The Companies Changing Warfare Forever: Palantir & Anduril Execs on Drones, AI & the Future of War
(0:00) Friedberg Intros Palantir's Shyam Sankar and Anduril's Trae Stephens
(0:56) Palantir Origins: CIA Analyst Joins 20-Person Startup
(2:54) War, Deterrence & Silicon Valley's Defense Tech Taboo
(8:39) US vs China: Drone Gap, Shipbuilding & 2027 Taiwan Threat
(12:27) Anduril's Arsenal-1 Factory & Fixing US Munitions Supply Chain
(41:48) Autonomous Weapons, AI Decision-Making & Future of War
(47:15) Anthropic vs Pentagon: Ethics of AI in Combat
(50:39) Palantir Surveillance State Claims
(55:57) Anti-Defense Culture Origins: Vietnam, Snowden & Foreign Influence
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Inside Palantir: Building Software That Matters with Shyam Sankar
In this conversation, Shyam Sankar, chief technology officer at Palantir Technologies, discusses his new book Mobilize, his commission in the U.S. Army, and why he believes the most important thing America can do right now is inspire its latent heretics to step forward. He also breaks down how he thinks about the SaaS market under AI pressure, what the "alpha versus beta software" distinction means for which companies survive, and why he started a film production company.
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Shyam Sankar - Celebrating Heretics - [Invest Like the Best, EP.462]
My guest today is Shyam Sankar, the CTO of Palantir Technologies.
In this conversation, we explore the ideas that shape how Shyam thinks about technology, talent, and national power. We discuss the origins of Palantir’s forward-deployed engineering model and the lessons he learned from Alex Karp about identifying people's "superpowers".
We also talk about Shyam’s fascination with the "heretics" of American history, the unconventional builders who challenged bureaucracy and created many of the systems that powered America’s military and industrial success. Shyam argues that the United States must reindustrialize after decades of moving production overseas, and explains what we can learn from America’s industrial past.
In a new Colossus profile, our Editor in Chief Jeremy Stern tells the story of how Shyam became one of the most important but largely unseen figures behind Palantir, tracing his journey from immigrant roots to employee #13 and the architect of the company's success and distinctive culture.
For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here.
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Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant (https://thepodcastconsultant.com).
Timestamps:
(00:00:00) Welcome to Invest Like the Best
(00:02:43) Intro: Shyam Sankar
(00:03:24) Defining Heretics in US Military History
(00:05:01) The Story of Hyman Rickover
(00:09:55) Formative Experiences & Worldview
(00:14:50) Components of American Greatness
(00:17:56) How to Unlock Talent
(00:25:56) Palantir's Distinct Culture
(00:28:15) Origin of Forward Deployed Engineering
(00:34:24) What Does Palantir Actually Do?
(00:36:19) Example: Airbus
(00:40:20) State of the US Military Today
(00:47:33) The U.S. Needs to Reindustrialize
(00:52:19) Perspective of China
(00:55:56) Our Key Asymmetric Advantages
(01:00:57) Executive Orders for a Day
(01:02:37) Negative Aspects of US Culture
(01:04:47) Managing Rapid Pivots
(01:09:17) Where Will AI Value Accrue?
(01:12:37) Undeclared State of Emergency
(01:15:45) Surprising Aspects of Palantir
(01:17:50) To Do or To Be
(01:18:50) Reflecting on Fatherhood
(01:19:46) The Kindest Thing
Winning the AI Race Part 1: Michael Kratsios, Kelly Loeffler, Chris Power, Shyam Sankar, Paul Buchheit, Jake Loosararian
(0:00) The besties introduce the day with Jacob Helberg
(9:08) Michael Kratsios, Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy
(18:24) Chris Power, Hadrian
(35:15) Jake Loosararian, Gecko Robotics
(44:37) Shyam Sankar, Palantir
(1:00:33) Paul Buchheit, Y Combinator
(1:13:35) Kelly Loeffler, Administrator of the Small Business Administration
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This Is Palantir's Vision for Changing How the US Does Defense Spending
This week, we saw shares of software maker Palantir soar after reporting earnings and describing demand for AI as being "untamed." But what does Palantir do, and what do they actually sell to the federal government? More importantly, how does the government actually spend money on things related to security and national defense? Last year, Palantir's CTO Shyam Sankar published a document called "The Defense Reformation," containing 18 theses about arms procurement and how it should be changed. We talk to him about the history of US defense spending, and his vision for creating a more competitive, advanced environment for the US defense sector.
