Palantir
American software company that develops data-integration, analytics, artificial-intelligence, and operational decision-support platforms for governments and businesses.
Last updated November 4, 2026
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Overview
Palantir Technologies is an American software company whose platforms combine data integration, analytics, artificial intelligence, and operational workflows. Founded in 2003 by Peter Thiel, Stephen Cohen, Joe Lonsdale, Alex Karp, and Nathan Gettings, the company initially focused on applying software techniques associated with PayPal's fraud-detection work to intelligence and national-security problems. Its name refers to the seeing stones in J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium, reflecting the company's emphasis on giving analysts a unified view across fragmented information sources. Palantir's core products are Gotham, Foundry, Apollo, and the Artificial Intelligence Platform, commonly known as AIP. Gotham was developed for defense, intelligence, and public-sector use. It allows authorized users to connect disparate datasets, investigate entities and relationships, conduct geospatial analysis, generate alerts, and support operational decisions. Foundry is aimed primarily at commercial organizations and civil government users, providing tools to organize data, construct analytical applications, and embed models and workflows into business operations. Apollo provides the deployment and software-delivery layer that allows Palantir applications to run and be updated across cloud, on-premises, classified, and other constrained environments. AIP adds generative-artificial-intelligence capabilities while retaining access controls, auditability, and customer-defined data policies. The company's early development was strongly influenced by U.S. intelligence customers and by In-Q-Tel, the CIA's venture-investment arm. Palantir argued that software should augment human analysts rather than attempt to replace them: analysts could examine linked information from multiple systems while preserving customer control over the underlying data. This approach helped the company expand from intelligence and defense into fraud detection, health care, manufacturing, energy, aerospace, transportation, finance, and other sectors. Customers and users cited in public reporting have included U.S. federal agencies, state and local governments, international organizations, military bodies, and companies such as Morgan Stanley, Merck KGaA, Airbus, Wejo, Lilium, PG&E, and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles. Government work has remained central to Palantir's identity and revenue profile. Its software has supported military and intelligence operations, public-health logistics, federal-fraud analysis, vaccine allocation, and other government programs. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Palantir Foundry was used in several health and vaccination-data initiatives, including work associated with the United Kingdom's National Health Service and the U.S. National COVID Cohort Collaborative. The company has also secured contracts with defense and homeland-security agencies, including large software agreements with the U.S. Department of Defense and the U.S. Navy. Palantir became publicly traded through a direct listing on the New York Stock Exchange in September 2020, later transferring its listing to Nasdaq in November 2024. It was added to the S&P 500 in 2024. The company reported its first quarter of positive GAAP net income in the first quarter of 2023, after years of operating losses and substantial investment in product development and customer deployment. Its rapid market-value growth, especially during the artificial-intelligence boom, has attracted both investor enthusiasm and criticism concerning valuation. Palantir is also controversial. Civil-liberties groups and journalists have criticized its work with immigration, policing, intelligence, defense, and other government agencies, arguing that its technology can facilitate surveillance, predictive policing, facial-recognition analysis, and the aggregation of sensitive personal information. Supporters and company executives respond that Palantir generally provides software and services to analyze data collected by customers, while customers retain control and responsibility for the data and its lawful use. The company's public positioning therefore combines national-security and pro-government commitments with claims about privacy controls, auditability, and human accountability.
