Palantir CEO Alex Karp gave an extremely high-energy interview to CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on Wednesday, with his arms flailing as he ranted about everything from politics to Israel to AI. He also referred to past public appearances where people have speculated that he was on drugs.
Karp started the interview by criticizing the frontier AI companies like Anthropic and their fixation on customers paying for individual tokens, something that the Palantir CEO says frustrates the leaders of other companies who are being sold on the productivity gains of artificial intelligence.
“I’m not throwing shade at them, but something has gone completely wrong,” Karp said of the AI companies. “And the basic view among enterprises, in this country, is I’m going to chillax and waste my time with tokens. I’m going to get no value, and they’re going to get my IP.”
No, we’re not sure how that’s the fault of AI companies, either. As we said, Karp had a lot of energy this morning. Karp also raised concerns about the security of sensitive intellectual property and classified information.
One of the weirdest moments came when Karp started referring to himself and making nods to old interviews where he was accused of appearing to be on drugs. Karp said that CEOs of other companies didn’t want to talk publicly about their frustrations with the AI companies, so he apparently needed to be the one to do it on TV.
“Every single enterprise in this country, in private, a lot of them don’t want to speak in public because it gets outsourced to the neurodivergent crazy person that apparently is on drugs, the one thing I don’t do,” said Karp.
It’s unclear what Karp is implying he does do, if not drugs. Other reporting has tried to claim that Karp may have appeared high because he had sugary drinks. After one infamous appearance at the New York Times Dealbook Summit in late 2025, many people thought Karp looked like he was on cocaine. Semafor tried to claim that it was because Karp had broken his own rule against consuming sugary drinks, insisting it must be because he drank a Mexican Coca-Cola before his interview.
“Okay, so that’s… that’s my role,” said Karp this morning, sort of getting back to the topic of AI. “But I’m telling you, in this country, at every single enterprise I deal with, these people are livid. They’re like, ‘I am paying for tokens that create no value.’”
Karp also seemed to rail against the proposals for a kind of tax on AI companies that would help fund jobs programs or pay a dividend directly to citizens, something that Anthropic has floated as an idea if unemployment rises to 25%.
“These people are stealing the weights and alpha of my business, and they’re creating a wealth tax that does not help the poor. It just punishes… starts with the billionaires… every single person at this table is going to be paying a wealth tax only to punish us,” said Karp.
When “Squawk Box” host Becky Quick said that Karp sounded “pretty angry,” the CEO shot back that “this is the voice of American business that is being channeled through me.”
CNBC host Rebecca Quick to a crazed-sounding, incoherent, ranting Palantir CEO Alex Karp: “You sound pretty angry” pic.twitter.com/lYSc2AjWDo
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) July 1, 2026
Karp said that the reason this tax might come about is that the capabilities of the AI models have been oversold. He also talked about politics, as he often does, complaining that he’s been “kicked out” of the Democratic Party for warning against what he calls the “far left” and their worldview. “You would think that the greatest problem in the world, if you were on the far left, is somehow it’s like, if things work, it’s evil and bad,” said Karp.
The CEO also started to criticize the right before making sure to say there were problems on both sides politically.
“Then you have on the far right, like, it’s like on both sides, you think the biggest problem of our society are like warlocks roaming the street, building technology. Of course, they can’t understand it. Like, they attack Palantir for the craziest…” Karp said, trailing off. “China doesn’t have that problem.”
Karp had a lot of unfinished sentences on Wednesday, including when he talked about what he believes are the three biggest tech countries in the world: The U.S., China, and Israel. The CEO listed other countries in Europe, including Sweden.
“And Sweden has a real tech scene. You have to be… you can’t just like… you know…”
Well, no, we don’t know what he was going to say. Because he didn’t finish the sentence. Sweden has a small but influential tech scene as the home of Spotify, but it’s not clear what Karp was going to elaborate on when it comes to the Nordic country’s influence or barriers. We have established that China doesn’t have a warlock problem; maybe he was going to address the situation in Sweden as well.
Karp was also asked about his support for Israel, which elicited an initially stammering response. He called himself the “most publicly supportive CEO of Israel,” and insisted that the country “is on the side of good.” But he also called himself the “most effective critic” of Israel because he said he was “fair” to the country.
Karp has not previously aired any criticisms of Israel, at least not publicly, and has been known to ridicule pro-Palestine protesters who accuse him of enabling genocide in Gaza. When CNBC host Andrew Ross Sorkin pressed Karp on the memorandum of understanding between the U.S. and Iran, along with Israel’s distaste for it.
“Look, Israel, I’m going to leave the Israeli thing for my talking to them in private because I just don’t think at this point, it’s very hard in public to talk about them because you just have people…” Karp trailed off again before saying there are “legitimate criticisms” of Israel, but many people don’t think it should exist.
“Do I think Iran’s been degraded? Yes. Are there things that I don’t think are in the public space that would be comforting people if they are? Yes. And I’ll leave it at that,” said Karp.
here is the entirety of Palantir CEO Alex Karp’s televised nervous breakdown this morning on CNBC pic.twitter.com/gzD8debrKB
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) July 1, 2026
Sorkin ended the interview, and Karp squirmed in his chair, appearing eager to get out of it. Sorkin seemed to tease him about that, implying he didn’t need to leave. Karp then said, “I feel like I’m going to be kicked out of the room,” before the CNBC hosts all comforted him and told him how much they appreciate his time—no doubt because, if nothing else, Karp’s antics certainly make for entertaining TV.
And in the world of broadcast media, entertainment is everything. It helps explain why a guy like Jim Cramer can still be employed by CNBC after all these years. You don’t need to be right or good or intelligent. All you need is to be entertaining for the CNBC audience.
Karp made that subtext more explicit when he kept talking about why he liked the morning show, saying that people on Squawk Box had divergent opinions, which was “fun.” He said other shows were “boring,” and at one point, he asked if they were off the air, clearly hoping to say something more honest. Karp was warned by more than one host that they were actually still broadcasting as they tried to transition to another segment, but he just kept talking.
The voice of American business, folks. It never stops. Especially after one too many Mexican Coca-Colas.
Read the full article here
