Palantir praises DOGE cuts and compares the US government to 'fine-marbled wagyu'
Executives at Palantir Technologies praised DOGE in their latest earnings call on Monday as the company reported its first-quarter earnings.
"This is the right thing for the country — like, we have way too much spend on things that do not work," said Shyam Sankar, CTO and executive vice president of Palantir, when asked if DOGE cuts will impact contracts.
"The government has started to resemble a fine-marbled wagyu — the fake projects that do not deliver and will never deliver crowd out and suffocate the things that could actually be excellent, so we welcome DOGE," Sankar added.
Sanker's sentiments were echoed by Alex Karp, CEO of Palantir, who later said on the earnings call that there needs to be "pressure on the system" to "root out fraud, waste, and abuse and to pen test systems to see if they create more value."
Their comments came after the AI software and defense technologies company delivered earnings that beat expectations on Monday and hiked its full-year revenue outlook to between $3.89 billion and $3.90 billion. Palantir is up 64% this year, mostly benefiting from its key defense contracts.
A government record recently viewed by Business Insider's Rosemarie Ho shows that Immigration and Customs Enforcement signed a $30 million contract with Palantir for software enhancements to its Immigration Lifecycle Operating System, or ImmigrationOS. ICE told BI at the time that it was a modification of an existing contract.
This also isn't the first time Karp has praised DOGE. In an earnings call in February, Karp said that DOGE is a "revolution" and "some people are going to get their heads cut off."
"We love disruption, and whatever is good for America will be good for Americans and very good for Palantir," said Karp.
Palantir was cofounded by its current chairman, Peter Thiel, who, alongside Elon Musk, is known as part of the " PayPal Mafia."
In a Monday letter to shareholders that quotes from St. Augustine, President Richard Nixon, and the New Testament, Karp also wrote that the company's results are "indicative of a revolution" and that it could not have been achieved if the company had "submitted to the conventional managerial model in American corporate life."
"There is no question that both cultures and companies," wrote Karp, "including the one we have built, must over a long period of time be judged 'by their fruits.' Matt. 7:16."
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