Palantir’s CEO Says Silicon Valley Products Have ‘Obviously Failed’ to Improve World

(Bloomberg) — Palantir Technologies Inc. Chief Executive Officer Alex Karp said the company’s strategy to reach new business clients is working, especially in the US.

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“Palantir is growing like a weed in the US. Our products are succeeding,” Karp said in an interview with Bloomberg Television that will air Wednesday. Palantir, which was co-founded by billionaire Peter Thiel, is a Colorado-based data technology company with a market value of about $17 billion.

Palantir also announced a five-year, $50 million deal Wednesday to provide its data software to Japan’s Sompo Holdings and the group’s related companies. Sompo has been a Palantir customer since 2019 and now uses the data management and intelligence software in its insurance and health care operations. The company will expand its use of Palantir to more employees with deal.

The arrangement is small in dollar terms – analysts estimated Palantir took in $1.9 billion in revenue in 2022 — but it’s something of a vindication of Palantir’s commercial sales strategy to gain a foothold in large companies and expand.

Karp touted Palantir’s progress with commercial clients on Wednesday at a private event located at the company’s former Silicon Valley headquarters. “We’re pretty close to cracking the nut in the US and now we need to expand this” to other countries, he said.

Palantir’s new commercial customers, including J.D. Power and Dish Network Corp., also attended or presented at Wednesday’s event. Palantir is expected to report its year-end financial results on Feb. 13.

Palantir is coming off a tough year, with its shares falling 65% in 2022. That’s a more severe decline than the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index, which fell 33% last year.

The company, now based in Denver, has famously shunned the California tech scene and its politics. “Silicon Valley has obviously failed in its mission to produce technology that’s useful to the world and makes it a better place,” Karp said.