Palantir Technologies

Palantir Technologies is a public American software company that specializes in big data analytics. It was founded by Peter Thiel, Nathan Gettings, Joe Lonsdale, Stephen Cohen, and Alex Karp in 2003. Palantir’s name is derived from The Lord of the Rings where the magical palantír were indestructible balls of crystal used for communication and to see events in other parts of the world. The company was valued at USD 9 billion in early 2014.

About Palantir Technologies in brief

Summary Palantir TechnologiesPalantir Technologies is a public American software company that specializes in big data analytics. It was founded by Peter Thiel, Nathan Gettings, Joe Lonsdale, Stephen Cohen, and Alex Karp in 2003. Palantir’s name is derived from The Lord of the Rings where the magical palantír were indestructible balls of crystal used for communication and to see events in other parts of the world. The company was valued at USD 9 billion in early 2014. In 2018, Morgan Stanley valued the company at USD 6 billion. In July 2020, it was revealed the company had filed for an IPO. It ultimately went public in a direct public offering on September 30, 2020. In January 2015, the company wasvalued at USD 15 billion after an undisclosed round of funding with USD 50 million in November 2014. This valuation rose to USD 20 billion in late 2015 as the company closed an USD 880 million round of Funding. Palantsir’s original clients were federal agencies of the USIC. It has since expanded its customer base to serve state and local governments, as well as private companies in the financial and healthcare industries. In April 2010, PalantIR announced a partnership with Thomson Reuters to sell the product Q Studio. In June 2010, Vice President Joe Biden credited the success of Palantsi to fighting fraud in the stimulus by the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board. In 2009 and 2010 respectively, Information Warfare Monitor used Palantirs software to uncover the GhostNet and the Shadow Network. The GhostNet was a China-based cyber network targeting various countries, including the Dalai Lama’s office, a NATO office, and various national embassies.

The Shadow Network was also used to hack into the Indian defense apparatus and steal documents related to Indian cyber security. On June 18, 2010, Peter Orzag, the Vice President of the Office of Management and Budget Director, held a press conference at the White House announcing the success to fight fraud in stimulus by Palentsi. In October 2018, the Wall Street Journal reported that Palentir was considering an IPO in the first half of 2019 following a USD 41 billion valuation. As of December 2014, Peter Thiel was Palantira’s largest shareholder. Thiel bankrolled the creation of a prototype by PayPal engineer Nathan. Gettings and Stanford University students Joe Londale and Stephen Cohen in 2004. The only early investments were USD 2 million from the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency’s venture capital arm In-Q-Tel, and USD 30 million from Thiel himself and his venture capital firm, Founders Fund. In 2004, Thiel saw Palantiral as a \”mission-oriented company\” which could apply software similar to PayPal’s fraud recognition systems to \”reduce terrorism while preserving civil liberties\”. The company developed its technology by computer scientists and analysts from intelligence agencies over three years, through pilots facilitated by In- Q-Tel. In 2008, Palantser developed a product called Q Studio that allows users to search data from many sources, called augmentation.