It’s been 5 years for the reason that budding tech large Palantir Applied sciences uprooted the corporate’s headquarters from Silicon Valley to Denver, hoping to plant itself within the rising tech hub and escape protests that had erupted each throughout the firm and outdoors its doorways.
Immigrant-rights advocacy teams had organized protests outdoors the corporate’s Palo Alto and New York workplaces, in addition to on the house of its CEO, Alexander Karp, who criticized the California coast’s “monoculture.” A College of California, Berkeley convention on privateness legislation dropped Palantir as a sponsor. Greater than 200 staff despatched a letter to Karp expressing their concern over the corporate’s contract with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which ostensibly centered on the company’s investigative arm however which activists alleged facilitated raids and deportation efforts.
Amid the upheaval, firm leaders shifted their eyes to the east, the place state financial officers pitched Colorado as a fast-growing and extremely educated purple state with a effervescent startup tradition and pro-business insurance policies.
“Colorado is a really sane and nice place,” Karp mentioned in 2022, in accordance with the Denver Enterprise Journal. “It’s very likable, very pragmatic, and (there are) lots of industrious, good those who additionally need to dwell in Colorado. It’s nice.”
Within the years since settling downtown, Palantir has been catapulted into the ranks of probably the most beneficial tech corporations within the nation. A number one information evaluation agency, it’s now decisively probably the most beneficial firm headquartered in Colorado, with a valuation of $437.2 billion as of Wednesday — price greater than the mixed totals of the 57 different Colorado-based public corporations tracked by JHB.
When it moved to the state, it had by no means turned a revenue. Final quarter, Palantir surpassed $1 billion in income. Karp lives in New Hampshire, but when he lived in Colorado, he would path solely Phil Anschutz because the state’s wealthiest resident.
The corporate’s valuation has drawn literal “wows” from Wall Avenue analysts. It’s additionally prompted some skepticism. Final week, the Economist ran a narrative headlined: “Palantir could be probably the most over-valued agency of all time.”
As the corporate’s profile has risen, the shoppers that performed an element in that progress have drawn growing nationwide — and native — scrutiny to the corporate. Its increasing contracts with ICE, its work with the American and Israeli militaries, and nationwide reporting about its ties to billionaire Elon Musk’s “Division of Authorities Effectivity” underneath the brand new Trump administration have prompted nationwide protests and near-weekly headlines.
Such issues sparked an open letter from a number of ex-employees and criticism from a United Nations official, they usually led Democratic senators and members of Congress to ship Karp a latest letter demanding solutions. WIRED lately referred to the corporate as “arguably one of the crucial infamous firms in modern America.”
The corporate, which didn’t reply to interview requests from The Publish final week, makes use of synthetic intelligence to course of and analyze huge quantities of information, providing every part from higher effectivity for airways to concentrating on help for the Ukrainian army.
Palantir has managed to marry two technological obsessions of the twenty first century — mass information assortment and the emergence of synthetic intelligence — with ever-growing wishes for effectivity and safety.
“Palantir has been arguably among the many — if not probably the most profitable firm, actually, at making use of these (synthetic intelligence) applied sciences, at scale, to large-scale information,” mentioned James Evans, a College of Chicago professor and director of the varsity’s Data Lab. He additionally works on AI know-how for Google.
“And that is why they’ve additionally come underneath scrutiny and controversy — due to what sort of information the federal government has in its possession.”
In an earnings name earlier this month, Karp, who has sought to border the corporate as pro-democracy and antiauthoritarian, reiterated its ethos: “America is the chief of the free world, that the West is superior, that we’ve to struggle for these values.”
What does Palantir do?
Palantir takes its identify from the crystal ball-like “seeing stones” from “The Lord of the Rings” collection, and the phrase itself interprets, from creator J.R.R. Tolkien’s personal Elvish language, to “people who watch from afar.”
Based as a form of security-focused offshoot of billionaire Peter Thiel‘s PayPal, Palantir fills a requirement created by corporations’ and governments’ large information collections amassed over the previous 20-odd years, Evans mentioned.
