Palantir Technologies Inc.
Leadership History
3 leaders · 2003 to present
Alexander C. Karp is the CEO of Palantir, in the role since 2004.
| Name | Role | From | To | Years in role |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alexander C. Karp | Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer | 2004 | Present | 22 |
| Peter Thiel | Co-Founder and Chairman | 2003 | Present | 23 |
| Stephen Cohen | Co-Founder and President | 2003 | Present | 23 |
Palantir is a software company built around one problem: helping large organizations combine data that lives in disconnected systems and make decisions from it. It started with U.S. intelligence and defense customers through Gotham, added Foundry for companies, and since 2023 has repositioned around AIP, its platform for running AI on private data. It listed on the NYSE in 2020, switched to Nasdaq in November 2024 and joined the S&P 500 in September 2024. By late 2026 it was one of the most valuable U.S. software companies. The company is headquartered in Denver, Colorado. Palantir Technologies was founded in May 2003 in Palo Alto, California, by Peter Thiel, Alex Karp, Stephen Cohen, Joe Lonsdale, and Nathan Gettings to build mission-critical data integration software for western intelligence and defense agencies, relocating corporate headquarters to Denver, Colorado, in 2020.
Palantir earns money by licensing and hosting four software platforms under multi-year contracts. Gotham serves defense and intelligence agencies; Foundry integrates operational data for companies; Apollo deploys and updates software across cloud, on-premise and classified environments; and AIP connects large language models to customer data through Palantir's Ontology. Revenue is reported in two segments, Government and Commercial. In Q2 2026, government revenue was $990 million and commercial revenue was $945 million, so the split was close to even. Palantir lands customers through short AIP bootcamps, then expands contracts as more workflows move onto the platform.
Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer
2004 – Present
22 years (current)
Led the 2020 direct listing, the 2023 AIP launch and bootcamp sales model, and the 2026 headquarters move to the Miami area.
Has run Palantir for more than two decades, taking it from a venture-backed government contractor to a profitable company with $4.475 billion of 2025 revenue.
Co-Founder and Chairman
2003 – Present
23 years (current)
Thiel provided the initial massive venture funding and the overarching philosophical direction, insisting the company build software to empower human intelligence rather than replace it with AI.
As Co-Founder and Chairman, he leveraged his massive political connections and PayPal mafia network to secure Palantir's early, highly classified contracts with the CIA and US military.
Co-Founder and President
2003 – Present
23 years (current)
Cohen built the initial prototype of Palantir's core Gotham platform, specifically designing the highly intuitive interface that allowed non-technical intelligence analysts to map complex terror networks.
As Co-Founder and President, he established the company's aggressive, engineering-first culture that actively shunned traditional enterprise sales teams in its early days.
These officers report to the chief executive and are not part of the CEO timeline above.
Palantir's main risks are valuation, political exposure and competition. At about $447 billion in late September 2026, the stock traded at more than 50 times the company's 2026 revenue guidance, so any slowdown could hit it hard. Its work for ICE, militaries and police drives protests and reputational risk, and it was one reason cited in coverage of the 2026 move from Denver to Miami. Government revenue depends on budgets and procurement cycles. In commercial AI, Palantir competes with Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Databricks and Snowflake, all of which have bigger distribution networks.
Dr. Alexander C. Karp is the co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Palantir Technologies. Known for his distinctive intellectual style, passion for martial arts (Tai Chi), and outspoken defense of Western democratic values, Karp has steered Palantir since 2004 with a focus on long-term technological excellence over short-term Wall Street quarterly consensus.
Alex Karp earned a Bachelor of Arts from Haverford College, a Juris Doctor (J.D.) from Stanford Law School (where he was a classmate of co-founder Peter Thiel), and a Ph.D. in neoclassical social theory from Goethe University Frankfurt under renowned philosopher Jürgen Habermas.
Alex Karp has consistently maintained that Palantir is unapologetically committed to supporting the United States, its military, and Western democratic allies. He argues that advanced technology companies have a moral obligation to protect liberal democracies against authoritarian adversaries.
Alex Karp's annual shareholder letters are widely read for their philosophical depth, critiques of Silicon Valley monoculture, defense of Western institutions, and sharp focus on delivering mission-critical engineering software that solves real-world industrial and military challenges.
Key long-standing executive leaders include Shyam Sankar (Chief Technology Officer and Executive Vice President), Stephen Cohen (Co-founder and President), David Glazer (Chief Financial Officer), and Ryan Taylor (Chief Revenue Officer and Chief Legal Officer).
Karp guided Palantir through 16 years as a secretive private unicorn, executed its direct listing on the NYSE in September 2020, reached the first GAAP-profitable quarter in Q4 2022, launched AIP in 2023, led Palantir into the S&P 500 in 2024, and moved the headquarters to the Miami area in 2026.
In 2020, Karp relocated Palantir's headquarters to Denver, Colorado, expressing dissatisfaction with the political consensus, tech monoculture, and perceived disconnect of Silicon Valley tech giants from mainstream American values and national security priorities.
Alex Karp holds significant equity and voting power in Palantir through multi-class Class F founder voting shares, aligning his long-term financial incentives with total shareholder return and enterprise durability.
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