Alex Karp

Alex Karp is an American billionaire most well known for being the co-founder and CEO of the software company Palantir Technologies. Karp was born on October 2, 1967 and currently lives in Palo Alto, California.

Alex Karp was born October 2, 1967 and raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and graduated from Central High School in 1985.

Alex Karp holds a Doctor of Jurisprudence from Stanford University, Ph.D in neoclassical social theory from Goethe University, and a Bachelor of Arts and Sciences from Haveford College. Karp's thesis was titled "Aggression in der Lebenswelt: Die Erweiterung des Parsonsschen Konzepts der Aggression durch die Beschreibung des Zusammenhangs von Jargon, Aggression und Kultur", translating to "Aggression in the life-world: The extension of Parsons' concept of aggression by describing the connection between jargon, aggression, and culture."

Karp began his career founding Caedmon Group, a strategy and capital consulting group in New York City with money from his grandfather's inheritance. He also founded a hedge fund named Clarium Capital.

Karp started Palantir in 2003 with co-founder, chairman and former Stanford classmate Peter Thiel. He worked with Stanford computer science graduates Joe Lonsdale, Stephen Cohen and PayPal engineer Nathan Gettings to code the software. The company's first and only customer from 2005-2008 was the CIA, who alpha tested and evaluated the software.

Karp described his primary motivation for Palantir in July 2013, saying his goal is to "kill or maim" competitors including IBM and Booz Allen.