History
Palantir was established in 2003 with financing and strategic backing from Peter Thiel. Its founding team included Thiel, Stephen Cohen, Joe Lonsdale, Alex Karp, and Nathan Gettings. The company's early concept drew on PayPal-related fraud-detection experience but redirected that model toward intelligence analysis and national security. Alex Karp became chief executive, and the company worked closely with intelligence analysts to refine a system that could connect otherwise isolated databases while keeping human investigators in the decision loop. The company attracted limited conventional venture interest in its earliest years. Thiel and associated funds financed much of the initial development, while In-Q-Tel invested approximately $2 million. Palantir raised a Series A round in 2006 and a Series B round later that year. Rather than giving investors extensive board control, the company maintained an unusual degree of founder influence. Its early work included analysis related to terrorism, Somali piracy, Hezbollah, cyber threats, and financial fraud. The company promoted the idea of intelligence augmentation: software could surface relationships and patterns, but trained analysts would interpret them and respond to changing adversaries. Palantir expanded beyond its intelligence origins during the early 2010s. In 2010 it partnered with Thomson Reuters to market a quantitative-analysis product under the name QA Studio. That same year, the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board highlighted Palantir-supported fraud-detection work involving U.S. stimulus programs. The system was subsequently discussed for use in other federal programs, including Medicare and Medicaid. These public-sector deployments helped establish Palantir as a provider of operational software rather than merely a data-visualization vendor. From 2013 through 2017, the company raised substantial private capital and became closely associated with U.S. government technology procurement. Publicly reported customers or users included the CIA, Department of Homeland Security, NSA, FBI, CDC, U.S. Marine Corps, U.S. Air Force, Special Operations Command, and other government or nonprofit organizations. Its government relationships were not uniformly smooth: reporting described disagreements with agencies over procurement, publicity, technical fit, and the distinction between intelligence disciplines. At the same time, Palantir expanded its commercial business and acquired Kimono Labs in 2016 and Silk in 2016, adding capabilities related to web data collection and visualization. Palantir's principal software families took clearer shape during this period. Gotham became the company's defense and intelligence platform, while Foundry was developed for companies and civil-government organizations. Apollo was built to manage continuous integration, continuous delivery, and software deployment across diverse environments, including restricted and classified systems. These products helped Palantir sell a common software architecture to customers with very different technical conditions. The company became involved in pandemic response from 2020 onward. Palantir Foundry supported health-data analysis and operational planning in the United States and United Kingdom, while the company also developed Tiberius, a system associated with U.S. vaccine allocation. Palantir moved its headquarters from Palo Alto to Denver in 2020, presenting the relocation as a rejection of Silicon Valley's cultural and institutional dominance. In September 2020 it completed a direct listing on the New York Stock Exchange. After listing, Palantir emphasized commercial expansion, artificial intelligence, and large government contracts. It introduced AIP as a way to connect generative AI models with customer-controlled data and workflows under permissioning and audit controls. The company reported positive non-GAAP net income in the fourth quarter of 2022 and its first positive GAAP net income in the first quarter of 2023. In 2024 it entered the S&P 500 and moved its stock listing to Nasdaq. Public reporting also described substantial defense awards, including a nearly $1 billion Navy software contract. Palantir's valuation rose sharply during the AI investment cycle, although commentators questioned whether its market value was supported by its revenue scale and profitability. The company has continued to be defined by the tension between its growth as an AI and enterprise-software provider and the ethical controversy surrounding government surveillance, policing, immigration, military operations, and the use of sensitive data.
- 2024
S&P 500 inclusion and Nasdaq transfer
[1]Palantir joins the S&P 500 and later transfers its stock listing from the NYSE to Nasdaq.
- 2023
First positive GAAP quarter
[1]Palantir reports positive GAAP net income for the first quarter of 2023.
- 2020
Headquarters move and public listing
[1]Palantir moves its headquarters to Denver and becomes publicly traded through a direct listing on the New York Stock Exchange.
- 2020
COVID-19 response work
[1]Foundry and related systems support pandemic data analysis, health-system operations, and vaccine-allocation efforts.
- 2016
Acquisitions of Kimono Labs and Silk
[1]Palantir acquires Kimono Labs and Silk, expanding capabilities related to web data collection and data visualization.
- 2013
Major government customer base becomes public
[1]Reporting identifies a broad set of U.S. government users and customers, including intelligence, defense, health, and law-enforcement organizations.
- 2010
Government fraud-detection deployment
[1]The Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board credits Palantir-supported analytics in its work to identify suspected stimulus-program fraud.
- 2008
Gotham is released
[1]Palantir Gotham emerges as a defense and intelligence platform for connecting data, conducting investigations, and supporting operational analysis.
- 2006
Early venture financing
[1]Palantir raises early institutional financing through Series A and Series B rounds while retaining strong founder influence.
- 2003
Palantir is founded
[1]Peter Thiel, Stephen Cohen, Joe Lonsdale, Alex Karp, and Nathan Gettings establish Palantir to develop data-analysis technology for intelligence and security applications.
