Davos: Palantir's Moment of Truth

The 2023 World Economic Forum has changed how people see Palantir

People will either remember Alex Karp’s exchange with a Korean CEO as an epic moment that must be hailed as pure good for the company or as arrogant and selfish. But no one can’t deny the fact that it was brutally honest and consequential, for better or for worse.

A company, in this case Daesung Group, needed a solution and Karp offered one: Foundry. “And we expect you to pay us a lot of money”.

People saying it was a bad move from Karp’s side ignore the fact that with Foundry a company will potentially save a great amount of resources. And just with a fraction of this surplus they will pay the bill, and gladly so. It’s as good as it sounds, if not better. And if anyone happened to have any doubts, just ask Tyson Foods and their $200M in value just by using Foundry.

Davos is also the perfect spot to tell the powerful that they need to adapt to a changing world or die. And this adaptation requires a bulletproof vest. Companies that literally own large chunks of how the world operates are changing the way in which they build their product through cloud solutions and predictive systems, and how they react to changing macroeconomic realities. They are also changing how they respond to disruptors in their industries and to the incumbents who acknowledge their lack of infrastructure and are taking steps or have already built walls to defend their product. Those who don’t change, will cease to exist.

Denial is the worst of reactions, but the most common (and painful) is trying to change while using the same tools. What Dr. Karp would describe as PowerPoints. Bureaucracy is killer, and especially in big corporations, where nothing essentially improves while loads of resources are almost literally burned. And that, eventually, leads to frustration.

Younghoon David Kim, the CEO who told Karp that Foundry seemed too good to be true, had loads of frustration, and expressed it so out of necessity. Karp said what he needed to hear: that their software worked. And the best proof of something that works is the fact that corporations and governments not only need the product, but are willingly paying a lot of money for it.

We can already see some results of the interview in how people see Palantir and its CEO, especially powerful individuals or from similar industries. One example is former Secretary of State and CIA Director Mike Pompeo. Palantir is increasingly getting more attention, and when Karp speaks, everyone listens.

Mike Pompeo @mikepompeo

Well said Alex. The West must -- and will -- preserve human dignity.

wsj.comPalantir CEO Only Wants Employees Who Agree With Mission to Boost the WestPalantir Technologies Inc. only wants employees who agree with the company’s mission to give the U.S. and other Western governments technological advantages over their enemies, Chief Executive Alex Karp said. “We are not everyone’s cup of tea. We may not be your cup of tea,” he said Wednesday at an

The commercial side of Palantir’s business has its annual conference in FoundryCon, but I believe Davos is the annual event for Gotham (or PG, as Karp baptized it some days ago). Especially now, in times of war in Ukraine and what will probably develop in Taiwan in the coming months and years, all eyes are on which solutions are actually helping the West and how their platforms handle every given situation.

Once they realize it is working and that company is really changing the game, even if controversial, they will feel the need to use it, to solve their issues. After fixing whatever the PowerPoints broke, they will notice this software isn’t just good, but it’s great! And then they will want it for making processes more efficient, to better cut costs while improving their product.

Here is where Palantir will make the most money, because the client has already had a bite and now wants the whole cake. It’s a slow process, but Palantir is on the right track. They are differentiating themselves in a greatly unique way; purple sweaters, bold statements, unapologetically pro-West and, yes, Karp’s hair.

We still need to hear and see a couple of other events from the Palantir villa!

Davos is the place where they need to show what they did in Ukraine. And even if it sounds simplistic, it is what I believe corporations and governments want to see, before anything else. And I’m sure they showed everyone in their Swiss villa what Gotham does with SkyKit on the battleground and what Foundry does with Tyson Foods or Jacobs (if they missed FoundryCon22).

Big corporations want to see big results for them to change and want a new solution, and the bigger the effect Palantir has on them, the less time will be required for them to admit past failures on wrong ventures and, at least, commit to a Foundry pilot.

And let me finish with this. If Palantir doesn’t secure the most powerful companies, what will the small and medium businesses think? But what if Palantir does convince them and help earn tangible results for them by deploying Foundry to their entire business structures…? That’s my point.