Palantir CEO Alex Karp says AI will upend society and that even people in tech underestimate “how disruptive these technologies are.”
“If you are going to disrupt the economic and, therefore, political power significantly of one party’s base, highly educated, often female voters who vote mostly Democrat, and military and working class people who do not feel supported, and you feel like that’s, you believe that that’s going to work out politically — you’re in an insane asylum,” Karp told CNBC on Thursday on the sidelines of AIPCon 9 in Maryland.
Karp said that, since AI will largely disrupt white-collar work, it will place greater value on vocational skills, upending the political paradigms of the Trump era.
“This technology disrupts humanites trained, largely Democratic voters, and makes their economic power less, and increases the power, economic power, vocationally trained, working class, often male voters, and, and, and so, these disruptions are going to disrupt every aspect of our society,” he said.
Studies show that many white-collar fields are the most exposed to the initial wave of AI-related disruption. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei has warned that AI could wipe out up to half of all white-collar, entry-level jobs over the next 1 to 5 years.
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Karp has long positioned himself and Palantir as champions of the working class, with a particular focus on the US military. He’s declared the software company “completely anti-woke” and has pushed back against employees who have questioned the firm’s contracts with US immigration authorities.
The US can justify pursuing such a disruptive technology as AI only if it is coupled with national security, Karp said.
“These technologies are dangerous societally,” he said. “The only justification you could possibly have would be if we don’t do it, our adversaries will do it, and we will be subject to their rule of law.”
Later in the day, Karp sketched out what could happen in a world that doesn’t come together in the face of AI. In particular, he called for wholesale changes to the US education system to better prioritize skills-based training.
“The problem, the danger is if we don’t do these reforms, you are going to get the pitchforks, because then the only solution people are going to have is, well, let’s go after the unlikeable, rich people in tech, especially AI tech,” he said during a recent interview on TBPN.
While Palantir has not disclosed why, the firm recently relocated from Colorado, a state that has become more Democratic in recent years, to Florida, where Gov. Ron DeSantis has overseen an explosion in Republican support.
Karp contrasted the future of America with that of Germany, where he spent significant time pursuing a Ph.D at Goethe University in Frankfurt.
“There are a lot of people like you guys, young people building things that feel hampered and are correct to feel hampered,” he said. “I think the American version, if we’re not careful, is not going to be the German version. I think it’s going to be, ‘Hang the rich.'”
Several months before Palantir moved its headquarters to Miami, an entity with ties to the company’s billionaire CEO, Alex Karp, put down roots in the city.
In June, Hibiscus East LLC purchased a home on Miami’s San Marino Drive for $46 million, according to property records.
Like several of Karp’s other properties, the LLC is registered in Delaware. It is connected to an attorney’s office in Manchester, New Hampshire, and an accounting office in Bedford, New Hampshire, both of which appear on documents from previous real estate transactions that are linked to Karp.
The nearly 10,000-square-foot newly built home sits on San Marino Island, one of the exclusive Venetian Islands in Biscayne Bay. A YouTube video of the home posted by listing agent Dina Goldentayer showcases the property’s waterfront and pool.
Goldentayer declined to comment to Business Insider. Representatives for Palantir and an attorney for Karp did not respond to requests for comment.
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Last month, Palantir announced it was moving its headquarters to Miami from Denver. The company has not revealed publicly why it’s making the move. Before setting up in Denver in 2020, Palantir was headquartered in Silicon Valley.
“Our company was founded in Silicon Valley,” Karp wrote in an investor letter that year. “But we seem to share fewer and fewer of the technology sector’s values and commitments.”
One of Karp’s Palantir cofounders, Peter Thiel, bought a home on one of Florida’s Venetian Islands in 2020, and his VC firm, Thiel Capital, later opened an office in Miami.
It’s not clear if Karp, who is worth $15.8 billion, according to Bloomberg, is moving to Miami full-time. He owns hundreds of acres of land in New Hampshire and, last year, made headlines for spending $120 million on a monastery outside Aspen, Colorado.
