Palantir CEO Alex Karp made headlines this week after selling 585,000 shares of his company, worth approximately $96 million, on November 20, 2025. The sale came just as global tech stocks, particularly those tied to artificial intelligence, faced a sharp downturn, igniting fresh debate about the sustainability of the so-called "AI bubble."
Karp’s timing was striking. Just days before, he had lashed out at traders betting against Palantir, calling their purchase of put options "outrageous behavior" and accusing them of "market manipulation," according to reporting by CryptoRank. Yet, while he dismissed concerns about Palantir's "insane valuation" and defended the company’s position as "the most important software company in America and therefore in the world," he was quietly offloading a significant stake. The juxtaposition did not go unnoticed by investors and market watchers, especially as Palantir’s stock—after soaring nearly 600% in a year—slid 5.85% on the day of his sale and continued to fall in premarket trading the next morning.
This turbulence wasn’t limited to Palantir. The broader tech sector was reeling. On November 21, global stock markets saw a sharp selloff, with Nasdaq 100 futures down 0.36% following a 2.38% loss the previous day. The S&P 500, a bellwether for U.S. equities, was flat but volatile, having already dropped 3% in November and over 5% from its recent high. The mood was summed up by Bank of America in a client note: "The bubbly is on ice."
Even Nvidia, the AI chip giant whose blowout earnings on November 19 had initially sent its stock up 5%, couldn’t escape the gloom. By the end of the following day, Nvidia shares had reversed course, closing down 3.15% and shedding another 2% overnight. Deutsche Bank described the wild swings as "a truly remarkable 24 hours, with a sequence of moves that were almost impossible to predict." Meanwhile, other tech heavyweights, including Japan’s SoftBank Group, which lost 11% in Tokyo trading, faced their own routs. Reports surfaced that both SoftBank and Thiel Macro had recently sold all their Nvidia shares, adding to the sense of unease.
Palantir, for its part, has always been a lightning rod for controversy. The company’s AI software powers U.S. government agencies ranging from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)—helping to carry out deportations—to the Pentagon’s drone programs and police departments engaged in crime prediction. Internationally, Palantir’s technology supports the Israel Defense Forces in Gaza, Ukrainian military efforts against Russia, and law enforcement and corporate clients across Europe. In the United Kingdom, Labour’s military and NHS modernization plans have leaned heavily on Palantir systems, with Labour leader Keir Starmer making a high-profile visit to the company’s Washington office in February 2025.
Much of Palantir’s identity is entwined with Karp’s own. As detailed in Michael Steinberger’s new biography, The Philosopher in the Valley, Karp is described as "contradictory, intense, and shaped by a past that still affects him today." Steinberger notes that "fear is something that really drives him" and that Palantir is "the embodiment, in a lot of ways, of Karp." The CEO’s eccentricities are legendary—he’s known for his rapid-fire speech, animated television appearances (complete with fist-shaking), and a penchant for comparing himself to Larry David, even joking that his sense of humor "might be called Karp Your Enthusiasm."
Karp’s political evolution is as complex as his personality. After meeting Peter Thiel at Stanford Law, the two formed a partnership despite divergent views—Thiel would go on to co-found PayPal with Elon Musk, while Karp pursued a PhD in social theory in Frankfurt, driven by a desire to understand "how Germany… descended into barbarism," as Steinberger recounts. When they reconnected in 2004 to launch Palantir, Karp couldn’t code but brought a philosopher’s grasp of how information is organized, persuading engineers and researchers to join him in building a company with a mission to "defend the West." Unlike other Silicon Valley giants that shied away from military contracts, Palantir embraced them, supporting U.S. military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan and even suing the Army in 2016 over blocked contracts.
The company’s reach has not been without controversy. Palantir was linked to the Cambridge Analytica scandal in 2018, and during the COVID-19 pandemic, its software was used to track virus spread and vaccine allocation. Today, Palantir counts the CIA, FBI, DHS, NSA, and ICE among its clients. Steinberger argues that Palantir does not collect or store personal data, but rather "builds software that lets others use their own data." Still, critics remain wary of the company’s power and the opaque nature of its technology.
Karp’s own political allegiances have shifted over time. He opposed Donald Trump in 2016, voted for Hillary Clinton, and backed Kamala Harris in 2024. Yet, when Trump returned to the White House, Karp adapted, writing a $1 million inauguration check and seeing Palantir contribute $5 million to Trump’s military parade. In an interview with Axios, he described himself as "an independent who admires what Trump has done on many things." Steinberger suggests that Karp believes "the price of doing business with the government is making nice with Trump." This pragmatism has drawn criticism, especially given Karp’s previous warnings about the dangers of fascism and Palantir’s role in ICE operations that have sometimes led to the detention of innocent people. Steinberger reports that Karp rejects the notion that Trump is fascist, arguing that "the US still has a working court system and free press."
Despite—or perhaps because of—these complexities, Karp remains bullish on Palantir’s impact. He claims the company has prevented "innumerable terror attacks" in Europe and insists that its work is misunderstood. On the fraught issue of immigration, Karp has warned, "if the left doesn’t take this concern seriously, voters are going to turn to people who do, and the left isn’t going to like the outcome. That’s how you got the first Trump presidency, and arguably it’s one of the reasons you got the second one."
All this comes at a time when confidence in the AI sector is wobbling. Analysts warn that "leading AI systems generate false claims at rates up to 40%," as ING’s Julian Geib noted in a report titled, "AI’s habit of making stuff up is a growing concern." The problem, he says, is that newer AI models answer virtually every request, even when they don’t know the answer, raising the risk of widespread misinformation.
Meanwhile, the tech and crypto bloodbath continues. Coinbase shares dropped 7.44% on November 20, and Bitcoin, once hailed as a "proven store of value," has lost 24% this month, trading at around $82,000—nowhere near its $124,000 peak. UBS’s Paul Donovan was blunt, telling clients, "The latest crypto convulsions would constitute hyperinflation, if crypto were a currency."
As markets open in New York, the world is watching to see whether the AI-fueled tech rally is truly running out of steam—or if, as Karp and his supporters argue, this is just another bump in the road for a sector that’s reshaping everything from national security to healthcare. For now, uncertainty reigns, and the only thing that seems certain is that the story of Alex Karp and Palantir is far from over.
