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Palantir CTO says tech innovators are building for America in shift since Trump returned to White House
By Ruthless Podcast Staff
Published July 16, 2026
Palantir Chief Technology Officer Shyam Sankar told the Ruthless Podcast in a new interview that there has been a shift within the technology community, and since President Donald Trump returned to the White House, tech entrepreneurs are now building in the national interest.
"You have hundreds of founders out there now who are building in the national interest," Sankar said in an interview released Thursday morning on the shift in the tech sector. "And I think this is a sort of galvanizing message for us to go and get after it."
The interview took place at the Pennsylvania Defense and Innovation Summit at the United States Army War College in Carlisle, Penn. The meeting, organized by Sen. Dave McCormick, R-Penn., convened technology and defense sector executives with senior government and military leaders.
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Sankar, who published the bestselling Mobilize: How to Reboot the American Industrial Base and Stop World War III, told the Fellas about the economic benefits artificial intelligence (AI) is bringing to American communities, including in Pennsylvania. The increased productivity is creating more jobs for Americans.
Shyam Sankar, chief technology officer of Palantir Technologies, speaks during a Bloomberg Television interview on the sidelines of the Pennsylvania Defense and Innovation Summit in Carlisle, Pa., on Wednesday, July 15, 2026. (Tom Brenner/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
"[AI] is expanding the labor population, our ability to mobilize the American worker," Sankar said. "Right here in Pennsylvania, we actually have a submarine parts manufacturer that was able to add a third shift. Production planning used to take two weeks. And during that time, mostly the line was down. With AI, they were really able to make that happen in effectively two-tenths of a second, which meant they had more parts to make, which meant that they needed more workers."
Podcast co-host Michael Duncan appreciated how Sankar’s approach was making the seemingly complex technology topic more tangible for the average American.
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"Too often I find that these conversations around innovation, whether that's defense tech or AI, are so abstract," Duncan said. "And what I love about the stories you tell is that you make it tangible in people's lives."
Just days after Democratic New York Governor Kathy Hochul made her state the first to freeze the construction of new data centers, Duncan added that these anecdotes push back against the popular anti-data center sentiment growing on the left.
Gov. Kathy Hochul speaks during a news conference in New York. (Adam Gray/Bloomberg)
"You've got [Senator] Bernie Sanders being like, ‘This is the right call, this AI moratorium in New York, because AI must benefit humanity,’" Duncan told Sankar. "And it's like, I don't know, man, pick up a newspaper."
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Trump addressed the event on Wednesday, speaking of the importance of both the defense and technology sectors to the nation’s long-term security.
Podcast co-host Comfortably Smug said the Trump administration has played a key role in expanding AI development.
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks at the Pennsylvania Defense and Innovation Summit at the United States Army War College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, U.S., July 15, 2026. (Kylie Cooper/Reuters)
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"One of the more important lessons from the book is the importance of harnessing AI and what a force multiplier that can be," Smug said. "This administration really gets that. We've seen a result. The efficacy has gone off the charts."
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Sankar mentioned that working around soldiers has given him extra appreciation for his work.
"If you spend time with these uniformed service members going into harm's way, you just have to do the work for them," Sankar said. "It gives you a different perspective."
https://www.foxnews.com/media/palantir-cto-says-tech-innovators-building-america-shift-since-trump-returned-white-house