A handful of California billionaires have recently purchased properties in Miami, including Sergey Brin and Mark Zuckerberg. The real estate shopping spree comes amid an initiative in the state to get a wealth tax on November’s ballot. If passed, California residents with a net worth of more than $1 billion would be subject to a one-time 5% tax on their wealth.
Florida famously has a no-income tax policy written into its constitution.
“California’s a beautiful state, but now, because of all the political situations and all the tax laws, it’s just coming in our favor,” luxury real estate agent Saddy Abaunza Delgado previously told Business Insider.
Similarly, Howard Schultz, the former CEO of Starbucks, announced a move to Miami earlier this week — on the same day a millionaire’s tax passed Washington state’s House of Representatives.
The rush has caused prices to balloon in the 305. Zuckerberg’s $170 million purchase earlier this month on the island of Indian Creek set a Miami record.
“The influx of billionaires from California” will cause “escalation of the market,” Ana Bozovic, a founder of Analytics Miami, previously told Business Insider. “The market ceiling keeps rising,”
Before Brad Karp resigned as chairman of Paul Weiss, the elite Wall Street law firm said he interacted with Jeffrey Epstein to “negotiate a series of fee disputes” on behalf of Leon Black, the billionaire former Apollo Global Management CEO.
Recently released records from the Justice Department show the two men also discussed how to handle a woman whoallegedly demanded Black pay her $100 million.
The emails show Epstein and Karp trading notes about secret recordings, professional surveillance, and efforts to have the woman arrested for what Epstein described as an “extortion” attempt.
“I have come to the conclusion that we will need to bring in law enforcement sooner rather than later,” Epstein told Karp in a typo-strewn email. “Needs tobe a close sensitive relation Your call on fbi or nypd.”
Karp stepped down as the chair of Paul Weiss on Wednesday after the Epstein files revealed he advised the convicted sex offender on his legal battles with women and asked for help getting his son a role in a Woody Allen movie. He has also resigned from the board of Union College, his alma mater.
The latest emails, some of which were first reported by Law.com, show Karp agreeing with Epstein’s recommendation to have the investigation firm Nardello & Co. surveil the woman — referred to as “GG” — for “a full week” in 2015.
A spokesperson for Nardello confirmed the firm worked on the case for Black’s legal counsel, but denied working with Epstein, who Black paid for financial advice.
“In the course of that engagement, no one at Nardello had any contact or communication with Epstein whatsoever nor did the firm know that Mr. Black’s counsel was sharing documents or other work product with Epstein,” the firm said.
The emails show Karp updated Epstein on GG’s movements in August of that year. He informed Epstein about “GG” staying at an apartment in Manhattan’s Upper East Side neighborhood before being “snuck out” through the garage, “in a car with tinted windows,” to JFK airport.
“we have license plate numbers,” Karp told Epstein.
Karp also kept Epstein updated about a transcript of a meeting with GG that took place at the Four Seasons.
“GG is in Moscow; the transcript should be completed tomorrow,” Karp told Epstein in one email. “I’ll send it to you as soon as I receive it.”
Representatives for Paul Weiss didn’t immediately respond to Business Insider’s requests for comment.
At the time, Black was concluding an extramarital relationship with Guzel Ganieva, according to a 2022 lawsuit he filed against her. In the suit, Black claimed that Ganieva demanded $100 million from him in 2015 during a meeting at the Four Seasons restaurant. The lawsuit accused Ganieva of participating in an “extortion plot” with her lawyers and Black’s rivals, saying she threatened to reveal their relationship to his wife and Apollo’s board if she didn’t get the money. A judge dismissed the lawsuit later that year, finding the lawsuit’s claims were “vague” and “more creative writing than factual.”
A person familiar with the matter confirmed that the “GG” in the newly released emails was a reference to Guzel Ganieva.
Susan Estrich, an attorney representing Black, told Business Insider that Ganieva was trying to “blackmail” Black following a “years long consensual relationship” at the time that Epstein and Karp were exchanging emails.
