Kamal Ghorui
Palantir CEO Alex Karp has a warning and an advice for all the companies offering AI tools in the US: stop chasing “AI slop” and start focusing on software services that actually work. In Q1 2026 earnings call, Karp’s Palantir reported huge growth in the country, leading the company to project a massive 71% growth rate for the year. According to the CEO, this success is driven by a “once in a lifetime” demand for Palantir’s specific platform, which he suggests, stands in direct contrast to the AI used in making low-quality AI-generated content which is currently flooding the social media.“I think the most important thing about our earnings is it establishes beyond a doubt that while over the history of Palantir Technologies Inc., we focused on things that actually transform the world, the current environment is actually being transformed by the Palantir Technologies Inc. platform,” Karp said in the call.
‘AI slop is dangerous’
Karp appeared to take a potshot at industry’s AI players, arguing that while much of the industry is focused on software that only appears to work, Palantir’s growth is fueled by providing “actual results” rooted in facts and granular data.“The appearance of software working is not software working,” Karp said, dismissing the idea that AI will become a “godlike figure” that eliminates all jobs, stating that Palantir’s clients in essential infrastructure industries know better than to rely on low-quality AI tools.“And the slop that is getting a lot of attention is not only dangerous in terms of the hyperbolic rhetoric that it also—like, there will be no jobs because of the slop—nothing will work. And although there is a wide view out there in the world that AI slop is going to take over the world, our clients, especially lasting primordial infrastructure industries, know this is not the case,” he added.One of the most striking claims from the call was the efficiency of Palantir’s business model. Karp revealed that despite doubling its business in the US, the company operates with a tiny sales team.“They buy our product despite the fact we have 70 salespeople. A normal company of our size would have 7,000. Only seven of our salespeople actually even really sell,” Karp explained.“We are doing what a normal company would do with 7,000 salespeople with seven people. We are doubling the US We are dominating on the battlefield. The reality that we will be able to drive 100% growth in the US is being driven by the fact that our customers either know or will know that you need actual results. Those results require granularity, specificity, actual relationship to facts,” he said.
Impact on the battlefield
Karp emphasized that Palantir’s platform is currently “dominating on the battlefield,” citing its use across the US government and in conflict zones in the Middle East. “And then look at the impact on the battlefield in the Middle East, on every government institution, on demand of our product, and in US commercial. This is all the result of being right about product, right about execution, and standing in the headwinds of people who are certain they are right—now the new version is AI slop—and proving that they are wrong with our results,” Karp noted.Instead, he noted that the company spent 20 years building foundational platforms like Foundry and Apollo, even when people criticised them for their approach.
