Latest news with #Karp
Axios
3 days ago
- Automotive
- Axios
Waymo begins testing robotaxis in Houston
Waymo — the company behind self-driving robotaxis in cities like Austin and Los Angeles — is getting the lay of the land in Houston starting this week. Why it matters: Described as a "road trip," Waymo's visit marks its introduction to the Bayou City, signaling another possible rollout of autonomous vehicles for locals. How it works: For now, trained specialists will manually drive around 10 Waymo vehicles to help the company gather data on Houston streets. The intrigue: Although testing is underway, Waymo spokesperson Sandy Karp tells Axios the company has "no plans to share about launching a service in Houston at this time." What they're saying:"Like other visitors to Space City, we can't wait to take in the sights, immerse ourselves in Houston's distinct driving culture, and meet with locals," Karp said in a statement. Zoom out: Waymo began test runs in other cities this year, including Dallas, San Diego, Las Vegas, New Orleans, Nashville and Boston. Along with Houston, San Antonio and Orlando are the latest cities where Waymo recently began testing. Reality check: Several Austin residents have filed complaints against Waymo, citing safety concerns and a "near-miss" since the company began testing there in March 2024. Flashback: That story similarly played out in Houston when GM's now-shuttered Cruise robotaxi experiment proved problematic. Between the lines: Karp says Waymo is committed to working with communities and public officials in the cities it enters, but Mayor John Whitmire's office says they didn't get a heads-up from the company about their plans. "City departments and emergency responders have been briefed on protocols for interacting with autonomous vehicles," Whitmire spokesperson Mary Benton tells Axios. "The mayor will continue to monitor the situation."
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Palantir Heavy Insider Sales; CEO and Co-Founders Cash Out Big
May 28 - Last week, Palantir Technologies (NASDAQ:PLTR) CEO Alex Karp sold over $50 million of company stock, according to a recent filing with the SEC. The shares changed hands between $125.26 and $127.70 each in automated transactions designed to cover the tax withholding on vested restricted stock units. After the sale, Karp still holds roughly 6.43 million Palantir shares, valued at about $787 million based. Other senior executives also reduced their stakes. Chief Technology Officer Shyam Sankar sold approximately $21 million of Palantir stock, while co-founder and President Stephen Cohen disposed of about $43.5 million in shares, per separate filings. These automatic sales are tied to tax obligations rather than a change in leadership or strategy, analysts note. Palantir, known for its data analytics and artificial intelligence software, continues to invest heavily in research and government contracts. Investors will watch for any shifts in insider sentiment as the company prepares to report second-quarter results this summer. Based on the one year price targets offered by 20 analysts, the average target price for Palantir Technologies Inc is $99.81 with a high estimate of $150.00 and a low estimate of $40.00. The average target implies a downside of -19.11% from the current price of $123.39. This article first appeared on GuruFocus.
Sky News AU
3 days ago
- Politics
- Sky News AU
Nine political correspondent Paul Karp spoken to by Australian Election Commission after being signed in as Greens scrutineer
A senior Nine political journalist was signed in by the Greens as one of the party's scrutineers to gain entry to a counting centre in the tightest seat in the federal election, Sky News can reveal The Australian Financial Review's NSW political correspondent Paul Karp was signed in by a NSW Greens member to the Asquith centre, on Sydney's north - where the Bradfield vote is being counted – last week in a plan that is understood to have been pre-approved by Nine management. The controversy comes as a full recount began this week in the fiercest contest this election, as Liberal candidate Gisele Kapterian pulled ahead of Climate-200 backed independent Nicolette Boele by just eight votes at the end of the final distribution of preferences. A photograph obtained by Sky News shows Mr Karp was signed in to the centre by the far-left party on May 22 at 9.15am. Two witnesses reported that they did not see Mr Karp scrutineering, but instead he appeared to be listening in to conversations. An Australian Election Commission (AEC) spokesman confirmed Mr Karp was 'appointed by a candidate in the contest to be a scrutineer and did attend a counting centre.' 'While there is nothing in the Electoral Act that limits who can be a scrutineer (if they are appropriately appointed by a candidate) we did have a discussion with Paul about his presence,' the spokesman said. 'The AEC provides good access to media representatives to understand the counting process and even view the counting process in action. 'Counting centres are of course there for the purpose of conducting the count. It is our understanding that Mr Karp has not returned as a scrutineer since that day.' Mr Karp declined to comment. It is understood a NSW Greens member appointed Mr Karp as a Greens scrutineer for media purposes and the plan had been pre-approved by Mr Karp's managers at Nine. A Nine spokesman said Mr Karp had identified himself as a member of the media upon arriving at the centre. 'The reporter was wearing his media ID at all times,' the spokesman said. 'The reporter left the counting centre of his own accord and there are no plans to report on the counting process. "The AFR understands its responsibilities in regard to AEC processes and has reinforced these with the reporter.' Mr Karp left his role as The Guardian's chief political correspondent for the position at the Financial Review in January amid another controversy His farewell speech was leaked to news site Crikey, which reported Mr Karp quoting a former colleague who said, 'this is a great place to work because we don't write crap, and we don't work for psychos.' 'I'm leaving with my head held high and with a clean record, despite being an extremely squeaky wheel about psychosocial risks in the first place,' Mr Karp is reported to have said. Mr Karp is not the only curious sighting in the Asquith counting centre. The Reserve Bank Australia's manager of monetary policy implementation Lara Pendle was spotted scrutineering for Ms Boele. Her name is pictured on the same sign-in sheet as Mr Karp's, signed in under 'Boele' last Thursday. Both Ms Pendle's personal Instagram and Facebook accounts feature a photograph of her standing next to Ms Boele with the words 'I'm voting for independent Nicolette Boele'. It is understood Ms Pendle has been on leave from the central bank for more than a year and that it is not against RBA policy for managers to volunteer for political parties. Sky News has contacted Ms Pendle for comment.
