Capital Without Conscience

Examining the involvement of big business in atrocities through history, and its complicity with authoritarian regimes. Part Three.

In January 2024, Palantir Technologies announced a “strategic partnership” with Israel’s Ministry of Defence to provide advanced technology provision in support of war-related missions. The company’s CEO, Alex Karp, stated to shareholders that he was “exceedingly proud” of Palantir’s support for Israel, adding that the company was “one of a few companies in the world to stand up and announce our support for Israel, which remains steadfast.” Karp’s candour is, in the context of the examples we have explored thus far, more than a little unusual. Whereas IBM’s Watson accepted his Nazi medal and directed his business with fascists from a distance, and the Caltex executives routed their money to the Indonesian military indirectly, Karp said the quiet part out loud.

This is the final piece in a three-part series on corporate complicity in state violence. Part one examined the corporations that played pivotal roles in facilitating the Holocaust and partnered with the Nazi regime; with little …