Alex Karp Says the NYT Distorted the Facts… But He’s Winning This War No Matter What

If you're a microcap stock trying to claw your way out of irrelevance, here’s the best script we’ve seen lately: Step 1: Trash Wall Street. Step 2: Install a CEO with mysterious wizard energy. Step 3: Let the Reddit crowd do the rest. Seriously, just throw some shade at analysts, give your earnings call the energy of a conspiracy podcast, and boom... retail traders will treat you like the second coming of Elvis Presley. And eventually, after your stock triples and everyone on X is drinking the Kool Aid, Wall Street will quietly change their minds and pretend they believed in you the whole time. As much as you think I’m joking, that’s exactly what Palantir did.

And leading the charge is none other than Alex Karp… a CEO who looks like he time-traveled from a 1970s Berlin poetry slam and accidentally wandered into a Pentagon boardroom. He’s got wild curls, a wardrobe that screams “I do ayahuasca with billionaires,” and the verbal filter of Tim Dillion (great comedian, you should check him out). Karp is so much more than Palantir’s CEO… he’s the face of the brand. If Albert Einstein and Elon Musk had a baby (and raised it on The Matrix, CIA briefings, and TED Talks that go off the rails) you’d get Alex Karp. He’s got Einstein’s brainpower, Elon’s unpredictability, and the intensity of someone who definitely has a go-bag packed… just in case.This guy lives to stir the pot.

While most CEOs shy away from controversy, Karp dives in face-first with a flamethrower (his words, not mine… almost). At an investor event, he famously said: “I love burning the short-sellers. Almost nothing makes a human happier than taking the lines of cocaine away from these short sellers who are going short on a truly great American company.” And he didn’t stop there. Karp has taken every opportunity to bash Wall Street’s obsession with quarterly earnings, calling it “destructive” and “corrosive.” Instead, he talks about building software that “wins wars.” (That’s not a metaphor. Palantir literally builds battlefield intelligence systems.)

Retail traders couldn’t get enough. Reddit crowned him the “realest CEO in tech,” while YouTubers turned his earnings call rants into reaction content and built entire channels off his unfiltered soundbites. Wall Street chuckled at first… until Palantir stock surged over 140% following Trump’s re-election, and suddenly no one was laughing anymore. But now? Karp’s found a new enemy… and it’s not short-sellers or suits. It’s The New York Times (or as Trump likes to call it “fake news”). On May 30, the NYT dropped a piece accusing Palantir of helping Trump build a centralized federal data system that could (depending on who you ask) either streamline government efficiency or create a digital surveillance monster.

The story claimed that Palantir’s Foundry software is already live at four agencies (DHS, HHS, IRS, and more), and warned that Trump could use the data to “punish critics” and “police immigrants.” It also pointed out Palantir’s $113 million in federal contracts under Trump (not counting a new $795 million Pentagon deal), and reported ongoing talks with the Social Security Administration and Department of Education. In short, the Times made Palantir sound less like a tech vendor… and more like Trump’s personal data weapon.

Palantir responded with a post on X: “The recently published article by the New York Times is blatantly untrue… If the facts were on its side, the New York Times would not have needed to twist the truth.” That might’ve been the end of it… except Karp was already previewing his attitude months earlier. Back in February, during a book promo event, Karp served up one of the most unhinged CEO soundbites of the decade: “I love the idea of getting a drone and having light fentanyl-laced urine spraying on analysts that tried to screw us.” Yes. Fentanyl. Urine. Drones. All in one sentence.

But it all fits the Karp playbook. Stir the pot. Speak his truth (however wild it is). Rally the retail crowd. And keep Palantir in the headlines… because, let’s face it, there’s no such thing as bad publicity when you're pitching AI tools to the government. Think about it, if you’re getting bad press from the mainstream media, Trump probably sees that as a good thing. Behind all the drone metaphors, here’s the real story: Palantir is becoming the digital nervous system of the U.S. government.

Trump signed an executive order in March requiring agencies to share unclassified info. Palantir was already there. Foundry is the platform quietly connecting the dots… IRS records, ICE data, Social Security files. Critics call it a "digital dragnet." Palantir calls it progress. And while the company insists it’s just the "data processor," not the controller, critics (and even some former employees) are pushing back hard. Thirteen ex-staffers signed a letter demanding the company back off. One strategist publicly resigned over its ICE contract, calling it her “red line.” 

Still, Palantir’s momentum keeps growing. So does Karp’s legend. He says things no CEO should say, makes enemies out of billion-dollar institutions, and turns every controversy into free media coverage and retail adoration. He doesn’t apologize and he doesn’t care if you’re offended. And somehow… it’s working. So if you’re on the board of a microcap looking for a roadmap to glory? Start by pissing off Wall Street, build a Reddit fanbase, and find yourself a CEO that could also run a cult if it doesn’t work out.

PS: Nobody knows what’s going on right now. Definitely not Jim Cramer. Not your buddy who suddenly became a macro expert after watching two TikToks. Not even the Wall Street suits who pretend they’ve got it all figured out.

One minute, AI stocks are mooning. The next, a random shipping company with five employees in Delaware is up 300% by noon. It’s chaos. And trying to make sense of it with old-school strategies is like bringing a highlighter to a gunfight.

But here’s what we do know: Underneath the confusion, there’s real opportunity… especially in small caps where a single insider buy or short squeeze setup can ignite a triple digit move in minutes. And while the masses chase headlines, we’re tracking the signals before they show up on Reddit.

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Stock.News does not have positions in companies mentioned.