Palantir CEO Alex Karp

By Jason Ma - August 17, 2024

The U.S. military has long prioritized being able to fight two wars simultaneously in different parts of the globe, similar to its efforts in the Pacific and European theaters during World War II.

But Alex Karp, CEO of the data-mining software company Palantir, which is known for its work in defense and intelligence, warned that the U.S. may have to wage war in three different theaters in the future.

He told the New York Times that he thinks the U.S. will “very likely” find itself in a three-front war with China, Russia, and Iran. As a result, he said, the Pentagon should continue developing autonomous weapons at full speed, pointing to big mismatches in how far the U.S. would be willing to go while fighting a war compared with other countries.

“I think we’re in an age when [a] nuclear deterrent is actually less effective, because the West is very unlikely to use anything like a nuclear bomb, whereas our adversaries might,” he added. “Where you have technological parity but moral disparity, the actual disparity is much greater than people think.”

Karp continued: “In fact, given that we have parity technologically, but we don’t have parity morally, they have a huge advantage.”

He also said the military is very close to the threshold where “somewhat autonomous drones” that can kill become the most important weapons.

“You already see this in Ukraine,” Karp noted.

Elsewhere in the sprawling Times profile, which also covered his personal life, business practices, and opinions on a range of people and issues, he urged Democrats to show more strength.

“Are we tough enough to . . .