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Opinion: The Most Terrifying Company in America Is Probably One You've Never Heard Of
Most Americans have never heard of Palantir. That's by design. It doesn't make phones or social platforms. It doesn't beg for your data with bright buttons or discount codes. Rather, it just takes it. Quietly. Legally. Systematically. Palantir is a back-end beast, the silent spine of modern surveillance infrastructure. Palantir's influence isn't hypothetical. It's operational. From the battlefields of Ukraine to the precincts of Los Angeles, its software guides drone strikes, predicts crime, allocates police resources, and even helps governments decide which children might someday become 'threats.' These aren't sci-fi hypotheticals. They are pilot programs, already integrated, already scaling. This software—Gotham, Foundry, and now its Artificial Intelligence Platform (AIP)—is designed to swallow everything: hospital records, welfare files, license plate scans, school roll calls, immigration logs and even your tweets. It stitches these fragments into something eerily complete—a unified view of you. With each data point, the image sharpens. If Facebook turned people into products, Palantir turns them into probabilities. You're not a user. You're a variable—run through predictive models, flagged for anomalies, and judged in silence. This is not just surveillance. It's prediction. And that distinction matters: Surveillance watches. Prediction acts. It assigns probabilities. It flags anomalies. It escalates risk. And it trains bureaucrats and law enforcement to treat those algorithmic suspicions as fact. In short: the software decides, and people follow. You want to know where power is going? Follow the contracts. Palantir isn't growing by solving problems. It's growing by becoming unavoidable. And none of this growth would be possible without the aforementioned Karp. The 57-year-old doesn't resemble the usual Silicon Valley archetype. He wears windbreakers instead of hoodies. He speaks like a philosophy professor giving a TED Talk on the death of liberalism. Insiders familiar with Karp describe him in no uncertain terms: 'batshit crazy,' egotistical and completely unfiltered. He runs Palantir like a personal war room; he quotes Heidegger mid-meeting. He can't drive and lives alone in rural New Hampshire with a full-time ski instructor. He calls himself a socialist and speaks often about defending Western civilization while building tech that quietly erodes its foundations. He practices Tai Chi and advocates for mindful living but sells software that enables governments to track their citizens. It sounds contradictory—until you realize what he's selling isn't ideology. It's order. In his book, The Technological Republic, a not-so-subtle nod to Plato's Republic, Karp makes his intentions clear. It's a message—a warning. Like Plato, Karp sees democracy not as sacred, but as a flaw. Plato's 'ideal state' was top-down, run by philosopher-kings who knew better than the mob. In his view, the average person was too emotional, too chaotic, too easily swayed to be trusted. Karp doesn't just admire that vision. He's coding it. In his world, democracy isn't broken—it's buggy. And Palantir is the patch. This belief manifests in everything the company does. Palantir doesn't sell to consumers. It sells to governments, militaries, and agencies tasked with control. Its growth depends on access—and it only scales by infringing. The more granular the data, the more profitable the forecast. Palantir stock is skyrocketing. Wall Street appears to have fully embraced the surveillance state—not because it loves the Constitution, but because it sees the future. And the future is profitable panic. Palantir thrives on volatility because it markets itself as the only defense against it. It needs chaos to justify its growth. Its success is tethered to the failure of institutions, the erosion of public trust, the acceleration of uncertainty. In a society fraying at the seams, it becomes indispensable. What makes Palantir considerably more dangerous than Meta or X isn't what it shows; it's what it hides. Musk and Zuckerberg beg for public attention. Karp cultivates mystery. There are no Palantir influencers. No flashy keynotes. No consumer devices. Just contracts. Code. And ever-growing access to the organs of the state. This isn't capitalism as we know it. It's something darker: a convergence of public authority and private ambition with no clear accountability. Palantir doesn't lobby the government; it replaces its functions. It's not just a vendor; it's an informant, an adjudicator, a silent partner in the construction of a predictive regime. It doesn't build a better world. It builds a better model of it—one where deviation is risk, dissent is data, and trust is something to be managed, not earned. You're supposed to feel watched. You're supposed to feel uneasy. Because if you don't, the system isn't doing its job. It's not about catching you. It's about reminding you that it can.
CNBC
23-05-2025
- Business
- CNBC
Palantir CEO Alex Karp sells more than $50 million in stock
Palantir CEO Alex Karp has sold more than $50 million worth of shares in the artificial intelligence software company, according to securities filings. The stock transactions, which occurred on Tuesday and Wednesday between $125.26 and $127.70 per share. Following the stock sales, Karp owned about 6.43 million shares of Palantir stock, worth about $787 million based on Thursday's closing price. The sales were connected to a series of automatic share sales to cover required tax withholding obligations tied to vesting restricted stock units, according to filings. Other top executives at the Denver-based company also unloaded stock. Chief Technology Officer Shyam Sankar sold about $21 million worth of Palantir stock, while co-founder and president Stephen Cohen dumped about $43.5 million in shares. Palantir shares have notched fresh highs in recent weeks as the company lept above Salesforce in market value and into the top ten most valuable U.S. tech firms. The digital analytics company has benefitted from bets on AI and a surge in government contracts as companies prioritize streamlining and President Donald Trump targets a federal overhaul with the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency. The stock has outperformed its tech peers since the start of 2025, surging nearly 62%, but investors are paying a high multiple on shares. In its earnings report earlier this month, the company lifted its full-year guidance due to AI adoption, but shares fell on international growth concerns. "You don't have to buy our shares," Karp told CNBC as shares slumped. "We're happy. We're going to partner with the world's best people and we're going to dominate. You can be along for the ride or you don't have to be."
