Palantir — The Private Intelligence Empire
The man who wants to abolish the state built the most powerful instrument of state control in existence.
He named the company after the magical stones from The Lord of the Rings. In Tolkien's books, the palantíri are crystal spheres that allow their user to see everything happening in the world. In the hands of Sauron, they became instruments of deception and control over those who gazed into them.
Peter Thiel chose this name deliberately.
Palantir's offices carry names from Tolkien's world: The Shire — Palo Alto. Rivendell — McLean, Virginia. Grey Havens — London.
McLean, Virginia. That is not a random address. It is the suburb of Langley. CIA headquarters.
The Birth: Not From a Garage — From Intelligence
Palantir was founded in 2003. Its mission, in Thiel's words: "to protect the West." The company received initial funding from In-Q-Tel — the CIA's venture arm — in 2005.
But the story began earlier — and is more interesting.
When in 2004 Alex Karp and his colleagues came to pitch at Sequoia Capital — one of Silicon Valley's most influential venture funds — partner Michael Moritz spent the entire meeting absent-mindedly sketching in a notebook. Other funds gave similar responses.
Silicon Valley did not want Palantir.
But In-Q-Tel CEO Gilman Louie made an exception — because Thiel was involved. He personally attended the first meeting. What Karp and his colleagues did not know: the CIA was at that moment actively searching for new data analysis tools.
Silicon Valley refused. The CIA opened the door.
Palantir was built "through iterative collaboration between Palantir's computer scientists and analysts from various intelligence agencies over nearly three years."
This is not a startup that found a government client. This is a product developed jointly with government intelligence — and for it.
Alex Karp: The Man Nobody Expected
Thiel funded Palantir. But a different man became the face of the company.
Alex Karp — a former colleague of Thiel's from Stanford Law School. He studied social theory in Frankfurt. Wrote a dissertation on Habermas. Meditated. Practiced qigong. Not at all the typical profile of a defense contractor CEO.
That is precisely why he is ideal for the role. Karp talks about philosophy and defending democracy — while Palantir signs contracts with armies and intelligence services around the world.
"Our product is sometimes used to kill people," Karp said publicly. And added that this does not trouble him.
The Chronology of World Conquest
Look at the growth of Palantir's contracts — this is not the story of a startup. This is the story of a government instrument that becomes more indispensable with every crisis.
Palantir's federal contracts grew from $4.4 million in 2009 to $541.2 million in 2024. In 2025 they nearly doubled — to $970.5 million.
On July 31, 2025, the U.S. Army awarded Palantir an Enterprise Service Agreement worth up to $10 billion over 10 years.
In December 2025, the UK Ministry of Defence awarded Palantir a £240 million contract to support analytical capabilities across all defence operations, including interoperability with NATO systems.
ImmigrationOS: The Name Says Everything
In April 2025, Palantir received a contract whose name requires no explanation.
ICE signed a $30 million contract with Palantir to develop ImmigrationOS — a system designed for mass deportations using predictive algorithms. The system provides "near real-time visibility" into the movements of immigrants.
From 2011 to 2025, ICE awarded Palantir contracts totaling $287 million. Palantir's tools were used to conduct workplace raids, deportations, and family separations.
The man who wrote in 2009 that extending voting rights to women destroyed freedom built a system tracking the real-time movements of immigrants.
A contradiction? No. The logic: freedom — for those Thiel considers worthy of it. Control — for everyone else.
War: From Drones to AI on the Battlefield
In 2019, Palantir received the Pentagon's Project Maven contract — after Google refused to continue developing AI for military drones following employee protests.
What Google abandoned under pressure from its own engineers, Palantir accepted without hesitation.
Among Palantir's clients: all six branches of the U.S. military, the UK Ministry of Defence, the Ukrainian army, the IDF, the CIA, the FBI, and Europol.
One private company. Contracts with armies and intelligence services on four continents. Without democratic oversight. Without public debate.
The Paradox of a Libertarian With Government Contracts
An obvious question arises: how does a man who wrote a manifesto against the state build a company earning nearly $1 billion per year from government contracts?
The answer is simple. Thiel was never against the state as such. He is against a state that is not under his control. Palantir is not a contradiction of his ideology. It is its implementation: a private company possessing intelligence capabilities that exceed those of many states — but accountable only to its shareholders.
The state uses Palantir. Palantir uses the state. Thiel controls Palantir.
The Share Price as a Political Barometer
Palantir shares rose nearly 600% from the beginning of 2024 — driven by deportation policy, military contracts, and AI bets.
This means the following: every new wave of deportations increases the value of Thiel's company. Every military conflict in which Palantir is used increases the value of Thiel's company. Every expansion of state surveillance increases the value of Thiel's company.
Thiel has a vested interest in instability. Not because he is a villain. But because instability is his business model.
Conclusion
Founded in 2003 on CIA money as a "mission-driven company" to "reduce terrorism while preserving civil liberties," Palantir has evolved into the digital backbone of a growing militarized surveillance apparatus.
The man who wants to abolish the state built the most powerful instrument of state control in existence.
Call it irony. Or call it strategy.
The difference lies in who holds the crystal ball.