Guzel, in her own lawsuit, alleged Black forced her into violent sexual encounters while promising to help her with educational and career ambitions. A judge dismissed the allegations, finding a non-disclosure agreement between Ganieva and Black barred her from bringing the case.
Ganieva also said Black introduced her to Epstein, whose relationship with Black led him to step down as the CEO and chairman of Apollo in 2021. An Apollo investigation found Black stopped using Epstein’s financial services in 2018 over a fee dispute.
An attorney for Ganieva didn’t immediately respond to Business Insider’s requests for comment.
The Justice Department’s files show Nardello, the investigative firm, sent Karp and another Paul Weiss attorney, Lorin Reisner, transcripts of conversations between “GG” and their client, referred to in the transcripts as “John Doe.” Karp then forwarded them to Epstein.
The transcripts show GG and John Doe discussing their past relationship. John Doe repeatedly raises what he claims were GG’s requests for millions of dollars.
“For me, it’s not about money, it’s about respect,” GG told John Doe in a transcript where he refers to her as “Guzel.” “I think you were very unfair to me,” she added.
At one point, Epstein advised Karp and Reisner — who joined Paul Weiss after serving as Chief of the Criminal Division of the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York — to “have her arrested” and possibly deported.
He urged Karp to contact law enforcement before the woman could file a lawsuit.
“i think the extortion claim AFTER a filing is fairly weak. and would be seen to be an intimidattion tactic from a powerful man, if you think you are being extorted,” Epstein wrote with his signature freestyle grammar.
Karp responded enthusiastically.
“I’ll check again with lorin, but my strong belief is that the answer is yes,” he told Epstein. “Especially with the referral coming from the most recent head of the sdny usao.”
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Brad Karp has resigned from Union College’s board of trustees.
This news comes after Karp’s resignation as chairman of Big Law firm Paul Weiss earlier this month.
Karp is one of the elite names that appear in the Epstein files.
Top US lawyer Brad Karp has resigned from Union College’s board of trustees as he faces scrutiny from his ties to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Karp has been removed from the list of trustees on his alma mater’s website, from which he graduated in 1981.
Union College’s board chair Julie Greifer Swidler could not be reached for immediate comment. In a statement to local media, Greifer Swidler said Karp had resigned from the board.
“The Board of Trustees and College leadership look forward to continuing our efforts to prepare our outstanding students to lead with wisdom, empathy and courage, while ensuring that Union thrives for decades to come,” she said.
Karp’s departure from the board follows his resignation as chairman of the Big Law firm Paul Weiss last week.
Karp is among the names to appear in 3 million documents released by the Justice Department from its investigation into Epstein.
“Recent reporting has created a distraction and has placed a focus on me that is not in the best interests of the firm,” Karp said in a statement in Paul Weiss’ news release announcing the news.
This story is developing. Please check back fror updates.
Molly O’Shea is a name-dropper. There’s good reason for that.
I count 29 big names in tech mentioned over our hourlong call. She told me about recently moderating a panel with Kalshi cofounders Tarek Mansour and Luana Lopes Lara. Ken Griffin took the stage after her. O’Shea breezily referenced talking about the state of new media with the TBPN bros in Peter Thiel’s house.
But it’s O’Shea’s access to executives like these that keeps her audience coming back. The podcaster is deeply immersed in Silicon Valley culture, having several years of venture capital experience under her belt.
“I am institutionally trained not to get canceled,” she said. “A lot of these people really trust me. I think it’s a wonderful component that I come in from the industry.”
Her podcast’s name, Sourcery, references “sourcing deals,” but it better represents O’Shea’s talent herself. She’sclearlysourced up, sporting an ever-growing rolodex of tech’s biggest names.
After buzzy interviews with Palantir CEO Alex Karp and Anduril cofounder Palmer Luckey, O’Shea’s platform has quickly grown. So have her critics, some of whom say she should ask tougher questions.
But her core audience — investors in the world of tech and finance — seem to love that she’s in the know.
