A large Norwegian investment and asset management company has decided to sell its shares in an American company Palantir Technologies (NYSE: PLTR), an artificial intelligence services company known for its security products, and for its work with armed forces such as those of Ukraine and the United States, and more recently with the Israeli armed forces as well. Last year, Palantir announced that it was deepening its relationship with the Israeli Ministry of Defense and the Defense Research and Development Directorate (“MAFAT”). The company’s top executives, including CEO Alex Karp and the company’s lead investor and influential spirit behind it Peter Thiel, posed for photos with MAFAT President Danny Gold and other senior MAFAT employees, marking the signing of a new agreement aimed at improving the IDF’s performance in warfare.
norwegian company, Warehouse firePalantir Technologies Inc. announced It “excluded Palantir Technologies Inc. from our investments due to its sales of products and services to Israel for use in the occupied Palestinian territories.” Storebrand’s portfolio specializes in environmental, social and governance issues, i.e. investments that meet criteria for social equity, environmental sustainability and corporate governance. Such funds generally go to great lengths to avoid investing in oil, natural gas, metals, and defense, so it’s not clear why Storebrand would invest in Palantir in the first place, as the company is known for its long-term contracts with Palantir. The US military, including when the US was fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq. Its investments in Palantir amounted to $24 million.
On Friday, Palantir’s stock price rose nearly 3% and fell 0.16% in after-hours trading. The company’s market value is $96 billion.
Although Palantir is a public company, very little is known about what it actually does and the products and services it offers to its customers. The nature of its cooperation with the Israeli defense establishment, for example, has been kept secret. Storebrand stated in his announcement that Palantir products supported Israeli surveillance of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and were used “to identify individuals likely to launch lone terrorist attacks, facilitating their pre-emptive arrest prior to targeted strikes.” “And they are expected to deliver.” Palantir develops software products, but it operates as an integrator, designing a solution for each client and deploying its own staff at the client site to help analyze data, which can make it difficult for it to work with security organizations that are afraid to share internal information.
Thiel and Karp are known to be ardent supporters of Israel. Thiel himself is a friend of senior figures in the Israeli government and defense establishment, while Karp has several times expressed support for Israel’s right to defend itself. In the wake of the October 7, 2023 massacre committed by Hamas, Karp and Thiel decided to hold a company board meeting in Israel at the beginning of this year. In an open conversation with Israeli tech investor Yossi Vardi at Tel Aviv University, Karp said the gesture was partly intended to “embarrass other people who are pro-Israel in private but somehow not in public,” and added that he is not pro-Israel. Israel however simply supports the war against terrorists. In March, Karp told CNBC that Palantir had lost workers and expected to lose more because of his public support for Israel.
The Norwegian government and the country’s sovereign wealth fund have also shown hostility toward Israel since the outbreak of the Iron Sword War. In March this year, the government issued a warning to companies investing in an Israeli portfolio that included activities in Judea and Samaria, and in September, Reuters published a letter from Norway’s state pension fund, the Global Government Pension Fund, to the country’s government. The Ministry of Finance announces that it is considering tightening its investment standards to exclude investment in companies linked to the “Israeli war in Gaza.”
Published by Globes, Israel Business News – en.globes.co.il – on October 27, 2024.
© Copyright Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd., 2024.