7 ms·

Big Data, Big Bucks: Palantir Valued at $9 Billion

54 points by Kopion 13y ago

angersock 13y ago
Think of it as an involuntary social network!
- pasbesoin 13y ago
  For most of us, it's also write-only. (Barring observation and analysis of resulting effects.)
- nine_k 13y ago
  Their next project, now in closed alpha, aims "to bring them all and in the darkness bind them"; the preliminary logo is O-shaped. Whether they buy a tower for their office remains to be seen. </TheOnionMode>
  - ghostDancer 13y ago
    Remember that the "original" Palantir (the ones in the novel) were created by the good guys for communication but were used by the bad guys for spying so is pretty close.
- avolcano 13y ago
  Not too far removed from tracking for advertising purposes, honestly. Just a lot more sources to work with, presumedly.
  - deleted 13y ago
    [deleted]
pbreit 13y ago
Is it odd to raise $200m at a $5b valuation in September and follow it with $60m-100m at a $9b valuation a few months later?
- ojbyrne 13y ago
  Its a little odd that its a smaller round, but other than that, it just seems to indicate rapid growth, which usually needs financing i.e. "growth capital."
- geoka9 13y ago
  Maybe now, that they've got more publicity, the value went up :)
- darkarmani 13y ago
  You mean because they took less money or because it gained 4B in value in a few months? The follow-up money is twice as cheap because of the larger valuation. I guess someone really wanted to invest in them?
thisiswrong 13y ago
> In-Q-Tel, a non-profit venture-capital firm established by the CIA Good old Mussolini style fascism is steaming full speed ahead in the land of the free.
- MrZongle2 13y ago
  Sssh, we've got to keep the children safe by recording all the minutia of your online life. Because terrorism.
  - ilyanep 13y ago
    This is a reddit-level shitty comment. Unless you agree that the CIA has no right to exist (and you'd be insane [one of the nicest words I can think to put here] to think so), I fail to see why it's bad that the government would contract to people who can do things 100% more efficiently. Also the form of "shh...don't bring your logic here" comments is especially discussion-killing and really doesn't belong here. Full disclosure: I work for Palantir, but I speak for myself, not the company.
    - MrZongle2 13y ago
      Fair enough. I'll dispense with the snark and provide a more specific summary of my thoughts on the matter: 1) Not everybody who works for the government (either directly or as a contractor) is a power-hungry closet totalitarian. In fact, these people are rare. 2) Nevertheless, these people exist, and the ambitious ones often claw their way to the upper echelons of whatever organization they work for. Their goals are likely not as diabolic or lofty as overthrowing a country or subverting the Constitution, but rather to check the requisite boxes their bosses deem important and to further their own careers by "empire building". 3) The by-product of these goals can result in the waste of millions of dollars of taxpayer money, if they over promise and under deliver. They may exaggerate the scope of a problem in order to make their pet solution seem all the more critical. Technical problems have more taxpayer dollars thrown at them, to ensure a fix. Legal restrictions are tackled by lawyers, who seek to find workarounds. 4) In the end, rules are bent and billions are wasted to solve a "problem" that really wasn't a serious problem. Most of the hands that touched the "solution" did not intend to waste money or subvert laws, but either believed that the end result was for the greater good or simply didn't care one way or the other. I see Palantir in this light: not an evil entity, not a shadowy puppet master plotting the demise of America. But they happily accept contracts from agencies full of men and women far more interested in checking boxes and furthering personal careers than any effect it may have on spending or the personal liberties of strangers. I see them in the same light as I do the people who built the backscatter machines used by the TSA in the airports: an interesting tool being misused by the wrong people in power. Individuals who work on a project that can be turned against their fellow citizens and sleep well at night because the work is interesting or the pay is good have none of my sympathy and are earning an increasing amount of my contempt as the scope of unconstitutional government espionage becomes more and more clear. The CIA -- as well as any other government agency -- is an organization and has no inherent "right" to do anything, including exist. I don't care about efficiency if it means that my children and their children grow up in a country where every electronic record associated with their lives is harvested and analyzed so they may supposedly be safer from "bad guys". A pox on anyone who supports this guilt-by-association, pro-precrime, "efficient" America. It is an Orwellian hell. How's THAT for a comment?
alttab 13y ago
Hey, they recruit on LinkedIn like everyone else, leave them alone! /s
jgalt212 13y ago
I would have thought post Snowden, Palantir and others like them, would have diminished prospects in the future. I guess I am wrong.
- return0 13y ago
  That's like saying that if a gigantic oil deposit is confirmed, the petroleum industry would collapse.
  - jgalt212 13y ago
    To stick with the oil analogy. Yes, but all of sudden now the world at large has soured on gasoline so Palantir has built this massive refinery that has no demand because the people no longer trust how folks are a. refining the oil and b. what they are doing with the gasoline.
    - return0 13y ago
      We would all like to believe people care about being spied on and all, but the truth is everyone is just busy preparing their christmas shopping.
- MrZongle2 13y ago
  I would have thought the same, but damn.... that Soylent Green is just so darn tasty.
return0 13y ago
To acquire the NSA or to be acquired by them? That is the question.
salient 13y ago
More like Big Spying.
ig1 13y ago
Pretty shoddy reporting from the WSJ, Peter Thiel isn't (just) an investor in Palantir he's a cofounder: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palantir_Technologies https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palantir_Technologies
- clebio 13y ago
  And editing: > ... the “big data” miner that the counts the CIA and the FBI among its clients... An extraneous 'the' in the first sentence.
deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
sscalia 13y ago
I'll risk even more downvotes -- but -- Palantir may be the creepiest company in the valley. The relationship they have with the DOD/NSA is simply unreal. their offices on the east coast are full of high-ranking officials, generals, etc -- all the time. Palantir powers a lot of the retina-database insurgent tracking software in Iraq and Afghanistan. I've personally heard from US Army Special Operations forces that the imaging software they use to plan "missions" is powered by Palantir (but is frequently slow and buggy, so they resort to Google maps) I noticed that an Operator featured in Sanjay Gupthas CNN documentary on Marajuana had a Palantir patch next to his US Flag patch on his carrier chest rig. Creepy stuff.
- sscalia 13y ago
  Additionally - their logo, while they sheepishly claim is inspired by The Lord of the Rings (along with their name and product names) -- honestly looks like something supporting the earth.
  - sbov 13y ago
    Looks like the top half of a person to me. Arms and head.
  - chimeracoder 13y ago
    > sheepishly claim is inspired by The Lord of the Rings And, for those who missed the reference, the Palantir is the "all-seeing" device used by the formerly good wizard who defects to the dark side partway through the series. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palantir https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palantir
    - derefr 13y ago
      Ah. It does look like a crystal ball on a stand, once you know what you're looking at.
    - Anderkent 13y ago
      Which the founders surely know. Unless you believe they model themselves after the evil wizards (and barely anyone ever thinks of themselves as evil), it's more of an acknowledgement of the risk.
jweir 13y ago
http://ecorner.stanford.edu/authorMaterialInfo.html?mid=3052 http://ecorner.stanford.edu/authorMaterialInfo.html?mid=3052 Podcast with Stephen Cohen speaking at Stanford on starting Palantir.
bonemachine 13y ago
s/Big Data/Big Brother/g;
jameszhang 13y ago
Great for them; Palantir is definitely a company I respect. I went to their office for an interview about 10 months ago for a job I didn't really want. I didn't get the job and I'm in a better position today, but I have nothing except great things to say about their people and office. During the visit, I learned a decent chunk about how big agencies use software like their's just in a 1-hour demo. They also use their own software to do a lot of humanitarian work.
anonu 13y ago
this round of funding is strange to me. Is it necessary? Its already well established and probably generates sufficient revenue to fund itself - or at a minimum raise debt if its in need of cash.

