How Palantir Became The S&P’s Most Expensive Stock—And Earned CEO Alex Karp A Spot On The Forbes 400

Forbes

Karp joins Forbes’ list of the richest Americans for the first time, thanks to his data mining firm’s massive year.  Read the full story on Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/phoebeliu/2024/10/02/how-palantir-became-the-sps-most-expensive-stock-and-earned-ceo-alex-karp-a-spot-on-the-forbes-400/  Subscribe to FORBES: https://www.youtube.com/user/Forbes?sub_confirmation=1  Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:  https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript  Stay Connected Forbes newsletters: https://newsletters.editorial.forbes.com Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes More From Forbes:  http://forbes.com  Forbes covers the intersection of entrepreneurship, wealth, technology, business and lifestyle with a focus on people and success.

Transcript

00:00Today on Forbes, how Palantir became the S&P's most expensive stock, and earned CEO Alex

00:07Karp a spot on the Forbes 400.

00:11In an official video posted on Palantir's YouTube channel in September, CEO Alex Karp

00:17jogs through a forest in biker shorts holding hot pink poles, with a mic clipped to his

00:23shirt.

00:24Pausing his trail run, the 57-year-old Karp says, quote,

00:27People do not completely comprehend how we could have turned a switch and gone from what

00:31adults, professional managers, and some analysts thought was a Frankenstein monster powered

00:36by a freak show leader, me, to a dynamic, clearly profitable company, worthy of and

00:42admitted to the S&P 500.

00:45And we did it our way.

00:47The rebels won.

00:50Karp certainly did win.

00:51Palantir, which builds software to help other businesses gather, manage, and analyze their

00:56data, at first with secretive government agencies like the CIA, and now also with commercial

01:01customers in a wide range of industries, had a banner year.

01:06Palantir took off, with annual revenue increasing more than 20% over the last year to $2.5 billion,

01:13and it flipped the switch on profitability, going from a net loss of $50 million in June

01:182023, to net income of $400 million a year later.

01:24The record year was capped by its addition to the S&P 500 in September.

01:29The company's growth is in part because many of its data software products meshed with

01:33the wave of AI hype.

01:36No surprise, then, that shares are up 134% over the past year, making Palantir the most

01:42expensive stock in the S&P in terms of revenue multiples, more so even than chip design darling

01:48NVIDIA.

01:50Palantir's meteoric rise has earned Karp a spot on the Forbes 400 list of richest Americans

01:56for the first time, worth an estimated $3.6 billion thanks to his Palantir stake and $1

02:02billion or so in cash from stock sales as of September 1st, the day we finalized net

02:08worths for our list.

02:10We released the 400 list last week on October 1st.

02:13Karp, the philosopher-turned-entrepreneur, chalks up his and his company's success to

02:19its belief in the, quote, production of truth.

02:22Writing in an email to Forbes, he says that Palantir's software, quote, provides a single

02:27source of truth, a view unvarnished of an enterprise's entire being, how all of its

02:32people, assets, and actions connect to each other.

02:38Born in New York and raised outside Philadelphia by a pediatrician father and artist mother,

02:43Karp has always prided himself on his inability to fit neatly into a box.

02:48In August, he told the New York Times, quote, I'm a Jewish, racially ambiguous dyslexic,

02:53so I can say anything.

02:56He spoke to the Times from his $1 million home in New Hampshire, adding that he has

02:59nine other ski huts across the country.

03:03Karp attended Haverford for his undergraduate degree, went to law school at Stanford, where

03:07he met Palantir co-founder and fellow Forbes 400 member Peter Thiel, then earned a doctorate

03:13in neoclassical social theory from Goethe University Frankfurt, where he wrote a dissertation

03:18on aggression's role in social integration.

03:21In a surprising move from a recently graduated doctor of philosophy with no tech background,

03:26Karp co-founded Palantir in 2003 alongside Thiel, Stanford computer science grads Stephen

03:32Cohen and Joe Lonsdale, and former PayPal engineer Nathan Gettings.

03:37Its mission was to, quote, help intelligence agencies make better use of their data securely

03:41and responsibly.

03:44Palantir also has an explicit mission to support Western values and American defense, something

03:48Karp is not shy to discuss.

03:51In his email to Forbes, he wrote, quote, we stand unapologetically with America and its

03:56allies.

03:58He further emphasized his sole commitment to, quote, our partners' success in business

04:02and on the battlefield.

04:05The company's first funder and customer was the CIA, and Palantir operated primarily in

04:10the intelligence space until around 2010, when J.P. Morgan became its first commercial

04:15customer.

04:17Over the years, it's continued to focus on uber-large customers, and today has some 600.

04:24For full coverage, check out Phoebe Liu's piece on Forbes.com.

04:29This is Kieran Meadows from Forbes.

04:31Thanks for tuning in.

04:40you

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