Announcing the American Tech Fellowship
American workers built the 20th century. They will build the 21st.
One of our goals in starting First Breakfast was to show, through history, the difference that a handful of highly motivated, slightly cracked patriots can make for our country and our military.
That’s why we launched the Heretics & Heroes series: to introduce readers to the human dynamos—the Rickovers, Knudsens, and Boyds—who threw out the rulebooks, smashed through bureaucratic obstacles, and grinded to build the Arsenal of Democracy.
This isn’t just about good stories (though they are good stories). It’s doctrine.
Defense Reformation Thesis #4: The person is the program. The primacy of people. If you get the right talent in position, incredible things will happen. If you don’t, no amount of clever procedure and organizational engineering will help you. You need to find and empower the talent that will solve your problem. That’s how you win.
In that spirit, today Palantir is launching the American Tech Fellowship to find, train, and unleash the heretical heroes that will build the 21st century.
American Tech Fellows will receive a high-intensity, virtual crash course on Palantir’s Artificial Intelligence Platform, led by our partner, Ontologize. They’ll put in blood, toil, tears, and sweat to get certified on our software. And exceptional talent will have the chance to interview for jobs, whether at Palantir or our many partners across the country, so they can put their skills to use mobilizing, reindustrializing, and revitalizing America.
We’re starting this fellowship in part because of need. There’s massive demand for skilled engineers, at Palantir, at our customers, and across the country. But we’re also starting this fellowship to prove a point. Some say American workers can’t hack it anymore. That China’s relentless human wave of engineers will inherit the Earth. We think this is wrong, especially when so little effort has been made to identify and train the talent already here.
We can’t import our way out of our problems, yet that has been the easy button that Western leaders in business and government have slapped every time there’s a labor shortage or production problem.
I’m a proud American. I’m also an immigrant. I often talk about how grateful I am that this country allowed me to come here, made me one of its own, and let me use my talents in its service. Part of what gratitude looks like in action, I sincerely believe, is not reflexively slapping the easy button, but doing the hard work of elevating our countrymen. Giving them every opportunity to succeed and the training to do so. And watching as they rise to the occasion.
The Heartland supplied the heretics and heroes that helped America win the 20th century. Neil Armstrong and Gene Kranz were from Ohio. Chuck Yeager was from West Virginia. Bob Noyce was from Iowa. Millions of patriotic Americans whose names we’ll never know stoked the flames of production and innovation.
More legends are out there. We just need to give them the tools and the opportunity to succeed.
Applications for the American Tech Fellowship are now live. So if you, or someone you know, is a technically minded patriot itching to level up your skills for the AI age—apply today. Maybe your skills are rusty or you can’t (or don’t want to) relocate to a tech mecca like San Francisco or New York, but you’re not afraid to compete and you’re filled with the fire to grow and build for America. We want to hear from you.
Likewise, if you’re a patriotic company in need of capable engineers trained on Palantir, we want to hear from you. Join us. Hire our fellows. Strengthen your local communities.
Watch as America’s heretical heroes build the 21st century, just as they built the last century.