Palantír Technologies Inc. part 1 - Origins (excerpts)
The palantíri (singular palantír), sometimes translated as “Seeing Stones,” were spherical, translucent “scrying” stones that could be used in communication and intelligence gathering. They could communicate with other Stones and anyone who might be looking into them. People of great power could manipulate the Stones to see to the far reaches of Middle-Earth.
-from J R R Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings”
Palantír Technologies Inc. is an American (publicly traded) company that develops data integration and analytics software (aka: surveillance technology). Headquartered in Miami, Florida, Palantir was founded with the help of the CIA in 2003 by Peter Thiel, Stephen Cohen, Joe Lonsdale, Alex Karp, and Nathan Gettings. Palantir’s customer base includes federal agencies, state and local governments, international organizations, and private companies.
In 2025, Wired Magazine reported that Palantir is arguably one of the most notorious corporations in contemporary America. Cofounded by libertarian tech billionaire Peter Thiel, the software firm’s work with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the US Department of Defense, and the Israeli military has sparked numerous protests in multiple countries. Palantir has been so infamous for so long that, for some people, its name has become a cultural shorthand for dystopian surveillance.
On election day, 2024… I posted am exposé of sorts, concerning the evil exploits of a antidemocratic, Big Tech movement known cryptically as NRx, the Neo-Reactionary Movement… aka: the Dark Enlightenment. In my article, Bought & Sold Presidency, I focused on Elon Musk, while warning that Thiel was likely playing the longer game. In order to better understand Peter Thiel, and the surveillance company he founded… let us take a look back at the origins of Thiel and Palantir Technologies, Inc.
The inquisitive reader will find the entire article on my SubStack page...
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