Palantir and OpenAI are waging a quiet war on democracy. Not through code or lobbying, but through cash - funding a Super PAC to destroy a rising AI regulator, New York State Assemblymember Alex Bores. According to The Ezra Klein Show, OpenAI co-founder Greg Brockman and Palantir’s Joe Lonsdale are behind Leading the Future, a group spending heavily to paint Bores as a traitor to tech for proposing safety audits and incident reporting.
The goal isn’t just to defeat Bores. It’s to terrify every future legislator who dares regulate AI. As Bores puts it: the industry wants democratic oversight to feel politically fatal. These are the same CEOs who testify before Congress about safety, then quietly fund smear campaigns to protect their unchecked growth.
"They’re not afraid of regulation. They’re afraid of losing the race."
- Alex Bores, The Ezra Klein Show
Meanwhile, Palantir’s Alex Karp is pushing a far more radical vision. In his manifesto The Technological Republic, Karp calls for universal conscription and the full remilitarization of U.S. allies, arguing that AI has replaced nuclear deterrence. Krystal Ball on Breaking Points calls it a civilizational sales pitch - one that just happens to require Palantir’s software stack to execute.
Karp’s vision isn’t just militarized. It’s ideological. He frames coexistence with rival powers as impossible, demanding permanent war footing. This isn’t policy - it’s prophecy from a contractor who wants to be prophet-king.
"The philosopher-king is now the primary defense contractor."
- Krystal Ball, Breaking Points
The two threads - regulatory sabotage and ideological remilitarization - are not separate. They’re part of a broader effort by tech elites to shape governance in their image. While Bores proposes taxing AI tokens and using warrants to fund public good, the response is not debate - it’s destruction.
This isn’t just about AI. It’s about who decides. Billionaires are no longer waiting to influence policy - they’re designing it, funding it, and silencing anyone who stands in the way.

