Ukraine's ousted pro-tech defense minister is launching a new company backed by Palantir's Alex Karp

Sep 02, 2026 12:42 AM - 1 hour ago 1

Mykhailo Fedorov pinch a microphone and Alex Karp speaking connected a bluish stage.

Mykhailo Fedorov and Palantir CEO Alex Karp Danylo Antoniuk/ Ukrinform/Future Publishing via Getty Images; Fabrice COFFRINI / AFP via Getty Images

Mikhailo Fedorov, who helped thrust rapid invention successful battlefield technology, peculiarly drones, earlier being ousted arsenic Ukraine's defense curate this summer, is launching a defense tech company.

The caller institution will attraction connected processing defense technologies intended to fortify Ukraine and support partners, Fedorov said successful a release, promising "more specifications to come."

While overmuch remains unclear astir what the institution will do, its first lead investor will beryllium Alex Karp, the CEO of Palantir, an American AI, data, and operational intelligence company.

In a statement, Fedorov said Ukraine would beryllium the company's priority.

"During the full-scale war, our squad gained unsocial acquisition moving pinch defense technologies successful Ukraine and seeing firsthand really exertion is transforming modern warfare," he said. Now, he and his squad intend to leverage that successful a caller venture.

In a video made pinch Fedorov astatine Palantir's Washington office, Karp said of Fedorov and his squad that "you and your colleagues are launching a institution that I deliberation will beryllium defining for the world, bringing your knowledge and acumen astir the creation of war."

Before becoming defense curate successful January, Fedorov served arsenic curate for integer transformation, a domiciled successful which he was celebrated for a Silicon Valley-style attack to delivering awesome changes intended to amended hole Ukraine for an evolving fight.

His clip successful Ukraine's defense ministry coincided pinch tech-driven successes successful combat, including a mid-range drone onslaught run that has devastated Russian logistics and the description of its deep-strike run targeting Russia's subject and industry.

Fedorov's abrupt departure successful July, six months into the job, came arsenic a daze to Ukrainian work members and manufacture figures alike. His push for extremist changes wrong the equipped forces, he said astatine the time, created important clash pinch elder subject leaders.

After his dismissal, Fedorov said critically astir Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi, Kyiv's commandant successful main astatine the time, accusing him of blocking each initiative he and his squad put forward, creating a rift. "Instead of figuring retired really to conclusion Russia asymmetrically, he figured retired really to divided the country," he said of Syrskyi.

In nationalist statements pursuing Fedorov's departure, Syrskyi thanked him for his activity and said he hoped that he would spot "continued occurrence arsenic portion of the Ukrainian team."

Ukraine replaced Fedorov pinch Yevhenii Khmara, and later, it replaced Syrskyi pinch Maj. Gen. Mykhailo Drapatyi, whom Ukrainian troops rallied astir arsenic a beardown prime for the role.

Read next

Ryan Pickrell is the subject and defense editor astatine Business Insider, wherever he oversees sum of the weapons and exertion reshaping modern warfare, shifting strategies and tactics, and the quality warfighters adapting to these changes. He besides oversees the play Defense Flash newsletter.Ryan is simply a National Security Education Program alumnus pinch a Ph.D. successful world relations and much than a decade of acquisition successful journalism. Before joining Business Insider successful 2018, he worked arsenic a translator, transcript editor, and overseas argumentation reporter.At Business Insider, his activity has included contributions to award-winning coverage of Russia's warfare against Ukraine, arsenic good arsenic a co-reported feature article connected an American veteran-turned-lawyer who took up Ukraine's conflict arsenic a overseas volunteer.His reporting astatine BI has focused connected the Pentagon and broader US military, great-power competition, readiness for a conflict against a near-peer adversary, and evolutions successful military technology. He has covered warfare, limb systems, and subject strategy, arsenic good arsenic the service members, subject culture, defense leaders, and defense manufacture that underpin them.

Jake Epstein is simply a defense analogous successful London for Business Insider, covering the US military, NATO, and European security, arsenic good arsenic emerging tech successful warfare.Jake has revenge stories from conflict zones in Ukraine and the Middle East, wherever he embedded with a US craft carrier on a combat deployment successful the Red Sea. Jake has reported extensively connected NATO operations crossed Europe, including from aboard an AWACS surveillance plane along the Russian border, an RAF Voyager tanker refueling combatant jets complete the Baltic Sea, and a Dutch helicopter flying to a warship supra the Arctic Circle.

More