Products and positioning
A mission-oriented enterprise and government software provider focused on integrating complex data, supporting human-led analysis, and deploying artificial-intelligence applications in sensitive operational environments.
Defense and intelligence software · 2008
Palantir Gotham
Gotham is Palantir's platform for defense, intelligence, and other sensitive public-sector operations. It helps authorized users integrate information from multiple systems, investigate entities and relationships, conduct geospatial analysis, configure alerts, and support mission planning. Public reporting has associated Gotham with U.S. intelligence and defense organizations and with foreign military users, including Ukraine. Its use in policing and predictive-analytics contexts has generated debate about bias, surveillance, and accountability.
Enterprise and civil-government data platform
Palantir Foundry
Foundry is Palantir's principal platform for commercial companies and civil-government organizations. It organizes data from disparate operational systems and lets users build analytical applications, dashboards, models, and repeatable workflows. Foundry has been used in manufacturing, aerospace, finance, health care, energy, logistics, and public administration. Its pandemic-related deployments included health-data analysis, vaccination operations, and work associated with the National COVID Cohort Collaborative and NHS England.
Software deployment and delivery platform
Palantir Apollo
Apollo is Palantir's continuous-delivery and deployment platform. It enables Palantir software to be delivered, monitored, updated, and governed across public cloud, private infrastructure, on-premises systems, edge environments, and restricted or classified networks. Apollo is strategically important because it allows customers to maintain Palantir applications in operating environments where conventional cloud software delivery is difficult.
Generative artificial intelligence platform · 2023
Palantir Artificial Intelligence Platform
Palantir's Artificial Intelligence Platform, or AIP, connects large-language-model and other AI capabilities to customer data, applications, and operational processes. The product is designed around customer permissions, audit trails, controlled access, and human review. Palantir markets it for applications such as operational planning, manufacturing, defense, supply-chain management, and enterprise decision support rather than as a standalone consumer chatbot.
Public-health logistics software · 2020
Tiberius
Tiberius was developed for the U.S. government's COVID-19 vaccine-allocation effort. It helped combine information about vaccine supply, population needs, distribution capacity, and jurisdictional planning. The system illustrates Palantir's practice of adapting its data-integration technology to time-sensitive government logistics.
Controversies
2019
Controversy over U.S. immigration and government contracts
Palantir faced sustained criticism over contracts supporting U.S. immigration and homeland-security operations, particularly concerns that data-integration tools could facilitate deportation investigations and the aggregation of sensitive information. The controversy contributed to employee activism and wider debate about whether technology companies should serve immigration-enforcement agencies.
2018
Criticism over surveillance and predictive policing
Civil-liberties organizations and journalists criticized Palantir's work with police, immigration authorities, intelligence agencies, and defense organizations, arguing that its software could expand surveillance, enable predictive policing, and amplify racial or other systemic biases. Palantir disputed descriptions of its technology as inherently predictive policing and emphasized customer control over data and use.
Brand decisions
2024
Transfer of stock listing to NasdaqOtherBackground
Palantir remained publicly traded after its NYSE direct listing and sought to change its primary exchange.
Action taken
The company announced that its Class A common stock would begin trading on the Nasdaq Global Select Market on November 26, 2024.
Aftermath
The stock continued to trade under the PLTR symbol.
2023
Launch of the Artificial Intelligence PlatformProduct launchBackground
The rapid adoption of generative AI created demand for systems that could connect language models to enterprise data and controlled operational workflows.
Action taken
Palantir introduced AIP as a governed interface between generative AI models, customer data, and business or government processes.
Aftermath
AIP became a central part of Palantir's commercial and government growth narrative and product strategy.
2020
Move headquarters from Silicon Valley to DenverStrategyBackground
Palantir sought to distance itself from Silicon Valley's technology culture and its assumptions about how society and institutions should be organized.
Action taken
The company moved its headquarters from Palo Alto, California, to Denver, Colorado.
Aftermath
Denver became the company's principal headquarters for the following years, before the company later announced plans to relocate to Miami.
2020
Direct listing on the New York Stock ExchangeOtherBackground
After years of private financing and earlier reluctance to pursue an IPO, Palantir chose a public-market route that did not use a conventional underwritten initial public offering.
