CNBC got an inside look at Palantir's annual Artificial Intelligence Platform conference, where leaders are convening from Fortune 500 companies including GE Aerospace, Nvidia, Worldview, as well as partners in the U. S. government, including the Navy.
They're all here to learn about Palantir's artificial intelligence technology. Now the commercial business is booming, revenue up 137% year over year in the fourth quarter. But what's really at the forefront of everyone's minds is Palantir's role in the Middle East conflict.
In our exclusive interview with Palantir CEO Alex Karp, he talked about how Palantir's defense technology is being used to elevate wartime capabilities. The fact that you can now target more precisely, more accurately, more quickly, and that you, meaning America, can bring it to bear against adversaries and enemies, has shifted the way in which war is fought. Now, what Palantir is arguably best known for is Project Maven.
That's the surveillance technology used to identify bad actors reportedly used to capture Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro. I asked Karp if Project Maven was used to target Iran's Supreme Leader. I can't obviously go into specifics, but there are two things that are very important about this in general.
One, you have to take infrastructure, both commercial and in government that was built for an industrial age, and you have to transform that into infrastructure that takes advantage of the industrial capacities and then puts them in a position where they can use post-industrial technologies. Karp also talked about the role of its technology in helping Middle East allies that are currently under attack by Iran. I have read that Palantir's Project Maven is the core backbone of that, and then I've also read that all the allies, Arab and non-Arab in the Middle East, may or may not be users of our platform as well.
And that's expanding rapidly. But technology has changed this war. Already AI infrastructure is top of mind for Silicon Valley.
Three of Amazon's data centers were bombed last week, and I asked Karp about whether this is a potential risk going forward. They're evil. They're not stupid.
Even there, you see a revolution. And again, we mind our own business at Palantir. Look who's on the list.
Look who's not. I mean, we're in the middle of war. You would expect it to be a list of hardcore military companies.
They are interested in the things they can't produce. Going after AI infrastructure could elevate this conflict to a new level. And it just speaks to how cyber and artificial intelligence is already changing the dynamics of this war.