To authorities and business shoppers awash in details about clients, merchandise and residents, Palantir gives an answer. For a hefty price, it may take large, distinct datasets, mix them collectively and provide options to issues or “use instances” for what its clients can do with that information.
For an airplane producer like Airbus, the corporate’s work meant merging 400 datasets to extra rapidly repair manufacturing errors, saving a whole lot of tens of millions of {dollars}.
For well being officers speeding out vaccines through the pandemic, Palantir meant shut monitoring of distribution.
Nebraska Medication employed Palantir to make staffing suggestions and predict hospital mattress availability.
The U.S. Division of Protection tapped the corporate to establish probably hassle spots for troopers and to make use of AI to rapidly establish targets, and the Ukrainian army has used it for concentrating on, too.
Palantir has taken credit score for stopping terror assaults, and it has gained admirers within the army for its means to steer U.S. troops away from ambushes. It obtained preliminary funding from the Central Intelligence Company, and quite a lot of media shops have linked the corporate — with out affirmation — to the profitable seek for Osama Bin Laden, the mastermind of the Sept. 11 assaults.
Utilizing Palantir’s flagship program, legislation enforcement can centralize what they find out about an individual in a single place and seek for them utilizing traits like their immigration standing, their tattoos or their location, in accordance with experiences by WIRED and BuzzFeed.
That work is vital, Evans mentioned: As tech capabilities broaden, the federal government ought to have entry to AI software program of its personal. It’s unimaginable, in any other case, to watch for sure monetary collusion and crimes, he mentioned.
The corporate’s authorities work has spanned presidential administrations, and Karp, the CEO, has beforehand criticized now-President Donald Trump. However in accordance with the New York Instances, the corporate has obtained greater than $113 million in federal authorities spending since Trump took workplace, together with extra cash from established contracts in addition to new contracts with the Division of Homeland Safety and the Pentagon.
The Instances additionally reported that the corporate was employed to “compile information on Individuals” by merging info from completely different federal businesses in a single location.
The corporate mentioned in a weblog put up that the Instances’ reporting about its authorities contracts was replete with “falsehoods and deceptive statements” and that it started pursuing a few of its new contracts underneath the Biden administration. It mentioned it was not constructing a “grasp database undertaking” and to take action can be “basically at odds with Palantir’s values and our dedication to work in assist of liberal democracies.”
Although Evans famous that its ties to federal contracting are a core and longstanding a part of its enterprise, Palantir’s latest work has drawn extra scrutiny. Certainly, Trump thanked the corporate at a July AI summit.
“We purchase lots of issues from Palantir,” he mentioned.
Protests goal firm
Controversy has adopted Palantir’s work. 5 years after its ICE collaboration introduced protests to its doorways, Palantir has expanded its work with the company, agreeing to construct “ImmigrationOS” to trace the motion of immigrants within the nation.
In response to CNN, the corporate was tasked with serving to Trump’s DOGE initiative to construct a “large repository of information” that, amongst different issues, would assist establish individuals with civil immigration violations. Initially a undertaking of Musk’s, DOGE moved by a number of authorities businesses within the winter and fall in an effort to scale back spending and restrict authorities initiatives like overseas support.
The corporate’s work with the Trump administration prompted a bunch of former Palantir staff within the spring to write down an open letter criticizing the corporate.
Palantir additionally has drawn scrutiny for its ties with Israel, to which it agreed to supply new battlefield know-how in early 2024. Final month, the United Nations’ particular rapporteur on the Palestinian territories included Palantir on a listing of corporations that “revenue freely” from Israel’s army marketing campaign within the Gaza Strip and occupation of the West Financial institution.
The corporate has mentioned it’s happy with its work with Israel, in accordance with the Guardian. It held a board assembly in Israel’s capital in early 2024, and the corporate’s work in Gaza and the West Financial institution prompted one of many largest Norwegian buyers to dump its inventory final yr, Reuters reported.
Karp, the CEO, is a self-described progressive who’s donated primarily to Democrats, together with to former Vice President Kamala Harris final yr and to Colorado’s U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper and U.S. Rep. Jason Crow.
