Alex Karp: Why Palantir Hired Jon Tester and Calls Itself Progressive

Palantir CEO Alex Karp told Politico he has been a Democrat his whole life and that Palantir’s products are “essentially progressive,” days after the 2026 midterms put Democrats back in charge of Congress. In Big Tech pivots left, a crossover episode of the Playbook and Decoded podcasts, Adam Wren and Calder McHugh play clips from Wren’s interview with Karp and former Montana Senator Jon Tester, who is now advising Palantir, and argue about what the hire says about Silicon Valley’s next move.

TLDW

Palantir has brought on Jon Tester, a Democrat, to advise it as a Democratic Congress prepares to scrutinize Big Tech. Karp defends giving to both parties, including about a million dollars to MAGA Inc., as simple prudence, and deflects questions about Pete Hegseth and Zohran Mamdani. His sharpest comments are about money: AI is making people like him many times richer, and he says nobody can justify that to voters. The hosts note he offers no remedy, and that tech leaders tend to change sides once the results are in.

Thoughts

Karp has the diagnosis right and no prescription. He says AI is “a revolution that is making people like me potentially 20 times richer” and that nobody can explain to the public why that is justified. He describes an implicit contract in which the rich may get very rich, but not 20 or 50 times richer while the average person’s income grows 3% or 5%. He predicts that “every election we have is going to be a referendum on that.” All of this is more candid than what most AI executives say in public. Then the answer stops. Wren points out that there is “no sort of clear action step,” and jokes that nothing prevents a Palantir stimulus. A chief executive who believes the contract is breaking and who controls one of the companies breaking it has more options than warning his peers in private.

“All of our products are essentially progressive” is a claim about the tool, and the objection to Palantir has always been about the user. Karp’s case is that no software enforces transparency and exposes corruption the way his does. That may be true inside an agency. McHugh relays the better framing from Karp’s biographer, Michael Steinberger: the question is not whether you trust Karp with your data, it is whether you trust whoever is running the government that licenses the product. Software that tracks patterns and movements is neutral only until someone decides whom to track. Tester, as Wren notes, voted against the Patriot Act on civil liberties grounds. He now advises a company whose most controversial work lives in the same territory.

McHugh’s driest line is also the most accurate description of tech politics: “they particularly like to swing after they know the results.” Karp says his giving is balanced between the parties because he is “not the village idiot.” That is honest, and it concedes the point. Donations and advisory hires at this scale are insurance, bought from whoever holds the gavel. A Republican former congressman, Mike Gallagher, already runs Palantir’s defense business. Tester balances the portfolio. Wren argues the real flip was Karp’s turn toward MAGA and that this is a return to form. Either way, voters in several Democratic primaries this year treated a Palantir connection as a liability, and a well-liked former senator does not erase that.

Tester’s advice for a Senate hearing is the most useful thing in the episode for any company facing oversight: be transparent, answer straight, respect the people asking, and treat the hearing as a chance to tell your own story before someone else tells it. It is also a quiet rebuke. He says he was critical of the last Congress because its job is to be a check on the administration. If Palantir follows the advice, hearings could help it. If it shows up with slogans about progressive products, the same hearings will go badly.