54 points by Kopion 13y ago

angersock 13y ago

Think of it as an involuntary social network!

pasbesoin 13y ago
For most of us, it's also write-only. (Barring observation and analysis of resulting effects.)
nine_k 13y ago
Their next project, now in closed alpha, aims "to bring them all and in the darkness bind them"; the preliminary logo is O-shaped. Whether they buy a tower for their office remains to be seen. </TheOnionMode>
- ghostDancer 13y ago
  Remember that the "original" Palantir (the ones in the novel) were created by the good guys for communication but were used by the bad guys for spying so is pretty close.
avolcano 13y ago
Not too far removed from tracking for advertising purposes, honestly. Just a lot more sources to work with, presumedly.
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]

pbreit 13y ago

Is it odd to raise $200m at a $5b valuation in September and follow it with $60m-100m at a $9b valuation a few months later?

ojbyrne 13y ago
Its a little odd that its a smaller round, but other than that, it just seems to indicate rapid growth, which usually needs financing i.e. "growth capital."
geoka9 13y ago
Maybe now, that they've got more publicity, the value went up :)
darkarmani 13y ago
You mean because they took less money or because it gained 4B in value in a few months? The follow-up money is twice as cheap because of the larger valuation. I guess someone really wanted to invest in them?

thisiswrong 13y ago

> In-Q-Tel, a non-profit venture-capital firm established by the CIA Good old Mussolini style fascism is steaming full speed ahead in the land of the free.

