What Does Palantir Actually Do?

Palantir is arguably 1 of nan most notorious corporations successful modern America. Cofounded by libertarian tech billionaire Peter Thiel, nan package firm's activity with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, nan US Department of Defense, and nan Israeli military has sparked numerous protests successful multiple countries. Palantir has been truthful infamous for truthful agelong that, for immoderate people, its sanction has go a taste shorthand for dystopian surveillance.

But a number of erstwhile Palantir labor show WIRED they judge nan nationalist still mostly misunderstands what nan institution really does and really its package works. Some group deliberation it's a information agent that buys accusation from backstage companies and resells it to nan government. Others deliberation it’s a information miner, perpetually scanning nan net for unsocial insights it tin cod and marketplace to customers. Still others deliberation it maintains a giant, centralized database of accusation collected from each of its clients. In reality, Palantir does nary of these things, but nan misconceptions proceed to persist.

Palantir has tried to correct nan grounds itself successful a bid of blog posts pinch titles for illustration “Palantir Is Not a Data Company” and “Palantir Is Still Not a Data Company.” In nan latter, Palantir explains that “misconceptions tin originate because our products are complicated,” but nonetheless, “it is perfectly possible” to accurately picture them to “people who are curious.”

The problem, however, is that moreover ex-employees struggle to supply a clear explanation of nan company. “It's really difficult to explicate what Palantir useful connected aliases what it does,” says Linda Xia, who was an technologist astatine Palantir from 2022 to 2024. “Even arsenic personification who worked there, it's difficult to fig out, really do you springiness a cohesive explanation?”

Xia was 1 of 13 erstwhile Palantir staffers who signed an open letter published successful May arguing that nan institution risks being complicit successful authoritarianism by continuing to cooperate pinch nan Trump administration. She and different erstwhile Palantir staffers who said to WIRED for this communicative reason that, successful bid to grapple pinch Palantir and its domiciled successful nan world, fto unsocial clasp nan institution accountable, you request to first understand what it really is.

It’s not that erstwhile labor virtually don’t know what Palantir is selling. In interviews pinch WIRED, they said fluidly astir really its package tin link and toggle shape different kinds of information collected by authorities agencies and corporations. But erstwhile asked to, say, sanction its nonstop business competitors, 2 erstwhile Palantir labor who requested anonymity to speak freely astir their experiences, struggled to travel up pinch anything. “I still don't cognize really to reply that question, to beryllium honest,” says one.

Juan Sebastián Pinto, who worked arsenic a contented strategist astatine Palantir and besides signed nan unfastened letter, says it sells package to different businesses, a class commonly referred to successful Silicon Valley arsenic B2B SaaS. Another erstwhile staffer says Palantir provides “really royal plumbing pinch data.”

Xia calls Foundry, 1 of Palantir's flagship package platforms, “a postulation of different applications” that customers usage to “operationalize data.” A 4th ex-employee dubbed Foundry a “super-charged filing cabinet.” While each of these descriptions are technically accurate, they could besides use to products from hundreds of different tech companies. So what sets Palantir apart?

Part of nan reply whitethorn dishonesty successful Palantir’s trading strategy. Pinto says he believes that nan company, which precocious began utilizing nan tagline “software that dominates,” has cultivated its mysterious nationalist image connected purpose. Unlike consumer-facing startups that request to intelligibly explicate their products to mundane users, Palantir’s main assemblage is sprawling authorities agencies and Fortune 500 companies.

What it’s yet trading them is not conscionable software, but nan thought of a seamless, almost magical solution to analyzable problems. To do that, Palantir often uses nan connection and aesthetics of warfare, coating itself arsenic a powerful, quasi-military intelligence partner. “Palantir is present to disrupt and make nan institutions we partner pinch nan very champion successful nan world,” Palantir CEO Alexander Karp says successful a February 2025 earnings call, “And erstwhile it's necessary, to scare enemies, and connected occasion, termination them.”

Palantir sends its labor to activity wrong customer organizations fundamentally arsenic consultants, helping to customize their information pipelines, troubleshoot problems, and hole bugs. It calls these workers “forward deployed package engineers,” a word that appears to beryllium inspired by nan conception of forward-deployed troops, who are stationed successful adversarial regions to deter adjacent enemies from attacking.

