u/drmanhattanmar

He was the architect behind Palantir’s flagship software, “Foundry”, and became wealthy following the company’s IPO. Today, Robert Fink is building Helsing, one of Europe’s most important defence tech start-ups. In conversation with Philipp Westermeyer, he explains why traditional fighter pilots will soon stand no chance against AI, how autonomous drones are changing the war in Ukraine, and why he simply ignores salary offers of $600,000. And he reveals the parallels between his work for Palantir and sewing his wife’s wedding dress.
Robert Fink studied at Oxford, which in itself is certainly not considered the worst address in the global higher education landscape. Yet when he joined Palantir, he was still surprised: “That took it up a notch. It was truly unbelievable,” he says. Palantir had recruited the best of the best. And Fink was clearly part of that elite. He spent more than seven years at the software firm before leaving after the IPO and venturing a fresh start – far away in his native Germany. As CTO, he is now building technology at the drone and AI start-up Helsing, the country’s most valuable start-up with a valuation of around ten billion euros. In the OMR Podcast, Robert Fink speaks...

...on the impact of AI on recruitment: "AI multiplies the length of every skills vector by 10. So someone who was already particularly good at architecture can now do it ten times better, because LLMs speed up their work. This boosts everyone in their respective fields and makes the really good people ten times better still. Unfortunately, however, it also makes people who perhaps aren’t so good ten times worse in some random direction. That means you still need the very best people – perhaps even more so now. We actually need to hire even more and make sure we get only the very best, even more so than before.”

...on the impact of AI on aerial combat: "In just a few years’ work, we’ve shown that, for example, in air-to-air combat – that is, pilot versus pilot in two fighter jets or two versus two – that’s basically already a done deal. Human pilots won’t stand a chance there. The question is when it will happen and who will build the systems. And of course, as a company, we naturally want to be the company that builds such systems."

...on lucrative job offers – and his reaction: "I almost automatically ignore those emails. The best example is the ‘technology-driven finance firm, minimum compensation 600k’. You’re guaranteed to get a message like that five times a week. But most former Palantir employees are more motivated to build things themselves. Many have become rich enough to do whatever they want."

...on differences in mindset between Silicon Valley and Germany: "You definitely notice a huge cultural difference between Silicon Valley and Germany. Many things are simply viewed more positively there; people focus more on the possibilities rather than the limitations. It feels like every other person you meet on the street wants to change the world. In America, you attract the best people to start-ups with the potential for growth; in Germany, you have to discuss working time regulations, whether overtime is paid, and what the pension entitlements are."

...on parallels between working for Palantir and his wife’s wedding dress, which he sewed himself: “You look at something and ask yourself, how does that actually work? And once you know how it works, you also know that someone else has built it before. And that’s one of the most fundamental things I learnt at Palantir: having the ambition to be able to do things yourself. Then you don’t say, ‘We have to buy this software’, but rather: ‘We’ll just build it.’ And it makes no difference whether it’s a wedding dress or a new kind of defence firm that thinks in terms of software and AI first."