Action taken
Palantir completed a direct listing in September 2020 under the ticker PLTR.
Aftermath
The company gained public-market access and later transferred its listing to Nasdaq in 2024.
Recent events
Palantir reports third-quarter 2026 results[3]
Reported:
Palantir reported third-quarter revenue of $2.313 billion and adjusted earnings per share of $0.44; the article says both exceeded Wall Street estimates.
Palantir raises full-year revenue outlook[3]
Reported:
Palantir raised its full-year revenue outlook to between $8.530 billion and $8.534 billion and increased its US commercial sales target to more than $3.559 billion.
HD Hyundai Robotics and Palantir partner on physical AI solutions[4]
Reported:
HD Hyundai Robotics said it partnered with Palantir Technologies to develop physical artificial intelligence solutions. Palantir will use its AI platform to help HD Hyundai Robotics identify new business opportunities.
Customers Bank announces collaboration with Palantir Technologies to deploy AI in deposit onboarding[5]
Reported:
Customers Bank, the subsidiary of Customers Bancorp Inc., announced a collaboration with Palantir Technologies Inc. under which the bank will deploy Palantir's Foundry and Artificial Intelligence Platform (AIP) to reimagine its deposit onboarding experience, with Palantir engineers working alongside the bank's in-house AI engineering and technology teams.
Goldman Sachs upgrades Palantir to Buy with $230 price target[6]
Reported:
Goldman Sachs upgraded its rating on Palantir Technologies' stock to buy from neutral and set a 12-month price target of $230, implying about 18% upside from Thursday's close. Analyst Gabriela Borges cited the shift to sovereign AI and bespoke applications, Palantir's forward deployed engineering model, and early-stage enterprise AI adoption as sources of further upside for the company.
Weekdays and relative dates follow the original report; their exact calendar dates have not been verified.
- Unconfirmed
Satellogic and Palantir announce strategic partnership[7]
Satellogic announced a five-year strategic partnership with Palantir. Satellogic will use Palantir's Foundry platform, and Palantir's government and commercial customers will have access to Satellogic's Aleph platform APIs.
Merck and Palantir partner on Athinia platform[8]
Reported:
Merck announced a partnership with Palantir Technologies to develop Athinia, a secure collaborative data analytics platform for the semiconductor industry.
United launches Eco-Skies Alliance with corporate participants[9]
Reported:
United Airlines launched the Eco-Skies Alliance program, under which more than a dozen global corporations will collectively contribute toward purchasing approximately 3.4 million gallons of sustainable aviation fuel during the year.
United Airlines announces Eco-Skies Alliance sustainable fuel plan[10]
Reported:
United Airlines said it had partnered with global firms in an Eco-Skies Alliance to finance the use this year of about 3.4 million gallons of low-carbon sustainable aviation fuel derived from trash.
IBM and Palantir partner on AI applications[11]
Reported:
IBM said it was teaming up with Palantir to combine IBM hybrid-cloud and AI technologies with Palantir data-analytics tools.
Showing the 10 most recent.
Sources14 sources
- 1Palantiren.wikipedia.org
- 2Palantir Technologies official websitepalantir.com
- 3Palantir公布2026年第三季度业绩aol.com
- 4HD Hyundai Robotics 与 Palantir 合作开发实体人工智能解决方案koreaherald.com
- 5Customers Bank 宣布与 Palantir Technologies 合作，将 AI 应用于存款开户流程thereporteronline.com
- 6高盛将Palantir评级上调至买入，目标价230美元cnbc.com
- 7Satellogic 与 Palantir 宣布战略合作itbusinessnet.com
- 8默克与Palantir合作打造Athinia平台chinatimes.com
- 9United与企业参与方推出Eco-Skies Alliancebreakingtravelnews.com
- 10美联航宣布Eco-Skies Alliance可持续航空燃料计划engadget.com
- 11IBM与Palantir合作开发人工智能应用siliconangle.com
- 12Apple shares slide after weak margin outlook; Palantir slumps 6% after earningscnbc.com
- 13Palantir Q3营收翻倍，商业收入首超政府收入，全年指引上调- DoNewsdonews.com
- 14Stocks making the biggest moves premarket: Pfizer, Apple, Palantir, Zebra Technologies & morecnbc.com
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