Key Takeaways

Palantir has hired former Senator Jon Tester as an adviser. Wren stresses that Tester is advising, not lobbying, as the company heads into what he calls stiffer regulatory winds.
Karp says he grew up in a far left environment, has been a Democrat his whole life, and knows “more about being a progressive than almost anybody on the planet.”
Asked about roughly a million dollars to MAGA Inc. and a contribution to the White House ballroom, Karp says his giving is equal between Democrats and Republicans and that everyone in politics knows it.
Wren says Karp kept steering political questions, including ones about Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, over to Tester. Palantir has large government contracts at stake.
Karp would not comment on New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, whose plans he criticized last year. He attacked the Democratic Socialists of America instead, the group Mamdani belongs to.
Both Karp and Tester say Congress has a duty to provide checks and balances, and both say Palantir would welcome a hearing.
McHugh says Palantir has become close to a dirty word among Democrats. He cites the New York 12th district primary, where a candidate’s past job at Palantir was used against him in ads and he lost.
Karp is a registered voter in New Hampshire, an early primary state. Wren expects him to weigh in on 2028 and names technocratic Democrats such as Josh Shapiro, Pete Buttigieg, Wes Moore and Rahm Emanuel as candidates who might appeal to him.
Karp says he has warned fellow tech executives privately, “over and over,” that the public will not accept a boom that makes a small group 20 to 30 times richer.
Wren sees the fraying social compact, the idea that hard work brings income that beats inflation, as a dividing line in both parties ahead of 2028.

Chapters

00:06 A Crazy Week Where Tech Meets Politics

Wren and McHugh open on the week’s biggest tech story, the news around Jensen Huang and Nvidia, which McHugh calls a perfect story for an industry that pretends not to care about drama. They then turn to Palantir, which is taking stock of the midterms and what McHugh has described as a brushback pitch from voters to Big Tech.

02:19 Why Palantir Hired Jon Tester

McHugh says hires like this are routine when power changes hands, but notable for a founder as singular as Karp. It suggests Palantir needs ties to the Democratic establishment that it no longer has. Wren adds that former Republican Congressman Mike Gallagher already leads Palantir’s defense work, so Tester balances the roster.

04:41 “I’m Also Not the Village Idiot”

In the first clip, Wren presses Karp on whether his donations to MAGA Inc. and the White House ballroom were political. Karp says he gives to all sides out of responsibility to his company, its shareholders and the country, and that people in power understand he is not a caricature of either party.

06:23 Situating Karp in the Tech Right

McHugh draws on his interview with Karp’s biographer, Michael Steinberger, who called Karp heterodox. Karp holds a doctorate and has studied political thought for years, so his views do not sort neatly by party. He spent the last two years attacking Democrats, which he reportedly described as a European habit of criticizing your own side. Wren thinks the turn to MAGA was the real departure.

10:35 Scrutiny From a Democratic Congress

Tester advises transparency and respect in front of any committee. Karp says Palantir’s products are progressive and enforce transparency. Wren doubts that newly elected Democrats will agree, given that the company’s most controversial tools involve surveillance and tracking. McHugh says the answer depends on whether you trust the officials using them.

14:55 New Hampshire and the Karp Primary

Karp lives on a 500 acre property in rural New Hampshire and votes there. Wren jokes that the tech executive is the most important swing voter in any cycle. He expects Karp to take an interest in tech-literate Democratic contenders for 2028.

17:23 Economic Justice and the Broken Contract

Asked what message voters sent Big Tech, Karp says he has been the most outspoken AI executive on economic justice. He says he has never believed capitalism solves every problem and that he could not explain the coming wealth gap even to his own fans. The hosts note that he names no fix, compare it with Elon Musk’s talk of dividends for newborns and the industry’s fondness for universal basic income, and call it a fault line for 2028.

Notable Quotes

“I’m also not the village idiot. Of course I give to everybody.”
Alex Karp, on donating to both parties

“They got a great story to tell, and I think it’s an opportunity for them to tell it, not somebody else.”
Jon Tester, on Palantir appearing before a Senate committee

“I mean, I’ve been a Democrat my whole life. I grew up in a far left environment.”
Alex Karp, asked about common ground with Democrats in Congress

“Yeah, they particularly like to swing after they know the results.”
Calder McHugh, on Silicon Valley as a swing voter

“Go explain to the American people why that’s justified. You can’t.”
Alex Karp, on AI making people like him far richer

“I think every election we have is going to be a referendum on that.”
Alex Karp, on the gap between AI wealth and ordinary incomes

Watch the full episode here: Big Tech pivots left, from Politico.