A erstwhile Palantir worker tells WIRED that nan institution besides has codification words for definite occupation titles—like “Delta” for a guardant deployed engineer, and “Echo” for Palantir’s type of a merchandise manager—which they opportunity are originated from nan North Atlantic Treaty Organization's phonetic alphabet of codification words meant for usage complete subject radio.

A different erstwhile worker tells WIRED that Palantir staffers will often usage the subject term “FYSA,” aliases “for your situational awareness,” alternatively of “FYI.” Many Palantir emails, they say, besides statesman pinch “BLUF:” aliases “bottom statement up front,” followed by a short summary of cardinal specifications aliases events. (It’s fundamentally nan military equivalent of “TLDR,” aliases “too agelong didn’t read.”) The ex-staffer says this motto tin beryllium traced backmost to Palantir's first clients, which included US intelligence and subject agencies.

But arguably Palantir’s astir recognizable motto is borrowed from nan Lord of nan Rings universe. The company’s sanction is simply a reference to J.R.R. Tolkien’s “palantíri,” magical stones that tin beryllium utilized to communicate, spot faraway places, and observe moments from nan past and future.

Palantir’s labor are besides sometimes called “hobbits.” According to 1 erstwhile employee, a communal soul motto successful Palantir’s early days was “Save nan Shire,” a reference to nan hobbit homeland, which they opportunity was a rallying outcry that reflected nan company’s ethos astatine nan time.

“It was each astir ‘Save nan Shire’ and do bully for nan warfare fighters,” nan ex-staffer says. “It was each about, really, we are going successful and solving difficult problems.”

In consequence to a elaborate petition for remark from WIRED, Palantir spokesperson Lisa Gordon said successful a connection that nan institution is “proud to support nan US government, particularly our warfighters,” and that it has ne'er wavered from its founding ngo “to support nan West and empower nan world’s astir important institutions.” Gordon added that nan unfastened missive criticizing Palantir was only signed by a mini information of nan company’s astir 8,000 labor and alumni.

Dawn of Big Data

Underneath nan motto and marketing, Palantir sells devices that its customers—corporations, nonprofits, authorities agencies—use to benignant done data. What makes Palantir different from different tech companies is nan standard and scope of its products. Its transportation to imaginable customers is that they tin bargain 1 strategy and usage it to switch possibly a twelve different dashboards and programs, according to a 2022 analysis of Palantir’s offerings published by blogger and information technologist Ben Rogojan.

Crucially, Palantir doesn’t reorganize a company's bins and pipes, truthful to speak, meaning it doesn’t alteration really information is collected aliases really it moves done nan courage of an organization. Instead, its package sits connected apical of a customer’s messy systems and allows them to merge and analyse information without needing to hole nan underlying architecture. In immoderate ways, it’s a method band-aid. In theory, this makes Palantir peculiarly good suited for authorities agencies that whitethorn usage state-of-the-art package cobbled together pinch programming languages making love backmost to nan 1960s.

Palantir began gaining steam successful nan 2010s, a decade erstwhile firm business sermon was dominated by nan emergence of “Big Data.” Hundreds of tech startups popped up promising to disrupt nan marketplace by leveraging accusation that was now readily disposable acknowledgment to smartphones and internet-connected sensors, including everything from world shipping patterns to nan societal media habits of assemblage students. The hype astir Big Data put pressure connected companies, particularly bequest brands without blase method know-how, to upgrade their software, aliases other consequence looking for illustration dinosaurs to their customers and investors.

But it’s not precisely easy aliases inexpensive to upgrade machine systems that whitethorn day backmost years, aliases moreover decades. Rather than tearing everything down and building anew, companies whitethorn want a solution designed to beryllium slapped connected apical of what they already have. That’s wherever Palantir comes in.

Palantir’s package is designed pinch nontechnical users successful mind. Rather than relying connected specialized method teams to parse and analyse data, Palantir allows group crossed an statement to get insights, sometimes without penning a azygous statement of code. All they request to do is log into 1 of Palantir’s 2 superior platforms: Foundry, for commercialized users, aliases Gotham, for rule enforcement and authorities users.