Read More:
Palantir Jumps Most in Year As ‘Untamed’ Demand Bolsters Outlook
Trump’s Gaza Takeover Gets Israeli Approval, Global Scorn
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Mission Over Money & The State of Defense Tech with Palantir's Shyam Sankar | E1908
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Todays show:
Jason joins Palantir's Shyam Sankar to discuss how the US has avoided another terrorist attack since 9/11 (7:59), the role of AI and robotics in the battlefield (22:34), the future of defense tech (53:48), and more!
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Timestamps:
(0:00) Jason joins Shyam Sankar of Palantir.
(3:04) - Silcon valley’s shift in perception around defense tech and Palantir.
(5:09) - Palentir being born out of 9/11 and the realization of the countries vulnerabilities.
(7:59) How the US has managed to avoid another terrorist attack and what role Palantir's products played.
(9:33) NetSuite - Download your free KPI Checklist at http://www.NetSuite.com/twist
(10:48) One major failure regarding 9/11 attack.
(11:55) The Gotham Platform: Palantir's first product and how it borrowed from PayPal.
(18:12) The most valuable role software could play in defense tech.
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(19:52) How defense tech data collection has changed over the years.
(22:34) The role of AI and robotics play in the battlefield.
(29:22) Imagine AI LIVE - Get 20% off tickets at http://www.imagineai.live/twist
(30:38) The autopilot approach of LLMs at Palantir and the analogy of self-driving cars.
(33:28) Palantir's huge early wins with AI integration.
(38:01) The defense potential of LLMs and real time interpretation in the field.
(39:51) The importance of RF in the modern battlefield.
(45:32) Discussing Putin’s serious threat.
(48:54) How the defense industrial base was managed and consolidated after WWII
(53:48) The future of defense tech, the speed of innovation and enemy adaptation.
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Great 2023 interviews: Steve Huffman, Brian Chesky, Aaron Levie, Sophia Amoruso, Reid Hoffman, Frank Slootman, Billy McFarland
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20VC: Palantir CTO on The Broken Incentive Structure of How Governments Buy Defence, The Danger of Defence Spending at Historic Lows, How Elections and Wars Change Government Defence Buying & Why Budgets are Anti-Creative with Shyam Sankar
Shyam Sankar is Chief Technology Officer and Executive Vice President of Palantir Technologies in addition to the Chairman of Ginkgo Bioworks. Shyam holds a B.S. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Cornell University and a M.S. in Management Science and Engineering from Stanford University.
In Today's Episode with Shyam Sankar:
1. Journey to the Top of Defence:
How did Shyam make his way into the world of startups and get a role with Kevin Hartz at Xoom?
How did seeing Shyam's parents lose everything impact his mindset and drive?
What does Shyam know now that he wishes he had known when he started his career?
2. How the World's Governments Buy Defence:
What is the playbook for selling defence to different governments?
Why is the way that governments purchase and procure so broken?
If Shyam were head of the DOD, what would he change?
Why does the DOD "need to pick winners"?
Which governments are the best to work with? Which are the worst?
3. A World In Conflict: What Changes:
How does conflict change the buying process and urgency for governments?
How do elections change the buying cadence and process for different governments?
Looking forward to 2024, how does Shyam predict the state of different global conflicts?
4. Hiring 101: You Have To Hire Artists:
What have been Shyam's single biggest lessons on what it takes to hire the best of the best?
Why does Shyam believe that hiring great people is like talent management in Hollywood?
Why does Shyam believe talent should be "shielded from budgets"?
What have been some of Shyam's biggest hiring mistakes? How did he learn from them?
How Palantir’s AI Bet is Revolutionizing Defense and Beyond, with CTO Shyam Sankar
Can frontiers as high-stakes as next-generation, AI-enabled defense depend on something as mundane as data integration? Can "large language models" work in such mission critical applications? In this episode of No Priors, hosts Sarah Guo and Elad Gil are joined by Shyam Sankar, the Chief Technical Officer of Palantir Technologies and inventor of their famous Forward Deployed Engineering force.
Early employee and longtime leader Shyam explains the evolution of technology at Palantir, from ontology and data integration to process visualization and now AI. He describes how a company of Palantir's scale has adopted foundation models and shares customer stories. They discuss the case for open source AI models fine-tuned on private, domain-specific data, and the challenges of anchoring AI models in reality.
Show Links:
Shyam Sankar - Chief Technical Officer - Palantir Technologies | LinkedIn
Palantir
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Follow us on Twitter: @NoPriorsPod | @Saranormous | @EladGil | @ssankar
Show Notes:
[0:00:00] - Palantir's CTO Discusses Company's Background
[0:10:17] - Apollo and AIP
[0:20:25] - Future of UI and Application Integration
[0:28:29] - Investment in Co-Pilot Models and Education
[0:31:22] - Exploring AI Implementation in Various Industries
[0:38:19] - Operational and Analytical Workflows in Context
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