The Philosopher in the Valley

Alex Karp, Palantir and the Rise of the Surveillance State

By: Michael Steinberger

Narrated by: Jonathan Beville

‘An excellent look at what Palantir does, as well as a fascinating insight into the mind of its eccentric chief executive’ Telegraph

Palantir Technologies is the most interesting company in the world – and the most controversial.

Palantir builds data integration software: its technology ingests vast quantities of information and quickly identifies patterns, trends and connections that might elude the human eye. Founded in 2003 to help the U.S. government in the war on terrorism – an early investor was the CIA – Palantir is now a $400 billion global colossus whose software is used by major intelligence services (including the Mossad), the U.S. military, the National Health Service in England, and corporate giants like Airbus and BP. From AI to counterterrorism to climate change to immigration to financial fraud to healthcare to the future of warfare, the company is at the nexus of the most critical issues of the twenty-first century.

Its billionaire CEO, Alex Karp, is a distinctive figure on the global business scene. A biracial Jew who is also severely dyslexic, Karp has built Palantir into a tech giant despite having no background in either business or computer science. Instead, he’s a trained philosopher who has become known for his strongly held views on a range of issues and for his willingness to grapple with the moral and ethical implications of Palantir’s work. Those questions have taken on added urgency during the Trump era, which has also brought attention to the political activism of Karp’s close friend and Palantir co-founder Peter Thiel.

In The Philosopher in the Valley, journalist Michael Steinberger is the first to tell the story of Alex Karp and Palantir from the beginning. Steinberger offers new biographical details and a rich psychological portrait of the man leading one of the world’s most secretive companies. Full of revelations, this is an urgent and insightful book about technological power, the surveillance state and the future we all face.

Critic reviews

‘Well written and researched’

‘Reveals what makes [Karp] tick . . . A new biography, The Philosopher in the Valley, reveals [Karp] to be a complex, thoughtful, often contradictory personality with a background that explains many of his insecurities’

‘The story follows Alex Karp, philosopher-turned-CEO, as he navigates the ethical complexities of technical surveillance and its implications for privacy . . . Provide[s] a bracing view of the modern-day CIA and the technical revolution that is forcing intelligence agencies to adapt their tradecraft and business models’ (David McCloskey )

‘As Big Tech’s reach grows, Michael Steinberger’s portrait of Palantir’s enigmatic boss offers a timely study of surveillance . . . an excellent look at what Palantir does, as well as a fascinating insight into the mind of its eccentric chief executive . . . an engrossing portrait of Karp, a 58-year-old billionaire . . . The Philosopher in the Valley will give readers an excellent insight into how Karp and his ilk operate at a time when their reach seems to be becoming inescapable’

'Engrossing . . . A chilling portrait of genius in the yoke of authoritarianism'

The Best Book for Liberalism and Socialist-Communism

This is the best book to see how liberals and socialist-communists view the world from their own eyes. How they see any form or law, justice, and freedom are demeaning to and afflicting their ideals in support of DEI and wokeness. They have never learned from, and are trying to destroy any records of history so they can repeat the mistakes of the past again. They have gone through the opposite extreme because of their remorse of what their forefathers did, without realizing or even bothering to know the "why" of their forefathers. They do this to elevate themselves to look better than anyone else especially conservatives, just like how sheeps decide to embrace and vote for wolves in order to be considered enlightened compared to other conservative (life-preserving) sheep's who know what wolves did in history. Palantir is the very best litmus test to expose their virtue-signalling mindset. Also kudos to the narrator he is emotional that it felt like they are one with the author.