After the United States and Israel conducted military strikes against three Iranian nuclear sites in June, Joe Lonsdale, an active Republican donor and fundraiser, and co-founder of Palantir Technologies, appeared on CNBC’s Squawk Box and said, “ I’m really excited to invest in Iran if we can get this country to be some sort of republic and not run by crazy people, and that’s a lot easier than doing that in Afghanistan or somewhere else.”
Lonsdale’s purported desire for a “republic” in Iran, while laudable, is not a prerequisite for Palantir’s engagement — the company doesn’t require that a Middle East nation operate as a republic in order to do business with it. Indeed, none of the Arab Gulf states in the region joined in opposing the Iranian regime — including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar — are democracies or republics, yet they have all engaged in U.S.-led partnerships with American corporate tech giants like Palantir.
Palantir boasted last May of deepening its “ties with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia” through Trump-brokered deals.
Palantir is proud to deepen its ties with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
https://t.co/VATuWIslYK
— Palantir (@PalantirTech) May 13, 2025
In summarizing Saudi Arabia’s human rights record in 2024, the U.S. State Department listed “credible reports of: arbitrary or unlawful killings; disappearances; torture and cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment; arbitrary arrest and detention; transnational repression against individuals in another country; serious restrictions on freedom of expression and media freedom, including unjustified arrests or prosecutions of journalists and censorship; restrictions of religious freedom; and prohibiting independent trade unions or significant or systemic restrictions on workers’ freedom of association.”
Critics of the Trump administration, including More Perfect Union — the progressive non-profit media organization founded by Faiz Shakir, a senior advisor to Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) — are recirculating the Lonsdale interview in light of the current U.S.-Israel military attack on Iran, which some observers claim offers more direct and immediate benefits to Israel and Trump-aligned business partners in Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states than to the U.S. (The dangers for the U.S. outweigh the potential of its “limited benefits,” according to sources like The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists.)
Throwback to the co-founder of Palantir saying this is all about making money in June 2025:
“ I’m really excited to invest in Iran if we can get this country to be some sort of republic and not run by crazy people, and that’s a lot easier than doing that in Afghanistan…” pic.twitter.com/Qvrn634NSB
— More Perfect Union (@MorePerfectUS) March 2, 2026
[Note: Palantir has large, multi-year government contracts for data analytics and AI surveillance, including a $10 billion U.S. Army AI software deal and a reported $1 billion software purchase agreement with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), among others.]
More Perfect Union also shared a clip from today’s broadcast of Squawk Box featuring mega investor Steven Eisman, who says that the war doesn’t change his investment calculus.
Eisman — who’s known for betting against subprime mortgages and making millions during the subprime mortgage crisis (the character Mark Baum, played by Steve Carell in The Big Short, is based on Eisman) — was asked “as far as the markets go, would you change anything?” based on the Iran strikes.
On CNBC Steve Eisman says investors should ignore the U.S.-Iran war, because in the long-term this attack “is very, very positive.” pic.twitter.com/3MKGn9fgJj
— More Perfect Union (@MorePerfectUS) March 2, 2026
Without forecasting Iran would become a republic, Eisman nevertheless replied, “Based on this? Not a single trade. I think long term this is very, very positive because it means the Middle East will be a lot, I think eventually, hopefully, a safe place.” He added, “If it goes well, in two months from now, prices will be back to where they were.”
Note: Stock futures have slid and crude prices have surged in the immediate aftermath of the initial strikes; CNBC reports $70/barrel, the highest level since June (when the U.S. last struck Iran).