• In his new book, Palantir CEO Alex Karp will explore how "Silicon Valley has lost its way."
• Big Tech needs to realign with the US government to address pressing issues like AI, he says.
• Karp says the progressive left has impeded this work in recent years.

Palantir CEO Alex Karp said Silicon Valley has lost its way under the spell of the progressive left — and has spent its time on inconsequential things like social media instead of collaborating with the US government on game-changing advancements.

It's time for that to change, Karp will argue in his coming book, "The Technological Republic." He sat down in an interview this week to unpack his thoughts on the incoming Trump administration — and what needs to change in Big Tech.

Speaking with investor Stanley Druckenmiller to promote the book, Karp recounted how, in 2018, Google employees protested the tech giant's involvement with Project Maven, which was a collaboration with the Department of Defense.

Amid outcry, Google opted not to renew its contract. (Palantir is among the companies now working on the project.)

It's become unpopular in some quarters of the tech world for companies to support the US government in recent years, Karp contended. But a shift may be afoot, he said.

"The Valley has realized you just cannot placate the anti-intellectual left" — a trend that's accelerated in the wake of October 7, he said. "They'll destroy your business."

Karp's book will argue that the tech sector must work with the government to address pressing issues — namely, prevailing in the AI arms race.

At the same time, Karp expressed optimism about "the level of talent that is coming in to fix our government," nodding to the incoming Trump administration.

He said American society is at a crisis point, with many feeling certain "instruments of measurement" — schools, borders, and intergovernmental government organizations like the United Nations — "have been corroded." On the other side of the aisle, Karp said, people are "worn out."

Palantir did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

In the interview, Karp joked that Palantir was "a rare cult with no sex and very little drugs — and we're not poisoning anyone."

• Palantir CEO Alex Karp joked the software giant was like a "cult" — minus the sex and drugs.
• He says Palantirians tend to be "snobby" about their intellect and aren't easily persuaded by orders.
• "My success has been getting Palantirians to believe that my ideas are theirs," Karp says.

Palantir CEO Alex Karp acknowledged that working at the company can feel a bit like a "cult. Employees share a like-minded drive that can occasionally raise eyebrows from those outside, he said.

"It's a rare cult with no sex and very little drugs — and we're not poisoning anyone," he joked during an interview with investor Stanley Druckenmiller. Karp spoke about his coming book, "The Technological Republic."

Cofounder Peter Thiel is an "artist" when it comes to appointing leaders, Karp said, and attracting top engineering talent has always been the company's strong suit.

The founding team started by calling their smartest friends, and the talent pool quickly compounded. Early employees tended to be "very high-mission, very high rigor, very low pay, very high-equity — we lived together," Karp said. "It just was a really cool vibe, and there was nothing like it."

The company was "hated" by the outside venture capital world, Karp said — but it was a welcome dynamic that reminded him of his childhood. Karp's parents were unusual, but it was a happy home. (He's previously described them as hippies who took him to protests.) And if outsiders considered his parents "freaks," Karp said, that just made them "even happier."

Today, Palantirians are "snobby" when it comes to intellect — though not about where they went to school, Karp said. They're also "not convinced by orders." The culture is one of low authority that prizes self-starters.

"My success has been getting Palantirians to believe that my ideas are theirs," Karp said, adding that lateral hiring can be difficult at the company, where respect is hard-earned.

It's also a relatively small team of 3,600 employees, and Karp doesn't harbor ambitions of massively scaling the head count — thanks in no small part to AI, which has meant "you can power whole industries with 100 people," he said.

Palantir did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

Palantir has had an explosive year, with its stock up around 350% so far this year. In a recent earnings call, Karp attributed the company's growth to an AI revolution and said its success had silenced longtime critics.

• Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol aims for a brewed cup of coffee to take less than 30 seconds to prepare.
• He told ABC that the coffee chain will be "hitting pause" on increasing prices for this fiscal year.
• Starbucks plans to enhance mobile orders and transparency around pricing, Niccol said.

Starbucks' new CEO, Brian Niccol, says he hopes customers will one day be able to get a brewed cup of coffee in less than 30 seconds.

In an interview with ABC's Good Morning America, the coffee boss said he wants to prioritize speed while also saying that there would be no more price rises for the time being.

Niccol's vision for what Starbucks will look like in five years' time includes a more efficient mobile order business with its own pick-up area.

"You're going to have an experience where when you walk in and you interact with the barista, it's going to be really quick for that brewed cup of coffee," he told ABC. "My hope is we can get you a brewed cup of coffee in less than 30 seconds."

Niccol joined Starbucks as its CEO in September after spending six years at the helm of Chipotle.

