Why You Should Be Concerned About Palantir’s Growing Influence 

One of the pronounced downsides of our increasingly technocratic status quo is that there are countless companies that you’ve never heard of wielding increasing amounts of power. Today we’re going to focus on a tech company that’s accelerating the surveillance state, compiling alarming amounts of data on damn near everybody, and progressively worming its way into world governments. 

This is Palantir. 

While it feels like the company came out of the blue, Palantir was founded in 2003 by venture capitalist Peter Thiel and Alex Karp. The company was founded in the wake of 9/11 and was intended to use its mass surveillance technologies to combat terrorism. 

So the first red flag for Palantir is that the company takes its name from the dark crystals used by Sauron and all the bad guys in The Lord of the Rings. It’s, sadly, a fitting name as the company has made surveillance a core part of its identity. 

It’s hard to really describe the full scale of what Palantir does. A cursory look at its website reveals that the company has fingers in government defense as well as the food and automotive industry. Their core product is essentially an algorithm that they feed data into to reveal patterns or where certain people are located. 

Peter Thiel has long fashioned himself as a billionaire Bond villain. Thiel is proudly anti-democracy, having once written that he can “no longer believe that freedom and democracy are compatible.” When asked in an interview if he thinks the human race should endure, Thiel hesitated and couldn’t even give a straight answer. 

The company’s other founder doesn’t do much better. Despite being a frequent donor to the Democratic Party, Karp also holds some anti-democratic values. Earlier this year, Karp posted a 22-point manifesto on X in which he called certain cultures “middling,” advocated against inclusion, and called for the draft to be reinstated.

Not to mention that Karp has displayed seriously erratic behavior during investor calls and interviews, leading many (myself included) to wonder how this guy is the public face of what is becoming one of the most powerful companies in the world. 

“Palantir is here to disrupt and make the institutions we partner with the very best in the world, and when it’s necessary to scare our enemies and, on occasion, kill them,” Karp said on an investor call.

So we’ve got people who are, at best, apathetic to humanity’s continued survival running a company that is increasingly gaining more and more influence within governments across the world. Love that for us. 

Palantir has not been coy about its influence on the American government. President Donald Trump’s military parade from last year (which honestly feels like a decade ago) was lined with banners displaying the company’s name and logo. Last year, Palantir secured a 10-year contract with the U.S. Army worth $10 billion to build a “comprehensive framework for the Army’s future software and data needs.” 

Palantir’s technologies are being used by several different departments within the federal government, raising concerns about how much data the federal government is collecting on civilians. Not to mention that Palantir has a wing dedicated exclusively to providing its technology to police departments throughout the country. Unsurprisingly, this has led to several criticisms that Palantir’s tools are being used to justify racist policing under the guise of data. 

Palantir’s software has been utilized by ICE in their widespread immigration crackdown. Palantir’s technologies have also been used to assist Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza. Karp said in an earnings call that he was “exceedingly proud that after Oct. 7, within weeks, we are on the ground and we are involved in operationally crucial operations in Israel.”

When we look at all the ills impacting both the United States and the world at large, Palantir seems to not only have a hand in them, but is profiting immensely from them. The bad guys are winning, and the federal government is lining their pockets. 

Welcome to the new normal, folks. 

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