General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThe Most Terrifying Company in America You've Never Heard Of
Most Americans have never heard of Palantir. Thats by design. It doesnt make phones or social platforms. It doesnt beg for your data with bright buttons or discount codes. Rather, it just takes it. Quietly. Legally. Systematically. Palantir is a back-end beast, the silent spine of modern surveillance infrastructure.
Palantirs influence isnt hypothetical. Its operational. From the battlefields of Ukraine to the precincts of Los Angeles, its software guides drone strikes, predicts crime, allocates police resources, and even helps governments decide which children might someday become threats. These arent sci-fi hypotheticals. They are pilot programs, already integrated, already scaling.
This softwareGotham, Foundry, and now its Artificial Intelligence Platform (AIP)is designed to swallow everything: hospital records, welfare files, license plate scans, school roll calls, immigration logs and even your tweets. It stitches these fragments into something eerily completea unified view of you. With each data point, the image sharpens.
If Facebook turned people into products, Palantir turns them into probabilities. Youre not a user. Youre a variablerun through predictive models, flagged for anomalies, and judged in silence.
This is not just surveillance. Its prediction. And that distinction matters: Surveillance watches. Prediction acts. It assigns probabilities. It flags anomalies. It escalates risk. And it trains bureaucrats and law enforcement to treat those algorithmic suspicions as fact. In short: the software decides, and people follow.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-most-terrifying-company-in-america-is-probably-one-youve-never-heard-of/
I've known about them for awhile...have you?

CaliforniaPeggy
(154,063 posts)D_Master81
(2,085 posts)I saw the headline and thought I bet its palentir. Still not really sure what it is they do but they were a big meme stock in 2021 so I looked into them.
TheProle
(3,381 posts)erronis
(19,933 posts)I knew then that they would be up to no good, except enriching themselves.
SharonAnn
(14,053 posts)InsLaw was the first software that I knew of (in the 1980s?) that scanned data files from various sources and tied together related entries. Scared even back then. Now with Musks theft of all our data in government files the new generation, Palantir, is absolutely terrifying.
UpInArms
(52,833 posts)EVIL EVIL EVIL
eta
The Man Whos Everywhere: 7 Peter Thiel Companies
Peter Thiel is a powerful but low-profile figure in tech and politics, with significant investments in major companies like Palantir, PayPal, Meta, and OpenAI.
Thiels investments and political affiliations have positioned him as a key behind-the-scenes player in the U.S. government.
His network extends deep into the White House, with key allies like JD Vance and David Sacks holding influential roles in Trumps administration.
As of 2025, Thiels net worth exceeds $20 billion, fueled by his early exits from PayPal and Facebook and ongoing tech investments.
Peter Thiel has long been a shadowy yet dominant figure in the tech world, wielding influence across a vast network of companies that are shaping the modern digital landscape. While he is less outspoken than figures like Elon Musk or Jeff Bezos, his strategic investments and political connections make him one of the most powerful individuals in technology and politics.
Thiel was an early backer of Donald Trump in 2016 and remains closely aligned with figures like Vice President JD Vance. More recently, despite a publicized fallout with Trump, he is rumored to have indirect ties to the DOGE government takeover.
To truly grasp Thiels influence, one must examine his investments and affiliations. In this article, well explore the major tech companies in which Peter Thiel has played a crucial role, either as an investor, founder, or board member.
Palantir Technologies PLTR Alex Karp Data Analytics & Artificial Intelligence
PayPal PYPL Alex Chriss Financial Technology
Meta META Mark Zuckerberg Social Media & Advertising
OpenAI N/A Sam Altman Artificial Intelligence
Stripe N/A Patrick Collison Financial Technology
Anduril Industries N/A Brian Schimpf Military AI & Autonomous Defense
Rumble RUM Chris Pavlovski Social Media & Video Hosting
Glaisne
(573 posts)He is a behind the scenes fascist architect. He is a POS asshole that more people need to know about. He's a big reason for Trump and our growing fascist authoritarianism.
lostnfound
(17,000 posts)Snarkoleptic
(6,135 posts)Tech broligarchs want all of your information.
SharonAnn
(14,053 posts)lostnfound
(17,000 posts)defacto7
(14,068 posts)GoneOffShore
(17,808 posts)bucolic_frolic
(50,616 posts)Rec'd by Kathy Wood, hedge fund guru, disciple of Arthur Laffer, Reagan econ guy. Heritage, Hoover area, I think.
Bo Zarts
(26,014 posts)
aggiesal
(10,056 posts)They visited the company I work for. I was part of the Demo team.
Iamscrewed
(337 posts)Known for a while.