Unlike Chipotle, which announced menu price increases of about 2% on Wednesday, Niccol said: "The approach we've taken right now is we're going to hit the pause button on any pricing for this fiscal year."

"I still think there's an opportunity for us to simplify the pricing architecture right now — I don't love the fact that in our app right now, while you're doing this customization, it doesn't inform you what has happened to the price, so I want to get more transparent with the pricing," he said on GMA.

Niccol also said Starbucks would bring back some old staples like the Sharpies used to write names on cups and the coffee condiment bar.

The coffee chain CEO explained that they're investing in technology to provide more accurate times about when drinks will be ready for customers.

"We've got a lot of offerings that there's just one or two of these ordered a day," he said.

"The way I talk about it is, we're going to do fewer things, but we're going to do fewer things better."

GitLab, the popular developer and security platform, has named a new CEO, Bill Staples, effective immediately. Staples, who has also been appointed to the company’s board of directors, succeeds CEO Sid Sijbrandij, who’s battling a rare form of cancer. Sijbrandij will transition to executive chair of the board. “I believe [Bill’s] passion for software, commitment […]

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In a surprise move, Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger has stepped down as head of the company after less than four years, as reported by Reuters and other outlets. The change caps a chaotic year for Intel, which is poised to report its first annual financial loss since 1986 and announced layoffs of at least 15,000 employees this year as it attempted to cut costs.

Intel CFO David Zinsner and Client Computing Group head Michelle Johnston Holthaus will be sharing the title of interim CEO while the company's board of directors searches for a new CEO. Gelsinger has also stepped down from his seat on the board.

A statement from board chair Frank Yeary suggests that Intel plans to continue Gelsinger's signature push into the chip foundry business.

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• Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger stepped down on Sunday, the company said Monday.
• The company has struggled in recent years to keep up with rivals like Nvidia in the chip race.
• Intel's share price was up more than 3% at the market open after it announced Gelsinger's departure.

Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger has stepped down, the company said Monday in a statement, as the US chipmaker struggles to keep up in the global chip race.

Gelsinger leaves the chipmaker with immediate effect, vacating his roles as CEO and as a member of the board.

The 63-year-old executive's departure follows a clash with Intel's board of directors regarding his plan to gain ground against rival chipmaker Nvidia, Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

Gelsinger was reportedly offered the choice to step aside or be fired, the outlet said.

"Today is, of course, bittersweet as this company has been my life for the bulk of my working career," he said in a statement. "It has been a challenging year for all of us as we have made tough but necessary decisions to position Intel for the current market dynamics."

Two senior Intel executives, David Zinsner and Michelle Johnston Holthaus, will lead the company during the search for a new CEO.

Intel, once a giant of Silicon Valley, has seen its share price drop almost 50% this year as it has faced multiple challenges.

Gelsinger's plans to revitalize the company included ambitions to build more factories in the US and Europe to scale its production capacity, as well as designing its own line of AI chips, named Gaudi, to take on the industry heavyweight Nvidia.

Many of these efforts have struggled, however. Last month, Gelsinger said the company was set to miss its target of $500 million in 2024 sales for Gaudi 3, its latest series of AI chips, due to software-related issues.

Gelsinger rolled out a sweeping set of initiatives earlier this year to turn the company around. In August, Intel laid off 15,000 employees, said it would suspend its dividend starting in the fourth quarter, and cut its capital spending.

Intel's stock price rose more than 3% when markets opened on Monday.

Frank Yeary, Intel's chair, thanked Gelsinger and said the company needed to restore investor confidence.

"While we have made significant progress in regaining manufacturing competitiveness and building the capabilities to be a world-class foundry, we know that we have much more work to do at the company and are committed to restoring investor confidence," Yeary said.

Intel received a boost last month as it was awarded $7.9 billion in federal grants through the US CHIPS Act.

Gelsinger was brought on in 2021 to lead the Santa Clara, California-headquartered company, with a remit to turn it into a powerhouse of the chip industry and close the gap with its Taiwanese rival TSMC.

He first joined Intel in 1979 and rose to become its chief technology officer in 2001. He then left the company in 2009 to join EMC, a subsidiary of Dell. In 2012, he became the CEO of the cloud-computing firm VMware before returning to Intel as its CEO in 2021.

Intel has announced that CEO Pat Gelsinger has retired, effective December 1, and stepped down from the company’s board of directors. Intel execs David Zinsner and Michelle Johnston Holthaus have been named interim co-CEOs. Zinsner is Intel’s CFO, while Holthaus is GM of Intel’s client computing group. Holthaus has also been appointed to the newly […]

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