[Salon] Peter Thiel: Palantir, Israel Agree Strategic Partnership for Battle Tech - Bloomberg



With apologies for offending people yesterday with my criticisms of Israeli Settlers and the Peter Thiel/Yoram Hazony National Conservative Movement, so no criticism here, but only positive news of their recent activities in defending the "supremacy of Jewish values.” So just feel-good news here:



"They’re not MAGA. They’re not QAnon. Curtis Yarvin and the rising right are crafting a different strain of conservative politics.

"One is Peter Thiel, the billionaire who helped fund NatCon and who had just given the conference’s opening address. Thiel has also funded things like the edgelordy and post-left–inflected New People’s Cinema film festival, which ended its weeklong run of parties and screenings in Manhattan just a few days before NatCon began. He’s long been a big donor to Republican political candidates, but in recent years Thiel has grown increasingly involved in the politics of this younger and weirder world—becoming something like a nefarious godfather or a genial rich uncle, depending on your perspective. Podcasters and art-world figures now joke about their hope to get so-called Thielbucks. His most significant recent outlays have been to two young Senate candidates who are deeply enmeshed in this scene and influenced by its intellectual currents: Hillbilly Elegy author J.D. Vance, running for the Republican nomination in Ohio, and Blake Masters in Arizona.

(Both out of Thiel’s Private Equity conglomerate.

Thiel has a long record of sharing that “supremacy of Jewish values” belief so he’s no “Johnny Come Lately,” just because of 10/7:



Thiel’s Palantir, Israel Agree Strategic Partnership for Battle Tech

US company will provide services for ‘war-related missions’ Agreement follows co-founders’ visit to Israel this week

Palantir CEO Alex Karp, center, with the head of Israel’s Directorate of Defense Research & Development Daniel Gold, center right, and Palantir co-founder Peter Thiel, second right.

Source: Palantir Technologies Inc.

Palantir Technologies Inc., the data analysis firm that provides militaries with artificial intelligence models, has agreed to a strategic partnership with the Israeli Defense Ministry to supply technology to help the country’s war effort.

The agreement followed a Thursday meeting between Israeli defense officials and Palantir co-founders Peter Thiel and Alex Karp in Tel Aviv, according to Executive Vice President Josh Harris, who was also in attendance. 

“Both parties have mutually agreed to harness Palantir’s advanced technology in support of war-related missions,” Harris told Bloomberg on Friday. “This strategic partnership aims to significantly aid the Israeli Ministry of Defense in addressing the current situation in Israel.”

No further details on the arrangement were disclosed, including what technology would be provided. Palantir last year introduced its AIP, or Artificial Intelligence Platform, an intelligence and decision-making system that can analyze enemy targets and propose battle plans.

Read More: Palantir Supplying Israel With New Tools Since Hamas War Started

Karp in an interview with Bloomberg on Wednesday said the Denver-based company’s products were in great demand in Israel since its war with Hamas began on Oct. 7. Palantir held a board meeting in Tel Aviv for the first time this week in solidarity with Israel. 


Palantir Supplying Israel With New Tools Since Hamas War Started

Data firm to hold a board meeting in Tel Aviv for first time CEO Alex Karp, Peter Thiel met Israeli president during visit

AI for military purposes is among the emerging technology’s most controversial uses.

Photographer: Fabrice Coffrini/AFP/Getty Images

Palantir Technologies Inc., the data analysis firm that provides militaries with artificial intelligence models, is seeing high demand from Israel for new tools since the start of the war with Hamas on Oct. 7. 

“Our products have been in great demand,” Palantir Chief Executive Officer Alex Karp said in an interview in Tel Aviv on Wednesday. “We have begun supplying different products than we supplied before” the start of the war, he said, declining to comment on which technologies were being offered.

Nor does Thiel neglect his own country’s (one of them) national security:
https://www.ft.com/content/45da39f2-4e05-46f1-96f4-813fbba79b16

Silicon Valley chiefs urge Pentagon procurement overhaul

Open letter designed to apply pressure on US government to open up $886bn defence budget to start-ups

Attachment: Silicon Valley chiefs urge Pentagon procurement overhaul-1.pdf
Description: Adobe PDF document


This doesn’t give sufficient credit to Thiel, whose “Founder’s Fund” helped get a few of these high-tech defense companies off the ground. Literally in the case of Anduril with its drones, engaged over the skies of Ukraine and Gaza/West Bank as I write this:


JPEG image

"Israel has my [and our] unqualified support,” said Anduril’s Founder, Palmer Luckey speaking on stage yesterday at the The Wall Street Journal's Tech Live conference. 

"What's happening in Israel is just another instance of the same type of evil that's been going on for a very long time. And I think it reflects very poorly on our billionaire class that you're not seeing a whole of country effort to become involved and to speak up about these issues, hedging on condemnation of Hamas for fear of saying the wrong thing, either in the court of public opinion or because it hurts their business interests.” 

Watch: https://lnkd.in/guDdvB_Y





This archive was generated by a fusion of Pipermail (Mailman edition) and MHonArc.