Unlike the other attendees, like Apple CEO Tim Cook, Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos and Alphabet CEO Larry Page, who oversee companies worth hundreds of billions of dollars, Karp runs a privately held business valued at $20 billion, one that’s hardly known outside of Silicon Valley and Washington.
Karp’s company is Palantir Technologies, a Palo Alto, California-based software developer that’s backed by the CIA’s venture arm and has done work for government agencies including the FBI, the Pentagon and IRS.
Given how much smaller Palantir is than the other companies represented, why was Karp invited to meet with Donald Trump?
The most obvious reason contains little subtlety. Peter Thiel, the venture capitalist and Facebook board member who is part of Trump’s transition team, is a co-founder of Palantir and is the company’s biggest backer.
Karp’s presence may or may not represent an actual conflict of interest, but the appearance of one is hard to deny, according to Norman Eisen, a former U.S. ambassador to the Czech Republic who worked on President Barack Obama’s ethics initiatives.
Read the whole story from CNBC.
Really guys, this is left wing propaganda from the mainstream media. If you think about it, having Plantir attend makes sense given the tremendous challenges technology creates for national security. The article suggests that anyone who has a real job, and meets with the President, somehow has a conflict of interest. Plantir is a defense contractor, just like Boeing or Daniel Defense. Can they not meet with the administration about national security measures? The fact that Peter Thiel has investments in Plantir, or Marty Daniels does in DD, does not make it a conflict of interest. Besides, the President does not control procurement, that is done elsewhere. The Left, which never had a problem with the union leaders, Middle Eastern dictators or CEOs of American companies meeting with Hillary and contributing to the Clinton Foundation all of sudden are deeply troubled by the appearance of conflicts of interest. Could you please either not post such articles, or at least comment on them so we do not think you agree with the author? Thanks and keep up the good work.