Palantir’s Karp Blasts Closed AI, Backs Open Models to Protect Corporate IP

Closed AI systems from OpenAI and Anthropic are typically accessed through APIs and priced by tokens, keeping model weights under vendor control. Palantir Technologies CEO Alex Karp says that arrangement can leave companies paying for usage without measurable returns while exposing proprietary data, workflows and “alpha” — the know-how that creates competitive advantage. His alternative is to deploy open-weight models within an enterprise-controlled stack, allowing customers to retain control of their compute, models and data as AI becomes embedded in core operations.

On July 1, 2026, Karp used an appearance on CNBC’s Squawk Box to accuse OpenAI and Anthropic of encouraging token consumption while customers received little value, calling frontier models irresponsibly oversold. On July 24, Palantir joined Nvidia, Meta, Microsoft and 21 other organizations in an open-weights policy letter. The signatories said distillation is a longstanding research technique that should not automatically be treated as intellectual-property theft, reinforcing support for open models voiced by Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg.