10 People Who Are Working to Change the World
9. Alex Karp
Alex Karp is a co-founder and CEO of Palantir Technologies. Palantir works with clients ranging from the CIA to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to organize and animate huge, unwieldy bodies of data, allowing analysts to track suspected terrorists and budding epidemics alike. Karp’s secretive company, which some believe created the software that the National Security Agency uses to spy on American citizens and tap into foreign databases, has come to represent the threat of ubiquitous surveillance—but it also embodies the promise of Big Data. For Karp, technology means doing more with less. When it comes to national security, this means increasing safety while reducing violations of civil liberties.
Alex Karp has expanded the company’s customer base to serve state and local governments, as well as private companies in the financial and healthcare industries
