# AI firms risk nationalization if they ignore public concerns

Markdown copy of https://realalpha.app/s/ai-firms-risk-nationalization-if-they-ignore-public-concerns/ on Real Alpha, the best minutes from long interviews with the people building AI. Cite and link the page, not this copy.

- Speaker: [Alex Karp](https://realalpha.app/builders/alex-karp/) · Alex Karp is cofounder and CEO of Palantir. · Co-founded Palantir with Peter Thiel and has run it as CEO, selling data and AI software to governments.
- Host: Erik Torenberg · General partner, Andreessen Horowitz · Helped build Product Hunt; founded On Deck, Village Global and Turpentine.
- Show: a16z Podcast
- Episode: [Palantir CEO on Iran, AI Weapons and American Domination | a16z American Dynamism Summit](https://realalpha.app/v/Wj6ttdIeBnE/), Mar 12, 2026
- Moment: 10:16 to 15:51 of the episode (6 min), playing on https://realalpha.app/s/ai-firms-risk-nationalization-if-they-ignore-public-concerns/; the episode from there: https://realalpha.app/v/Wj6ttdIeBnE/?t=616

## Quote

> “you get a famous horseshoe effect where there's only one thing people agree on, and that's that this is **not paying the bills**.”
> — [Alex Karp](https://realalpha.app/builders/alex-karp/) at [11:38](https://realalpha.app/v/Wj6ttdIeBnE/?t=698) · a16z Podcast

## Takeaways

1. Job losses and defense concerns could unite political opponents.
2. Karp sees nationalization as a real risk for tech companies.
3. He urges founders to engage with people beyond Silicon Valley.

## About this segment

Alex Karp warns that taking jobs while appearing to neglect national defense could provoke bipartisan support for nationalizing technology. He urges Silicon Valley to explain its choices to voters and political leaders.

From “Palantir CEO on Iran, AI Weapons and American Domination | a16z American Dynamism Summit”, Mar 12, 2026. [Watch the full episode](https://realalpha.app/v/Wj6ttdIeBnE/)

## Transcript

Transcribed by machine (Whisper) from the episode’s audio, so a word may be off here and there.

[10:29](https://realalpha.app/v/Wj6ttdIeBnE/?t=629) My one message for, and again, I'm without getting in specific people or because I'm like, if Silicon Valley believes we are going to take away everyone's white collar job, meaning primarily Democratic shaped people whom I grew up with. Highly educated people who went to elite schools or went to schools that are almost elite who vote for one party. And you're going to screw the military. If you don't think that's going to lead to nationalization of our technology, you're retarded.

[11:05](https://realalpha.app/v/Wj6ttdIeBnE/?t=665) And you might be particularly retarded because you have a 160 IQ. But this is where that path is going. Like, you cannot have technologies that simultaneously take away everyone's job and then be perceived. Again, there's a lot of subtlety here behind the curtain. I've been heavily involved in that subtlety. What can be, where it can be deployed, what can be deployed. There's a difference between U.S. military and surveillance.

[11:34](https://realalpha.app/v/Wj6ttdIeBnE/?t=694) And despite what everyone thinks, Palantir is the anti-surveillance company. I know your person online thinks that's not true, but every technical expert does. So I end up in every conversation that I don't want to be in. But the danger for our industry is that America, you get a famous horseshoe effect where there's only one thing people agree on, and that's that this is not paying the bills. and people and our industry should be nationalized.

[12:02](https://realalpha.app/v/Wj6ttdIeBnE/?t=722) And so the societal benefit that is going on in Iran, besides the fact that I think I suspect the Iranian people feel like finally someone's on my side and it wasn't the Berkeley faculty that was supposed to like me. It's a big lesson for you. Yeah, it's so, and, but then as America, we, and the people who are prominent in the tech industry, you know, we have to find a way to make sure that we're not just popular in Palo Alto.

[12:38](https://realalpha.app/v/Wj6ttdIeBnE/?t=758) Yeah. I want to get back to something you just said, which is that, you know, it's either us winning or China winning or Russia winning or another country, that it's a zero-sum game. And it feels like the people in this room in Washington really understand that AI is zero-sum, but that Silicon Valley doesn't. Silicon Valley doesn't like to think in terms of zero-sum. They like to think that everything is a positive-sum game.

[12:58](https://realalpha.app/v/Wj6ttdIeBnE/?t=778) So how would you explain to the people in Silicon Valley who are, again, building the LLMs, you know, building what they would say is a brand new, net new technology that hasn't existed before and therefore it needs to be treated differently. What would you say to them about this? Well, I mean, first of all, it's, by the way, I just want to push back slightly. They do think it's zero-sum. They think it's zero-sum versus each other.

[13:18](https://realalpha.app/v/Wj6ttdIeBnE/?t=798) So like they absolutely are fighting. There will be like, it's my own rhetoric, but I happen to think it's true. It's going to be chips, ontology, and I suspect in the end, one, one and a half provider. So they pretend they don't think it's zero sum, but then ask them how they feel about their competitor. So it's very, very, I mean, these people are fighting very, very hard for the nominate position.

[13:37](https://realalpha.app/v/Wj6ttdIeBnE/?t=817) So like what they don't understand is in the world, it's zero sum. But I actually think the primary issue in the Valley is it's going to be zero sum vis-a-vis you when America decides, okay, I interact with a lot of political figures. I have a lot of respect. I think in some are – when politicians figure out this is the one winning issue, it is going to be zero-sum. It's going to be your money and your company being zero-sum nationalized.

[14:07](https://realalpha.app/v/Wj6ttdIeBnE/?t=847) So that's the part they don't understand. Helping people understand that either we set the rules or de facto – like I'm much more on America should be strong so that we don't have to worry about the enemies. Then our enemies are evil kind of thing. so I'm not super neocon. It seems to be very hard in this culture as someone who's lived abroad a lot of my life. It's very hard in this culture to explain to people that we're in a competitive environment because things here are so good, they don't understand how different it will be and how much we will change and how much the pressure will be on America, not just legally, but militarily and culturally if we fall behind.

[14:52](https://realalpha.app/v/Wj6ttdIeBnE/?t=892) And one of the things that, again, So I personally think the better way to get people to change is to, okay, bring people like that to Iowa, bring them to D.C., and explain to our American political leadership why you make $100 million and why a soldier from Iowa can't explain to his wife he has the best technology. and then go across the hall, so let's classically Republican-shaped, then go across the hall and talk to progressive Democrats about how every one of their constituencies is not going to have a job.

[15:29](https://realalpha.app/v/Wj6ttdIeBnE/?t=929) And then leave and imagine what's going to happen to you. You know, the funny thing about those of us who've spent most of our life abroad, like in Germany, it's a phenomenal culture. We have a much better sense