Recent from talks
Palantir Technologies
Knowledge base stats:
Talk channels stats:
Members stats:
Palantir Technologies
Palantir Technologies Inc. is an American publicly traded company specializing in software platforms for data. Headquartered in Denver, Colorado, it was founded in 2003 by Peter Thiel, Stephen Cohen, Joe Lonsdale, Alex Karp, and Nathan Gettings.
The company has four main operating systems: Palantir Gotham, Palantir Foundry, Palantir Apollo, and Palantir AIP. Palantir Gotham is an intelligence tool used by police in many countries as a predictive policing system and by militaries and counter-terrorism analysts, including the United States Intelligence Community (USIC) and United States Department of Defense. Its software as a service (SaaS) is one of five offerings authorized for Mission Critical National Security Systems (IL5) by the U.S. Department of Defense. Palantir Foundry has been used for data integration and analysis by corporate clients such as Morgan Stanley, Merck KGaA, Airbus, Wejo, Lilium, PG&E and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles. Palantir Apollo is a platform to facilitate continuous integration/continuous delivery (CI/CD) across all environments.
Palantir's original clients were federal agencies of the USIC. It has since expanded its customer base to serve both international, state, and local governments, and also private companies.
Palantir's software aims to streamline data analysis rather than control data itself, but privacy concerns persist. Some criticize the company for its involvement in expanding government surveillance through AI and facial recognition technologies. Some have raised concerns about its contracts under the Trump administration, which allegedly facilitated deportations and enabled the aggregation of sensitive data on Americans. Supporters counter that Palantir does not collect or store data itself but rather provides software that helps clients analyze data they already possess, while clients retain control and rights over their own information.
Palantir was founded in 2003. Thiel named the startup after the "seeing stone" in Tolkien's legendarium. Likewise, Palantir's office locations have names from Tolkien: The Shire (Palo Alto, California), Rivendell (McLean, Virginia), and Minas Tirith (Washington, D.C.). In 2013, Thiel said Palantir was a "mission-oriented company" that could apply software similar to PayPal's fraud recognition systems to "reduce terrorism while preserving civil liberties". Asked what the secret of its success was, Karp said that he and Thiel pursued a "classic German approach" when founding the company, influenced by the idea of overcoming opposites via the Hegelian dialectic.
In 2004, Thiel bankrolled the creation of a prototype by PayPal engineer Nathan Gettings and Stanford University students Joe Lonsdale and Stephen Cohen. The same year, Thiel hired Alex Karp, a former colleague of his from Stanford Law School, as chief executive officer.
There are several versions of the story of the company's founding. According to Gilman Louie, head of In-Q-Tel (a venture capital corporation associated with the CIA and the intelligence community), after Thiel recruited Karp, the two founders came to him with some ideas but no clear problem to solve. After hearing his suggestions, they did a mock-up in two weeks. According to Anthony King, the FBI first recognized the success of PayPal's fraud detection system (named "Igor", after a Russian who was one of the company's most consistent abusers) and requested it for the agency's work in detecting financial crime. Palantir evolved from that software when Thiel proposed the company to Karp and Cohen. According to Wired, in 2004, Thiel and Karp met John Poindexter, a Department of Defense official who recognized their "interesting idea" and helped them gather "a legion of advocates from the most influential strata of government". They then tried to recruit investors, but no one in Silicon Valley wanted to back an "expensive software platform for large organizations", and "The government was unpopular in Silicon Valley". But an investor who turned them down recommended them to In-Q-Tel, which decided to invest the relatively small sum of £1.3 million but helped them get in touch with prospective users. The contact with In-Q-Tel also incidentally led to interest from another backer, Reed Elsevier (later REV).
According to Karp, Sequoia Capital chairman Michael Moritz doodled through an entire meeting, and a Kleiner Perkins executive lectured the founders about the company's inevitable failure.
Hub AI
Palantir Technologies AI simulator
(@Palantir Technologies_simulator)
Palantir Technologies
Palantir Technologies Inc. is an American publicly traded company specializing in software platforms for data. Headquartered in Denver, Colorado, it was founded in 2003 by Peter Thiel, Stephen Cohen, Joe Lonsdale, Alex Karp, and Nathan Gettings.
The company has four main operating systems: Palantir Gotham, Palantir Foundry, Palantir Apollo, and Palantir AIP. Palantir Gotham is an intelligence tool used by police in many countries as a predictive policing system and by militaries and counter-terrorism analysts, including the United States Intelligence Community (USIC) and United States Department of Defense. Its software as a service (SaaS) is one of five offerings authorized for Mission Critical National Security Systems (IL5) by the U.S. Department of Defense. Palantir Foundry has been used for data integration and analysis by corporate clients such as Morgan Stanley, Merck KGaA, Airbus, Wejo, Lilium, PG&E and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles. Palantir Apollo is a platform to facilitate continuous integration/continuous delivery (CI/CD) across all environments.
Palantir's original clients were federal agencies of the USIC. It has since expanded its customer base to serve both international, state, and local governments, and also private companies.
Palantir's software aims to streamline data analysis rather than control data itself, but privacy concerns persist. Some criticize the company for its involvement in expanding government surveillance through AI and facial recognition technologies. Some have raised concerns about its contracts under the Trump administration, which allegedly facilitated deportations and enabled the aggregation of sensitive data on Americans. Supporters counter that Palantir does not collect or store data itself but rather provides software that helps clients analyze data they already possess, while clients retain control and rights over their own information.
Palantir was founded in 2003. Thiel named the startup after the "seeing stone" in Tolkien's legendarium. Likewise, Palantir's office locations have names from Tolkien: The Shire (Palo Alto, California), Rivendell (McLean, Virginia), and Minas Tirith (Washington, D.C.). In 2013, Thiel said Palantir was a "mission-oriented company" that could apply software similar to PayPal's fraud recognition systems to "reduce terrorism while preserving civil liberties". Asked what the secret of its success was, Karp said that he and Thiel pursued a "classic German approach" when founding the company, influenced by the idea of overcoming opposites via the Hegelian dialectic.
In 2004, Thiel bankrolled the creation of a prototype by PayPal engineer Nathan Gettings and Stanford University students Joe Lonsdale and Stephen Cohen. The same year, Thiel hired Alex Karp, a former colleague of his from Stanford Law School, as chief executive officer.
There are several versions of the story of the company's founding. According to Gilman Louie, head of In-Q-Tel (a venture capital corporation associated with the CIA and the intelligence community), after Thiel recruited Karp, the two founders came to him with some ideas but no clear problem to solve. After hearing his suggestions, they did a mock-up in two weeks. According to Anthony King, the FBI first recognized the success of PayPal's fraud detection system (named "Igor", after a Russian who was one of the company's most consistent abusers) and requested it for the agency's work in detecting financial crime. Palantir evolved from that software when Thiel proposed the company to Karp and Cohen. According to Wired, in 2004, Thiel and Karp met John Poindexter, a Department of Defense official who recognized their "interesting idea" and helped them gather "a legion of advocates from the most influential strata of government". They then tried to recruit investors, but no one in Silicon Valley wanted to back an "expensive software platform for large organizations", and "The government was unpopular in Silicon Valley". But an investor who turned them down recommended them to In-Q-Tel, which decided to invest the relatively small sum of £1.3 million but helped them get in touch with prospective users. The contact with In-Q-Tel also incidentally led to interest from another backer, Reed Elsevier (later REV).
According to Karp, Sequoia Capital chairman Michael Moritz doodled through an entire meeting, and a Kleiner Perkins executive lectured the founders about the company's inevitable failure.