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Mother Jones illustration; Aaron Schwartz\/ZUMA<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n On Sunday afternoon, Palantir, the defense-tech company that sells software to clients like ICE, the US military, and the Israeli military, decided to give us all a piece of their mind. The company\u2019s official X account published a list of excerpts<\/a> from co-founder Alex Karp\u2019s 2025 book The Technological Republic.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n The book frames Silicon Valley\u2019s move into military technology<\/a> as the righteous repayment of a \u201cmoral debt\u201d owed to the country that built the tech billionaire class. \u201cThe engineering elite of Silicon Valley has an affirmative obligation to participate in the defense of the nation.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n If you read past the post and dig into the book itself, you\u2019ll find that this sentence continues: \u201cthe engineering elite must also, Karp said, participate in \u201cthe articulation of a national project\u2014what is this country, what are our values, and for what do we stand.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n That is to say: Men like Karp should decide what this country is.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIf a US Marine asks for a better rifle, we should build it; and the same goes for software,\u201d Palantir\u2019s Bill-Ackman-esque<\/a> digression continued. It asserts that the future of American military dominance will not depend on nuclear deterrence, but on AI weaponry\u2014possibly like the Palantir AI product that is reportedly used to help generate \u2018kill lists\u2019<\/a> for the Israeli military in Gaza.\u00a0<\/p>\n Then, after arguing for the primacy of its own products\u2014called \u201cspy tech<\/a>\u201d by Palantir\u2019s critics\u2014Karp suggests the remilitarization of the Axis Powers. \u201cThe postwar neutering of Germany and Japan must be undone,\u201d Karp\u2019s company account asserted. \u201cThe defanging of Germany was an overcorrection for which Europe is now paying a heavy price. A similar and highly theatrical commitment to Japanese pacifism will, if maintained, also threaten to shift the balance of power in Asia.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n That would make those countries massive defense<\/a> markets<\/a>, which means more money for Palantir. Right now, about half of their earnings<\/a> come from their contracts with various governments. A further militarized Japan and Germany could see that share expand further.\u00a0<\/p>\n The rest of the manifesto is also, essentially, a sales pitch for corporate capture: \u201chard power in this century will be built on software,\u201d Palantir says, meaning that if America doesn\u2019t buy that software, someone else will. The company has had a banner year profiting on Trump\u2019s ICE crackdowns, and currently holds $970 million<\/a> in US government contracts, but is eager for more.\u00a0<\/p>\n As Palantir pitches an increasingly militarized United States, ideologically determined by Silicon-valley tastes\u2014at one point in the post, they suggest bringing back the draft\u2014they\u2019re suggesting a country in which they get all the power.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n