DENVERPOPS
(12,390 posts)along a theme of "NO MORE SECRETS" ? May be with Redford and Ben Kingsley??????? I will have to look it up on IMDB
Looked it up: SNEAKERS...........1992
Too Many Secrets spelled out with Scrabble pieces.
Redford, Kingsley, Sidney Poitier.
Prairie_Seagull
(4,213 posts)Thanks Jilly, I think.
Scary shit and the genie is free never to be put back in the bottle.
IMO
MiHale
(11,728 posts)Palantir Technologies Inc. is an American publicly-traded company that specializes in software platforms for big data analytics. Headquartered in Denver, Colorado, it was founded by Peter Thiel, Stephen Cohen, Joe Lonsdale, and Alex Karp in 2003.
Source Wikipedia.
Auggie
(32,308 posts)Partial list:
AARP
AT&T
Heineken
United Airlines
Lowe's
Fujitsu
Panasonic Energy North America
Walgreens
General Mills
Lennar
Archer Aviation
Tampa General Hospital
Eaton
HCA Healthcare
Wendy's Supply Chain CO-OP
L3Harris
https://www.palantir.com
Thanks for sharing
calimary
(86,496 posts)No - GREAT info!!!
Palantir: a back-end beast, the silent spine of modern surveillance infrastructure.
BobTheSubgenius
(12,013 posts)Person Of Interest. I guess the show wasn't so sci-fi, but more predictive.
Karasu
(1,264 posts)them in recent years. Hell, the media in this country pretends they don't fucking exist.
Glaisne
(573 posts)Anyone who is not white, male, christian nationalist, fascist, rich, and connected. And even then still not above suspicion. In other words almost everyone except a select few.
lonely bird
(2,334 posts)The anomalies will be those who dont subscribe to the Techbros idea of utopia. The White, Christian Nationalists, fascists et al will be useful fellow travelers
until they are not.
The two tier society is being cemented into place.
The Techbros and fellow traveler wealth will need service and diversions. A small percentage of people will supply that. There will be a rank that falls between the tiers. That will be middle management which will handle the underlying infrastructure of said society. Everyone else will be below.
Aviation Pro
(14,355 posts)Tells me all I need to know.
Henry203
(583 posts)I would see them at shows. They never made it.
highplainsdem
(56,294 posts)Palantir's Plan for AI: 'Just Take the Whole Market' (including for military weapons)
https://www.democraticunderground.com/100217901033
Palantir's CEO uses NYT op-ed to take a swipe at "coastal elites" not eager to work on AI weapons
https://www.democraticunderground.com/100218118031
Palantir Is Helping DOGE With a Massive IRS Data Project
https://www.democraticunderground.com/10143438974
ICE Just Paid Palantir Tens of Millions for 'Complete Target Analysis of Known Populations'
https://www.democraticunderground.com/10143441857
And I've posted several threads on Palantir cofounder and chairman Peter Thiel's craziness and racism.
dalton99a
(88,710 posts)multigraincracker
(35,734 posts)The hidden influence of the world's most powerful consulting firm..Even some of our favorite Dems worked for them and signed NDAs so they can't talk about it.
Highly recommend it too.
BadgerMom
(3,207 posts)Another product of the South African crew.
wolfie001
(5,071 posts)
Martin Eden
(14,389 posts)These spheres allowed the users to see things and communicate at great distances.
Aptly named.
dlk
(12,646 posts)Eerie, to be sure.
Joinfortmill
(18,135 posts)malaise
(284,617 posts)Rec
dalton99a
(88,710 posts)Journeyman
(15,334 posts)TheRickles
(2,766 posts)Karasu
(1,264 posts)OverBurn
(1,223 posts)GiqueCee
(2,289 posts)... that they stole their name from J.J.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, but it's appropriate that it was a tool of Sauron's bottomless evil. Unfortunately, this time the evil is real, not fantasy.
soldierant
(8,576 posts)but was, like everything else Sauron touched, corrupted by him. (Gee, who have I heard that about recently?)
I learned about them a couple of weeks ago, and my first thought was that if I were Christopher Tolkien I would be doing my best to sue the pants off them for contaminating my father's legacy.
CaptainTruth
(7,673 posts)I've been watching them for a while.
With Trump in office their stock is up 64% year to date. It's been an attractive investment but I've refused to buy any because I don't like what they do.
Damn shame, Trump has been hard on my IRA.
EuterpeThelo
(48 posts)shaming one of the attorneys I worked with a couple of years ago when he went over there. Been aware of them since at least 2019.
justaprogressive
(3,893 posts)about the scurvy little spiders...