Palantir: The Data Giant That Operates Where Google Won’t

Palantir skyscraper at dusk, mysterious and powerful.

Palantir is a tech company that’s become pretty powerful and, let’s be honest, a bit controversial. It started with Peter Thiel and Alexander Karp, and now it’s a huge data company with deep connections to the U.S. government, law enforcement, and big businesses. This post looks at how Palantir got so big, its work with agencies like ICE and the Department of Defense, and its involvement in projects like using AI for drone targeting.

Key Takeaways

  • Palantir was co-founded by PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel and Alexander Karp.
  • The company has received significant government contracts, starting in 2009.
  • Peter Thiel’s views on democracy and his company’s name, "Palantir," have raised concerns.
  • Palantir took over Project Maven, an AI program for drone targeting, after Google backed out.
  • The company’s software, Gotham, is described as an "operating system for global decision-making" with AI-powered targeting capabilities.

The Rise of Palantir

The story of Palantir really kicks off in 2003 when Peter Thiel, who helped start PayPal, had an idea. He pitched it to his friend Alexander Karp. Both Thiel and Karp had law degrees from Stanford. Thiel’s idea was to create software that could find terror networks, using a method PayPal used to spot fraud. In 2004, Thiel and Karp, along with three others, founded Palantir. Thiel’s venture capital fund provided most of the startup money.

It wasn’t long before the U.S. government took notice. By 2009, while Palantir was still a private company, it landed its first federal contract worth $1.6 million. That was just the beginning. Over the next decade, from 2010 to 2019, Palantir received about 150 more federal contracts. Many of these were worth tens of millions, and one even topped $275 million.

When Palantir got a $42 million contract from ICE, it was described in one article as a "Secuitive data mining firm." Palantir went public in September 2020. Its stock closed that day at $9.50 a share, giving it a market value of around $16 billion. As of late September 2025, the stock was trading around $177 a share, with a market cap close to $300 billion. A big chunk of that stock growth happened after the Trump administration awarded Palantir 51 contracts totaling $578 million in just nine months.

From an investor’s point of view, Palantir is a successful, publicly traded data analytics company that’s made a lot of money working for both the government and various industries like food, insurance, retail, airlines, and manufacturing.

What’s Behind the Unease?

So, why does Palantir have this somewhat dark, unsettling reputation? Several things contribute to this feeling.

Peter Thiel’s Views

First, there’s Peter Thiel himself. He’s written about his ideas, and some of them are quite striking. He’s against high taxes and what he calls "totalitarian collectives." But he also expresses skepticism about the inevitability of death and calls himself a libertarian. This has raised eyebrows, especially since his venture capital funds have invested in Flock surveillance, a company that tracks people and now manufactures drones.

More notably, Thiel stated in an article that he no longer believes freedom and democracy are compatible. While the U.S. is a constitutional republic, not a pure democracy, his comments suggest a desire for a different system of governance, which makes many people nervous.

The Name and Logo

Then there’s the name "Palantir" and the company’s logo, which looks like a crystal ball on a stand. Peter Thiel has mentioned reading J.R.R. Tolkien’s "Lord of the Rings" many times. In the books, a palantir is a seeing stone that allows users to communicate and see things from afar. They can also be used for surveillance. Gandalf, a character in the books, kept his palantir covered to prevent others from seeing him.

While the name and logo seem to fit the company’s focus on remote surveillance, the stones also have a dangerous side. Gandalf warned that they could be used to deceive by showing only part of the truth. Saruman, another wizard, was corrupted by pride and lust for power, partly through his use of a palantir. Choosing this name might suggest Thiel either didn’t grasp the negative implications or embraced them.

Early Funding and Contracts

Adding to the unease, Forbes and Brownstone Research reported that the CIA invested millions in Palantir just a year after it was founded. This early funding helped the company grow and compete for government contracts. Also, the 10 contracts Palantir received from ICE, totaling $254 million, haven’t helped its public image for some.

Project Maven and AI in Warfare

Perhaps the biggest factor contributing to Palantir’s unsettling image is its involvement in a 2017 Department of Defense program called Project Maven. This project aimed to speed up the use of AI across the military, particularly for analyzing drone and satellite video feeds to identify targets like buildings, vehicles, and people.

Google was initially a subcontractor for Project Maven, using its AI expertise to help the Defense Department’s weapons targeting systems. However, this decision caused a major backlash among Google employees, with thousands signing a letter of protest and many engineers resigning. Google eventually decided not to renew its contract, establishing AI principles that forbid using their AI in weapons or for human rights violations.

This is where Palantir stepped in. They were willing to take over Project Maven and integrate their AI into drone targeting systems. Palantir’s own software product, Gotham, is described on their website as "The operating system for global decision-making." They describe its targeting capabilities as "An AI powered killchain seamlessly and responsibly integrating target identification and targetector pairing."

The Kabul Drone Strike

This brings us to August 26, 2021. An attack at the Kabul airport killed 13 American service members and at least 169 Afghan civilians. Three days later, on August 29, a U.S. drone strike targeted a white Toyota Corolla, believed to be linked to a terror network. Tragically, the strike killed 10 innocent Afghan civilians, including seven children. The official explanation cited inaccurate intelligence interpretation.

While it’s not definitively proven that Gotham or Maven were directly involved in targeting that specific vehicle due to classified reports, Palantir had been working for years on integrating this type of threat identification into the U.S. military’s drone program. Their goal was to streamline decision-making and speed up the process from identifying a threat to eliminating it.

These factors – Thiel’s views, the company’s name and origins, its early funding, and its role in AI-powered targeting systems – likely contribute to why many people view Palantir with suspicion. The company’s involvement in predictive policing and plans to compile data on millions of Americans are also significant concerns that warrant further discussion.

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