Palantir CEO slammed the AI market, saying everything went off course

Palantir CEO Alex Karp unloaded a pointed critique of today’s AI market during a CNBC interview. He argued that the typical way companies sell AI services often fails to deliver real business value and, worse, creates new exposures for corporate data and IP. His complaint was blunt: enterprises end up buying tokens but don’t see commensurate returns. Karp insisted the worth isn’t just the model alone — it’s the mix of model + compute (e.g., GPUs, cloud infra) + the application software layer that makes results useful in practice. He pushed the conversation toward practical protections: better data storage practices, stronger query protections, and more rigorous controls over information flow. On top of that, he said current model capabilities are widely overrated and that government or defense deployments demand closed, secure systems — not public-facing stacks. Throughout the interview he grew visibly forceful, stressing that his remarks weren’t the product of anything like recreational substances but a reflection, he said, of many U.S. business leaders’ frustration with how the AI market is evolving. The tone was part warning, part exasperation — not detached commentary.