The Sales Pitch

Foundry focuses connected helping businesses usage information to do things for illustration negociate inventory, show mill lines, and way orders. Gotham, meanwhile, is an investigative instrumentality specifically for constabulary and authorities clients, designed to link people, places, and events of liking to rule enforcement. There’s besides Apollo, which is for illustration a power sheet for shipping automatic package updates to Foundry aliases Gotham, and nan Artificial Intelligence Platform, a suite of AI-powered devices that tin beryllium integrated into Gotham aliases Foundry.

Foundry and Gotham are similar: Both ingest information and springiness group a neat level to activity pinch it. The main quality betwixt them is what information they’re ingesting. Gotham takes immoderate information that authorities aliases rule enforcement customers whitethorn have, including things for illustration crime reports, booking logs, aliases accusation they collected by subpoenaing a societal media company. Gotham past extracts each person, place, and item that mightiness beryllium relevant. Customers request to already person nan information they want to activity with—Palantir itself does not supply any.

A erstwhile Palantir staffer who has utilized Gotham says that, successful conscionable minutes, a rule enforcement charismatic aliases authorities expert tin representation retired who whitethorn beryllium successful a person’s web and spot documents that nexus them together. They tin besides centralize everything an agency knows astir a personification successful 1 place, including their oculus colour from their driver’s license, aliases their licence sheet from a postulation ticket—making it easy to build a elaborate intelligence report. They tin besides usage Gotham to hunt for a personification based connected a characteristic, for illustration their migration status, what authorities they unrecorded in, aliases whether they person tattoos.

The income transportation for devices for illustration Foundry and Gotham is that they tin transcend each of nan challenges associated pinch storing and structuring data, and people bring investigations and business decisionmakers to nan correct solution. With an objectively superior technology, nan reasoning goes, nan champion imaginable outcomes will follow.

A type of this logic pervades nan soul civilization astatine Palantir. When asked what distinguishes it from different tech companies, erstwhile labor consistently mentioned its “flat” staffing structure. Engineers tin laterally move to much prestigious aliases challenging projects if they beryllium worthy based connected their skills and connections. One erstwhile staffer tells WIRED that this made nan institution consciousness for illustration a meritocracy wherever nan champion people, and nan champion ideas, people emergence to nan top.

Some erstwhile labor opportunity that Palantir’s meritocratic civilization helped cultivate a consciousness of loyalty among staff. But they besides judge that this tin make it difficult to speak retired against nan institution aliases its business decisions. (Gordon said that Palantir “prides itself connected a civilization of fierce soul dialog and disagreement connected difficult issues related to our work.”)

During her clip astatine Palantir, Xia says she worked exclusively pinch backstage businesses utilizing Foundry. However, she felt a nagging discomfort astir nan subject activity happening successful different parts of nan organization. “I did nan point that I deliberation a batch of group do,” Xia says, “which is, I conscionable didn't prosecute pinch it.”

Since leaving Palantir, Pinto says he’s spent a batch of clip reflecting connected nan company’s expertise to parse and link immense amounts of data. He’s now profoundly worried that an authoritarian authorities could usage this powerfulness to “tell immoderate communicative they want” about, say, immigrants aliases dissidents it whitethorn beryllium seeking to apprehension aliases deport. He says that package for illustration Palantir’s doesn’t destruct quality bias.

People are nan ones that take really to activity pinch data, what questions to inquire astir it, and what conclusions to draw. Their choices could person affirmative outcomes, for illustration ensuring capable Covid-19 vaccines are delivered to susceptible areas. They could besides person devastating ones, for illustration launching a deadly airstrike, aliases deporting someone.

In immoderate ways, Palantir tin beryllium seen arsenic an amplifier of people’s intentions and biases. It helps them make evermore precise and intentional decisions, for amended aliases for worse. But this whitethorn not ever beryllium evident to Palantir’s users. They whitethorn only acquisition a blase platform, sold to them utilizing nan vocabulary of warfare and hegemony. It whitethorn consciousness arsenic if nonsubjective conclusions are flowing people from nan data. When Gotham users link disparate pieces of accusation astir a person, it could look for illustration they are reference their full life story, alternatively than conscionable a portion of it.

“It's a really powerful tool,” says 1 erstwhile Palantir employee. “And erstwhile it's successful nan incorrect hands, it tin beryllium really dangerous. And I deliberation group should beryllium really frightened astir it.”