Peter Thiel, a prominent libertarian and supporter of Donald Trump, are cited as further reasons for concern.
Professor Shannon Vallor, Chair of Ethics of Data and AI at Edinburgh University, warned that "every alarm bell for democracy must ring" in response to Karp’s manifesto and the company’s expanding reach. She expressed concerns about "unelected men" like Karp imposing their "grand narratives" of cultural superiority and militarised control without public accountability.
Karp’s manifesto, a summary of his 2025 book "The Technological Republic: Hard Power, Soft Belief, and the Future of the West," co-authored with Palantir lawyer Nicholas Zamiska, has been reviewed by The New Yorker as arguing that "the survival of the American experiment depends on the technological revitalization of the military-industrial complex." Karp’s political leanings are complex, reportedly having donated to Democratic campaigns while simultaneously championing his company as "anti-woke."
In his X post, Karp articulated a view that certain cultures have produced "wonders" while others are "regressive and harmful," criticizing the West for embracing a "hollow pluralism" by avoiding cultural critiques in the name of inclusivity. He asserted that protecting democracies necessitates "hard power" and that "theatrical debates about the merits of developing technologies with critical military and national security applications" would lead to the US losing ground to adversaries. He posited that the era of nuclear deterrence is waning, to be replaced by AI-driven deterrence.
Karp also advocated for universal national service as a shared obligation for defending democracy, a statement that has already drawn criticism in the US, where Palantir holds significant military contracts. He further criticized the post-war "neutering" of Germany and Japan, suggesting that the "defanging" of Germany was an "overcorrection" contributing to Europe’s current challenges, implicitly referencing the continent’s response to Russian threats.
Dr. Rhiannon Mihranian Osborne of the health campaign group Medact, which runs the "No Palantir in the NHS" campaign and authored the critical BMJ article, stated that "every day that the NHS continues this contract with Palantir makes our health system complicit in Palantir’s violent operations, such as AI warfare, and deeply alarming ideology, which includes powering America and its allies to their ‘innate superiority’."
In response, Palantir issued a statement to the BBC, expressing its "deep pride in helping the UK government to deliver more NHS operations, speed up cancer diagnosis, keep Royal Navy ships at sea for longer and tackle domestic violence." The Department of Health, however, pointed to remarks made in April by Health Secretary Wes Streeting, who defended the use of Palantir’s technology but admitted he was "not a fan" of the company’s leadership, describing some of their statements in the US as "abominable." This nuanced stance highlights the ongoing tension between the perceived utility of Palantir’s technological capabilities and the profound ethical and ideological concerns raised by its leadership and operations.
Additional reporting by Tamzin Kraftman and Richard Irvine-Brown.
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