Software giant Palantir is launching a new fellowship program for neurodivergent talent after video of its CEO Alex Karp’s high-energy answers during a live interview in New York City went viral last week.
Karp, 58, faced an avalanche of social media snark after he was seen fidgeting in his chair and waving his arms throughout the lengthy interview with journalist Andrew Ross Sorkin during the New York Times’ DealBook Summit last Wednesday. The viral reaction to his behavior sparked Karp’s decision to launch the program, according to Palantir.
“While cross-country skiing this morning, Dr. Karp decided to launch a new program: The Neurodivergent Fellowship,” the company said in social media posts on Sunday. “If you find yourself relating to him in this video — unable to sit still, or thinking faster than you can speak — we encourage you to apply.”
Described as a “as a recruitment pathway for exceptional neurodivergent talent,” the fellowship will be based in New York or Washington, DC.
Palantir stressed that the program is “not a diversity initiative.”
“The neurally divergent (like myself) will disproportionately shape America’s future,” Karp said in a statement posted to X. “We see past performative ideologies and perceive beauty in the world that still exists — which technology and art can expose.”
“Palantir will bring your talents to bear on the West’s most urgent problems,” added Karp, who has dyslexia.
The learning disability, which makes it harder to read and do tasks related to language, is a form of neurodivergence, according to the Cleveland Clinic.
Karp will personally conduct the final round of interviews for the fellowship, Palantir said. The estimated annual salary is a cool $110,000 to $200,000, according to the job posting.
Palantir spokesperson Peter Todd said Monday the program has received more than 1,000 applications since going live.
“We launched The Neurodivergent Fellowship because Palantir is the perfect place for these individuals to flourish,” he told The Post. “For too long, too much of society has seen their abilities as unconventional behaviors to be mitigated or medicated.”
“We see them as superpowers to be sharpened — free from the suffocating constraints of hyper-bureaucratic environments that smother creativity and limit potential,” Todd added.
During last week’s interview, Karp described his dyslexia diagnosis as the “formative moment of my life” – and something he had once kept hidden from others.
“If you are massively dyslexic, you cannot play a playbook,” the exec said. “There is no playbook a dyslexic can master. And therefore, we learn to think freely.”
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