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Palantir’s tech head explains how he manages stars — and how he owned a big screwup to the CEO

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Palantir’s chief technology officer uses a “Superman” analogy to help manage the company’s brightest talent.

On an episode of the “Invest Like The Best” podcast released on Tuesday, Shyam Sankar shared how he helps employees identify which skills to embrace and which to avoid.

“Superpowers are effortless,” he said. “My analogy for this is it Superman could fly. He could see through walls. But that wasn’t some sort of arduous thing for him to do. It’s just something he could do.”

The Palantir CTO, who has been with the defense tech giant for 20 years, added that the other side of this is identifying your “kryptonite” — in the series, a mineral fatal to Superman.

“It’s not like something you can work on. The only strategy for Superman around kryptonite was to avoid it,” Sankar said.

He added that the company supports employees in uncovering these weaknesses.

“The discovery of kryptonite usually involves you being exposed to it,” he said. “You don’t want to create a culture which is like, you fuck this up, I gotta fire you.”

Palantir culture

On the podcast, Sankar shared that he once made a big mistake, which he took to the company’s CEO, Alex Karp.

“I sheepishly went into Alex and was just completely honest,” he said. “He was also in pain as he internalized what this was going to mean. But he valued the fact that I wouldn’t try to hide it.”

Sankar added that the episode taught him that it was important to have an environment that allows mistakes.

Palantir is known across tech for its anti-hierarchical, untraditional company culture.

According to staffers on the company’s YouTube videos, Palantir is split into micro-teams, and employees report to their teammates. One hiring manager said that, for a project to which a Big Tech company would assign 30 engineers, Palantir only assigns three to four.

The company’s leadership has also embraced ditching diplomas in favor of real-world learning.

On an August earnings call, Karp, who holds a law degree from Stanford and a doctorate from Germany’s Goethe University, said “no one cares” about educational backgrounds at the company.




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Hilton called out by DHS after the department said ICE agents’ reservations were canceled at an independently owned Hampton Inn

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The Department of Homeland Security singled out Hilton on X, saying a hotel in Minnesota canceled reservations belonging to Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.

According to a screenshot shared by DHS on Tuesday, a Hampton Inn in Lakeville, south of Minneapolis, said it was “not allowing any ICE or immigration agents to stay at our property.”

“If you are with DHS or immigration, let us know as we will have to cancel your reservation,” the screenshot said.

Hilton said it doesn’t own or operate the hotel.

“This hotel is independently owned and operated, and these actions were not reflective of Hilton values,” Hilton said in a statement to Business Insider. “We have been in direct contact with the hotel, and they have apologized for the actions of their team, which was not in keeping with their policies. They have taken immediate action to resolve this matter and are contacting impacted guests to ensure they are accommodated.”

“Hilton’s position is clear: Our properties are open to everyone and we do not tolerate any form of discrimination,” the statement said.

Everpeak Hospitality, the owner of the hotel, said in a statement Tuesday that the incident was “inconsistent with our policy of being a welcoming place for all.”

“We are in touch with the impacted guests to ensure they are accommodated,” the statement said. “We do not discriminate against any individuals or agencies and apologize to those impacted.”

The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to a request for comment.

Who owns Hilton-branded hotels?

Hilton is a publicly traded company owned by its shareholders.

Hilton’s largest known shareholders are The Vanguard Group and BlackRock, which respectively own 10.6% and 8.5% of its common stock, according to the company’s 2025 proxy statement.

Hilton, like other global hotel chains, does not own most Hilton-branded hotels.

Instead, most of its hotels are franchised, in which case they are owned and operated independently, or they are owned by a third party and operated by Hilton.




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