NEW YORK CITY — Palantir Technologies posted on social media a 22-point summary of the book The Technological Republic, written by company chief executive Alex Karp and Nicholas Zamiska. The summary calls for the introduction of national service, urges technology companies to participate in national defense as a moral duty, and argues for the necessity of hard power for free and democratic societies to prevail.

The summary also calls for the embrace of religion in public life, rails against what it describes as the "psychologization of modern politics," emphasizes the inevitability of developing artificial intelligence weapons, and defends Elon Musk against those who dismiss his achievements. Musk served as the head of the US Department for Government Efficiency.

Palantir was founded in 2003 by Karp and Peter Thiel with support from In-Q-Tel, the CIA's venture capital arm. The company built its early business on post-9/11 intelligence work and has expanded internationally with contracts across Europe, the Middle East, and beyond. Thiel retains his shares but no longer plays an active role in day-to-day operations, while Karp has positioned himself as the public face of the company.

Palantir sells operational software to defense, intelligence, immigration and police agencies, and has cultivated close ties with US security agencies, particularly during the administration of President Donald Trump. The company faces global criticism for its support of Trump's immigration crackdown and its backing of the Israeli military's actions in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.

Eliot Higgins, founder of Bellingcat, said: "Palantir sells operational software to defence, intelligence, immigration & police agencies. These 22 points aren't philosophy floating in space, they're the public ideology of a company whose revenue depends on the politics it's advocating."

Under Karp's leadership, Palantir has drawn heavily on the expertise of former members of Israel's cyber-intelligence unit 8200. After announcing a strategic partnership with Israel in January 2024, the company expanded its involvement in Gaza and the occupied West Bank, integrating intercepted communications, satellite material and other digital data sources to help produce targeting databases for the Israeli military. Israel launched its war on Gaza following the Hamas-led attack on October 7, 2023.

In a statement, a Palantir spokesperson said: "As a company, Palantir does support Israel. We've chosen to support them because of the appalling events of October 7th. And more broadly, we've chosen to support them because we believe in supporting the West and its allies – and Israel is an important ally of the West."

The rights group Amnesty International said Palantir "has a track record of flagrantly disregarding international law and standards, both in the violations of the human rights of migrants in the United States, to which it risks contributing to, and its ongoing supply of artificial intelligence (AI) products and services to the Israeli military and intelligence services that are linked to Israel's ongoing genocide in Gaza." Amnesty International is among the groups that have publicly criticized Palantir's contracts with defense and immigration agencies.