From in-house VC newsletter to ‘monk mode’
O’Shea considers herself the first of her family to chase a “capitalistic pursuit.”
“It’s funny, there’s not many business-oriented people in my family,” she said. “My dad had a marketing agency for most of my life, but again, it was a marketing agency. My mom is a home designer and she used to be a creative director.”
She went to New York University for studio art but pivoted to entrepreneurship after learning how low the average artist’s salary was. Eventually, she narrowed in on venture capital.
O’Shea got her start working for the father of a college friend, a secondaries investor for a family office. She moved to Miami to work for him before coming back to New York as an analyst at the Global Public Offering Fund.
She then went to the seed and Series A investment firm TMV — then called Trail Mix Ventures — as an associate. She started Sourcery there as an in-house newsletter, but only made it public when she started at New York Life Ventures as a senior associate. She shared it with friends, and it eventually grew a readership.
Then Upfront Ventures’ Greg Bettinelli reached out with a job offer.
“I was a reader of her email newsletter,” Bettinelli later wrote when asked about the offer. “We were looking to hire a new investor for Upfront Ventures and I reached out as I appreciated what she built as what I think was a side project at the time.”
O’Shea said she was on a boat in the Mediterranean when she got Bettinelli’s offer. She met him in the Hamptons. “It’s like the bougiest story ever,” she said.
O’Shea moved to Los Angeles for Upfront Ventures. She’s stayed in the city and prefers it to New York. “You get so much more for your money,” she said. “I have a hot tub!”
Before O’Shea was a full-time podcaster, she worked for TMV, New York Life Ventures, and Upfront Ventures.
Molly O’Shea
Then Elon Musk took over X, partially open-sourced the algorithm, and launched ad-revenue share programs. O’Shea said, “Game on.”
She started posting more, and her follower count grew. Erik Torenberg of the podcast network Turpentine asked if she wanted to start a podcast about deals, linked to her newsletter.
While O’Shea declined to disclose exactly how much she earns, she said the Sourcery newsletter began generating revenue when it added subscriptions. That includes a $600 “I can expense it” annual tier she said “plenty of people” were willing to pay for.
Sourcery is now her full-time job and a top-200 podcast in Apple Podcasts’ investing category. She employs a “lean team” to help her film, edit, and promote.
The Palantir and Anduril interviews helped generate more interview interest. (Her next guest: Jake Paul.)
After an “insane” end to 2025, O’Shea said she spent January locked-in and focused on laying the foundation for the rest of the new year.
“I’m going into monk mode.”
Getting Karp and Luckey to say yes
O’Shea’s network is big, and her show keeps making it bigger.
Andreessen Horowitz’s Alex Immerman told her he watched her Kalshi video before investing in the company, she said. “I know plenty of people — I won’t name them — that have put millions of dollars into these companies that I’ve profiled,” she said.
That seems to be how O’Shea lands many of her guests: knowing the right people. I spoke to two early interviewees. Oden Technologies cofounder Willem Sundblad was introduced to O’Shea through an investor. Contrary general partner Kyle Harrison met her in 2018 and once considered hiring her while at Coatue Management.
“A lot of these relationships start first as friendships,” Harrison said. “We’ve enjoyed talking to each other off the record, so talking on the record is just as much fun.”
The Karp interview was a right-place, right-time situation. She was at the Hill and Valley Forum in 2025, where Karp was speaking. O’Shea said Palantir’s Eliano Younes recognized her from Pirate Wires and introduced her to Shyam Sankar, the company’s CTO.
Then she published a list of her 100 dream guests. Listed No. 1 was Ivanka Trump. Palantir staff noticed Karp wasn’t on the list, O’Shea said, and she amended it, making him 1B. That set the interview in motion.
A clip of Karp brandishing a sword thrust O’Shea’s podcast into the limelight — and got the trolls commenting.
Molly O’Shea
Her Anduril series also sprang from the Sourcery 100 list. She put Anduril cofounders Palmer Luckey and Trae Stephens on the list. Matt Grimm commented and helped her set up an interview.
