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20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Palantir Technologies.md
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@ -12,10 +12,10 @@ tags:
- ICE
- CIA
- In-Q-Tel
summary: "Palantir Technologies is a data-analytics and defense contractor cofounded in 2003 by Peter Thiel, Alex Karp, Joe Lonsdale, Stephen Cohen, and Nathan Gettings with CIA In-Q-Tel seed funding, that supplies data-integration platforms to U.S. intelligence, the Department of Defense, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement."
summary: "Palantir Technologies is a data-analytics and defense contractor cofounded in 2003 by Peter Thiel, Alex Karp, Joe Lonsdale, Stephen Cohen and Nathan Gettings with In-Q-Tel seed funding, supplying U.S. intelligence, defense and ICE."
location: "Denver, Colorado (headquarters)"
created: 2026-06-17
updated: 2026-06-17
updated: 2026-10-14
---
Palantir Technologies is an American data-analytics and software company founded in 2003 by [[Peter Thiel]], [[Alex Karp]], [[Joe Lonsdale|Joseph Lonsdale]], [[Stephen Cohen]], and [[Nathan Gettings]]. The company builds data-integration and decision-support platforms for government and commercial clients, and is structured around two principal products: [[Palantir Gotham|Gotham]], oriented to intelligence and defense users, and [[Palantir Foundry|Foundry]], oriented to commercial enterprises. The company received early institutional backing from the [[Central Intelligence Agency]] venture-capital arm [[In-Q-Tel]], and Thiel has served as chairman since founding. The company went public on the [[New York Stock Exchange]] in September 2020 under the ticker PLTR.[^1]
@ -28,6 +28,12 @@ Palantir was founded in 2003 in the aftermath of the [[September 11 attacks|9/11
The founding team included Lonsdale, then a recent [[Stanford University]] graduate who had worked at Thiel's [[Clarium Capital]], as a founding engineer. Cohen and Gettings rounded out the technical cofounding group. The [[PayPal Mafia]] lineage is direct: the fraud-detection heritage is consciously modeled on the anti-fraud data systems Thiel and [[Max Levchin]] built at [[PayPal]]. Palantir's data-fusion architecture for intelligence and law enforcement is an adaptation of the payments-fraud-detection architecture, the basis for the recurring internal claim that the company "does for governments what PayPal did for fraud."[^2]
### Founding Account in the 2020 Registration Statement
Palantir Technologies Inc.'s registration statement of August 25, 2020 states: "We were founded in 2003 and started building software for the intelligence community in the United States to assist in counterterrorism investigations and operations. We later began working with commercial enterprises."[^6] The filing describes Gotham, its first platform, as "constructed for analysts at defense and intelligence agencies."[^6] Among the government users it names are the U.S. Army, Navy and Air Force, U.S. Special Operations Command, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Department of Agriculture, the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Food and Drug Administration.[^7]
The filing states that Thiel "is one of our co-founders and has served as the Chairman of our Board of Directors since 2003," and that he has been a partner of Founders Fund since 2005. The PayPal name appears in the filing only in Thiel's biography, which states that he "served as Chief Executive Officer, President, and Chairman of its board of directors from 2000 until its acquisition by eBay in 2002."[^8] PayPal's 2001 registration statement describes its IGOR system, a fraud-detection program that "monitors account and transaction patterns in order to control our loss exposure once fraudulent funds enter the PayPal system."[^9]
### Gotham and the Intelligence Client Base
[[Gotham]] is Palantir's government platform, deployed across the Central Intelligence Agency, the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]], the Department of Defense, the [[National Security Agency|NSA]], and allied foreign intelligence services. The platform integrates structured and unstructured data from multiple source systems into a unified ontology, allowing analysts to query across what would otherwise be siloed databases. The company's early growth was driven by counterterrorism and defense contracting in the post-9/11 period, and Palantir was used in the operation that located [[Osama bin Laden]] in 2011, according to company and press accounts.[^1][^2]
@ -61,3 +67,7 @@ Gotham is marketed on Palantir's own website as supporting soldiers with an "AI-
[^3]: ICE FALCON contract documented through EPIC v. ICE FOIA litigation (https://epic.org/documents/epic-v-ice-palantir-databases/) and ICE contract HSCETC-15-C-00001 (https://www.ice.gov/doclib/foia/contracts/palantirTechHSCETC15C00001.pdf). For the smartphone raid app, see WNYC (https://www.wnyc.org/story/palantir-directly-powers-ice-workplace-raids-emails-show/). For ImmigrationOS, see Immigration Policy Tracking Project (https://immpolicytracking.org/policies/reported-palantir-awarded-30-million-to-build-immigrationos-surveillance-platform-for-ice/). For the ACLU analysis, see https://www.aclu.org/news/privacy-technology/palantir-deportation-roundup. For the Amnesty International briefing, see https://www.amnestyusa.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Amnest-International-Palantir-Briefing-Report-092520_Final.pdf.
[^4]: For the ELITE neighborhood-targeting app, see *404 Media* reporting. For the American Immigration Council analysis, see https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/blog/ice-immigrationos-palantir-ai-track-immigrants/.
[^5]: "Palantir, Israel Agree Strategic Partnership for Battle Tech." *Bloomberg,* January 12, 2024. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-01-12/palantir-israel-agree-to-strategic-partnership-for-battle-tech ; "Palantir supplying Israel with technology to help in war effort." *Calcalist CTech.* https://www.calcalistech.com/ctechnews/article/rymy7ret6 ; "Corbyn slams UK for deal with Israel-linked US tech giant Palantir." *Middle East Eye.* https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/corbyn-slams-uk-ps240m-deal-israeli-military-linked-tech-giant-palantir
[^6]: Palantir Technologies Inc. Form S-1 registration statement, August 25, 2020, "Overview." https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1321655/000119312520230013/d904406ds1.htm
[^7]: Palantir Technologies Inc. Form S-1, August 25, 2020, "Government," list of departments and agencies currently using the platforms. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1321655/000119312520230013/d904406ds1.htm
[^8]: Palantir Technologies Inc. Form S-1, August 25, 2020, "Management," biography of Peter Thiel. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1321655/000119312520230013/d904406ds1.htm
[^9]: PayPal, Inc. Form S-1 registration statement, filed September 28, 2001, "Business," subsection "Risk Management." https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1103415/000091205701533855/a2059025zs-1.htm