Palantir CEO Alex Karp warns AI industry may face nationalization risk as lawmakers float public equity plans

Palantir CEO Alex Karp said he has spent months warning other AI leaders that their industry could be moved toward nationalization, arguing that the political momentum is increasingly with lawmakers who want government ownership or control over frontier AI companies.

Karp made the comments during an appearance with TBPN at Palantir’s AIPCon 10 conference. He said he had privately raised the nationalization risk with top AI executives for about six months, but that many dismissed the concern, according to his characterization. “Why would anyone nationalize us? We’re so likable. We’re creating so much value,” Karp said, before adding, “The momentum is on the side of people who want to nationalize them.”

Karp tied the warning to a broader pattern he has described previously, arguing that Silicon Valley’s approach to labor and defense could become politically combustible. In March, he warned that taking away white-collar jobs while “screw[ing] the military” would lead to nationalization of the technology, describing the political outcome in stark terms in remarks reported by Fortune.

The nationalization discussion gained added urgency, Karp said, as Sen. Bernie Sanders moves toward legislation that would give the public a large equity stake in the biggest U.S. AI firms. Multiple reports describe Sanders’ plan, framed as an American AI sovereign wealth fund approach, as imposing a one-time 50% tax on major AI companies’ stock, rather than profits, to fund a federal vehicle. The proposal has been discussed alongside targets including OpenAI, Anthropic and xAI.

Karp also argued that regulators and lawmakers may be unable to fully grasp how advanced AI systems work, and that this knowledge gap could translate into heavier government intervention. In his telling, policymakers could start with oversight and escalate toward more aggressive steps, including nationalization. He urged AI executives to go beyond relying on lobbyists and to engage more directly on AI’s societal risks and strategic value, particularly as the U.S. competes against foreign adversaries building their own AI capabilities.

Palantir’s remarks land as the company continues to position itself as an AI implementation layer for both government and commercial operations. Palantir describes its Gotham product as an “operating system for global decision making,” and its Foundry as a platform used to orchestrate data and AI operations. At AIPCon 10, the company highlighted customer demonstrations involving Foundry, its Artificial Intelligence Platform (AIP), Ontology and Apollo, according to an summary of a company statement, with many customer participants sharing work publicly for the first time.

Still, important details remain unclear. Karp did not outline a specific mechanism for how nationalization would occur, and the comments provide no new text of Sanders’ bill beyond the general public-equity framework reported elsewhere. Palantir also did not provide additional company documentation or formal policy guidance in connection with Karp’s remarks beyond describing its platforms and conference programming.