Palantir CEO denies NYT report on data collection: report

During an interview today on CNBC, Palantir (NASDAQ:PLTR) CEO Alex Karp denied allegations from a New York Times article last week that said his company was “tapped” by the Trump Administration to “compile a master list of personal information on Americans.”

Karp said the company is “not surveilling Americans,” when asked about the article.

This follows up a denial by Palantir in a post on X dated June 3.

“The recently published article by the New York Times is blatantly untrue,” the post reads. “Palantir never collects data to unlawfully surveil Americans, and our Foundry platform employs granular security protections. If the facts were on its side, the New York Times would not have needed to twist the truth.”

The New York Times said the Denver-based Palantir might be the company tapped to handle U.S. President Donald Trump’s executive order that called for the federal government to merge information and data across its agencies. The claim was made as Palantir continues to secure government contracts.

During the interview with CNBC, Karp also highlighted the importance of the U.S. dominating the artificial intelligence race.

“My general bias on AI is it is dangerous,” Karp said. “There are positive and negative consequences, and either we win or China will win.”

“There is no economy in the world with this kind of corporate leadership which is willing to pivot, which understands technologies, which is willing to look at new things, but also has deep domain expertise,” he said. “Our allies in the West, in Europe, are going to have to learn from us.”