The Karp interview was her biggest by far. The full-length podcast has 4.3 million views on X — and that’s not including the various clips she publishes separately.
It also made her confront the challenges of being on camera.
She published the video on a Tuesday in the back of a taxi in London. She went offline on Wednesday and woke up to hundreds of texts on Thursday asking if she was OK.
In the interview, O’Shea wore an Alaïa dress her friend had lent her. She said she liked being able to “show some femininity and personal style.” Some X users mocked her attire. (Others pointed out that Karp was wearing a t-shirt.)
O’Shea said she was glad to be offline at the time and not glued to her phone watching the comments, and grateful for the women who reached out.
“There were a lot of really horrible tweets, and a lot of really disgusting things that I wish I did not see,” she said. “The internet is a scary place.”
The ‘tough questions’ question
In November, The Guardian published a feature about the “friendly media bubble” that turns CEO interview subjects into stars. O’Shea was the lead anecdote. The piece closed with her asking Karp what type of cupcake he would want to be.
O’Shea knows that some people want her to ask “harder questions.” Her response: “If you want to have criticism of a company, how about do some research on it.”
What does O’Shea say to those who think she went too easy on Karp? “How about read the biography,” she said. “That’s a good starting point.”
Sourcery/Molly O’Shea
That doesn’t mean she won’t ask the kind of in-the-weeds technical question about deal structure or strategy that you’d expect from someone with VC roots. The conversations can also veer off of investment talk.
Take a recent interview with the lightning rod venture capitalist Shaun Maguire of Sequoia — who generated widespread backlash after saying Zohran Mamdani was a secret “Islamist” who “comes from a culture of lying.” At one point, she’s asking him about the economics of telecommunications. At another, Maguire is calling Mamdani a communist and a terrorist-supporter.
O’Shea maintains that hard questions aren’t the purpose of her podcast. She’ll sprinkle one in every so often, she said, but the goal is mostly to be a resource. Sourcery is a place for investors to get information about a subject’s views — don’t expect O’Shea to dig in on a guest’s recent scandal or push back on a controversial position.
“If you want to know about lawsuits, I don’t know, go read lawsuits,” she said.
O’Shea is clearly proud of her work. She described a recent nap, dozing off to the “All-In” podcast. She woke up to a new podcast on, and thought: “Holy crap, what is this amazing interview?” It was her own.
Ending our call, I asked if she had a media analogy for herself. TBPN is often called the “SportsCenter of Silicon Valley.” What is Sourcery?
She waffled back and forth; maybe she’s “30 for 30,” maybe she’s Martha Stewart.
Later that day, she emailed me her answer: Barbara Walters, who, incidentally, was famous for her hard-hitting questions.
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Brad Karp stepped down as chairman of Big Law firm Paul Weiss on Wednesday amid scrutiny over Epstein ties.
Scott Barshay was named the new chairman of the global firm, which has more than 1,000 attorneys.
Karp is among the elite names to appear in 3 million documents released by the Justice Department last week.
Brad Karp stepped down as chairman of Big Law firm Paul Weiss on Wednesday amid scrutiny over his ties to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Scott Barshay was named the new chairman of the global firm, which has more than 1,000 attorneys, “effective immediately,” the firm said in a news release.
“Leading Paul, Weiss for the past 18 years has been the honor of my professional life,” Karp was quoted as saying in the release. “Recent reporting has created a distraction and has placed a focus on me that is not in the best interests of the firm.”
The shakeup comes two days after Paul Weiss said in a statement, as reported by The New York Times, that Karp “attended two group dinners in New York City” with Epstein and “had a small number of social interactions by email, all of which he regrets.”
Karp is among the elite names to appear in 3 million documents released by the Justice Department last week from its investigation into Epstein, who killed himself in jail in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges.
He has been at Paul Weiss for four decades and has been chair of the firm since 2008. “Mr. Karp will continue to focus his full-time attention to client service at the firm,” the release said.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