In a letter he wrote when the corporate went public, Karp framed Palantir as an energetic defender of the West. He mentioned it wouldn’t work with clients firm leaders thought of “inconsistent with our mission to assist Western liberal democracy and its strategic allies.” Although the corporate beforehand turned down a contract with Saudi Arabia over its human rights document, it introduced that it will “deepen its ties” with the nation in Could.
In his letter, Karp reaffirmed that the corporate’s software program “is used to focus on terrorists and to maintain troopers protected.”
“We’ve chosen sides,” he wrote, shortly after shifting to Denver.
The corporate has devoted a rising pile of cash to federal lobbying, in accordance with the Wall Avenue Journal. However lawmakers of each events have raised issues: In mid-June, a bunch of Democratic lawmakers wrote to Karp, alarmed by the New York Instances’ reporting about Palantir’s alleged work to create a “government-wide, searchable ‘mega-database’ “ of taxpayer data. A number of Republicans expressed related issues to Semafor.
The corporate’s efforts have sparked criticism amongst former staff, too. Juan Sebastián Pinto moved to Denver in 2021, on the lookout for a change from the work he did for promoting and structure companies. Then he acquired a job provide from Palantir as a content material strategist, to “assist the gross sales and technical groups categorical these complicated concepts and messaging,” he mentioned.
He labored with the corporate’s automotive groups — which means work with automobile corporations — and on protection.
Pinto mentioned he was involved concerning the “automated warfare” that Palantir was engaged on, in addition to the quantity of information automobile corporations have been gathering about their shoppers. He left and was one of many former staff who signed the open letter criticizing the corporate earlier this yr.
He’s additionally a part of a nascent protest effort to name consideration to Palantir in Denver and — as Hatem Teirelbar of Denver Anti-Conflict Motion put it — to copy what protesters in California achieved 5 years in the past. Final month, a small group of protesters marched by downtown, accusing Karp and Thiel of being child-killers and handing out fliers urging individuals to “get Palantir out of Denver.”
They ended on the firm’s headquarters, which is within the Tabor Heart on seventeenth Avenue. The constructing had already been closed and its courtyard cordoned off.
Teirelbar mentioned the purpose was to drive the corporate’s landlord to cease leasing to Palantir. Anecdotally, he mentioned, extra individuals appear to know concerning the firm now than in the beginning of the yr or in years previous.
“I can let you know identify recognition is way greater,” he mentioned. “We’ve gone from telling individuals who Palantir is and the place they’re, to only saying ‘Palantir’ — (and that) simply will get their curiosity.”
A rising workforce
Pinto linked the corporate’s presence within the state to deeper questions on Colorado’s identification and financial focus.
“We’ve to acknowledge what sort of legacy we depart behind as a state as we’re growing our identification,” Pinto mentioned. “And issues are taking place proper now that may have an effect on the remainder of the world — not solely rising AI weapons and concentrating on applied sciences, but in addition the combination of those applied sciences with the federal authorities, which is strictly why Palantir is right here.”
Because the firm’s transfer to Denver, Palantir’s international, full-time workforce has jumped to 4,164 as of June, up from roughly 2,400 in 2020, in accordance with federal safety filings. Along with Denver, the corporate has workplaces in political and cultural capitals the world over, together with Paris, Tokyo, London and Washington, D.C.
It’s additionally develop into a part of the state’s rising tech ecosystem, which incorporates workplaces for Google, Salesforce and Slack. In a June 2020 letter to Karp that urged a transfer to Denver, Gov. Jared Polis — whose wealth can also be a product of the early tech growth — highlighted the state’s emergence as “one of many prime science and know-how hubs in america.”
The governor’s workplace declined an interview request this week. In a press release, spokesman Conor Cahill mentioned the state is “all the time open to attracting extra corporations.”
“There are corporations in our state that some individuals like and others don’t,” he mentioned, “and that’s their proper.”
Denver Publish workers author Aldo Svaldi, the Related Press and the New York Instances contributed to this story.
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