MrZongle2 13y ago
Sssh, we've got to keep the children safe by recording all the minutia of your online life. Because terrorism.
- ilyanep 13y ago
  This is a reddit-level shitty comment. Unless you agree that the CIA has no right to exist (and you'd be insane [one of the nicest words I can think to put here] to think so), I fail to see why it's bad that the government would contract to people who can do things 100% more efficiently. Also the form of "shh...don't bring your logic here" comments is especially discussion-killing and really doesn't belong here. Full disclosure: I work for Palantir, but I speak for myself, not the company.
  - MrZongle2 13y ago
    Fair enough. I'll dispense with the snark and provide a more specific summary of my thoughts on the matter: 1) Not everybody who works for the government (either directly or as a contractor) is a power-hungry closet totalitarian. In fact, these people are rare. 2) Nevertheless, these people exist, and the ambitious ones often claw their way to the upper echelons of whatever organization they work for. Their goals are likely not as diabolic or lofty as overthrowing a country or subverting the Constitution, but rather to check the requisite boxes their bosses deem important and to further their own careers by "empire building". 3) The by-product of these goals can result in the waste of millions of dollars of taxpayer money, if they over promise and under deliver. They may exaggerate the scope of a problem in order to make their pet solution seem all the more critical. Technical problems have more taxpayer dollars thrown at them, to ensure a fix. Legal restrictions are tackled by lawyers, who seek to find workarounds. 4) In the end, rules are bent and billions are wasted to solve a "problem" that really wasn't a serious problem. Most of the hands that touched the "solution" did not intend to waste money or subvert laws, but either believed that the end result was for the greater good or simply didn't care one way or the other. I see Palantir in this light: not an evil entity, not a shadowy puppet master plotting the demise of America. But they happily accept contracts from agencies full of men and women far more interested in checking boxes and furthering personal careers than any effect it may have on spending or the personal liberties of strangers. I see them in the same light as I do the people who built the backscatter machines used by the TSA in the airports: an interesting tool being misused by the wrong people in power. Individuals who work on a project that can be turned against their fellow citizens and sleep well at night because the work is interesting or the pay is good have none of my sympathy and are earning an increasing amount of my contempt as the scope of unconstitutional government espionage becomes more and more clear. The CIA -- as well as any other government agency -- is an organization and has no inherent "right" to do anything, including exist. I don't care about efficiency if it means that my children and their children grow up in a country where every electronic record associated with their lives is harvested and analyzed so they may supposedly be safer from "bad guys". A pox on anyone who supports this guilt-by-association, pro-precrime, "efficient" America. It is an Orwellian hell. How's THAT for a comment?

alttab 13y ago

Hey, they recruit on LinkedIn like everyone else, leave them alone! /s

jgalt212 13y ago

I would have thought post Snowden, Palantir and others like them, would have diminished prospects in the future. I guess I am wrong.

return0 13y ago
That's like saying that if a gigantic oil deposit is confirmed, the petroleum industry would collapse.
- jgalt212 13y ago
  To stick with the oil analogy. Yes, but all of sudden now the world at large has soured on gasoline so Palantir has built this massive refinery that has no demand because the people no longer trust how folks are a. refining the oil and b. what they are doing with the gasoline.
  - return0 13y ago
    We would all like to believe people care about being spied on and all, but the truth is everyone is just busy preparing their christmas shopping.
MrZongle2 13y ago
I would have thought the same, but damn.... that Soylent Green is just so darn tasty.

return0 13y ago

To acquire the NSA or to be acquired by them? That is the question.

salient 13y ago

More like Big Spying.

ig1 13y ago

Pretty shoddy reporting from the WSJ, Peter Thiel isn't (just) an investor in Palantir he's a cofounder: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palantir_Technologies https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palantir_Technologies

clebio 13y ago
And editing: > ... the “big data” miner that the counts the CIA and the FBI among its clients... An extraneous 'the' in the first sentence.

deleted 13y ago

[deleted]

sscalia 13y ago

I'll risk even more downvotes -- but -- Palantir may be the creepiest company in the valley. The relationship they have with the DOD/NSA is simply unreal. their offices on the east coast are full of high-ranking officials, generals, etc -- all the time. Palantir powers a lot of the retina-database insurgent tracking software in Iraq and Afghanistan. I've personally heard from US Army Special Operations forces that the imaging software they use to plan "missions" is powered by Palantir (but is frequently slow and buggy, so they resort to Google maps) I noticed that an Operator featured in Sanjay Gupthas CNN documentary on Marajuana had a Palantir patch next to his US Flag patch on his carrier chest rig. Creepy stuff.

sscalia 13y ago
Additionally - their logo, while they sheepishly claim is inspired by The Lord of the Rings (along with their name and product names) -- honestly looks like something supporting the earth.
- sbov 13y ago
  Looks like the top half of a person to me. Arms and head.
- chimeracoder 13y ago
  > sheepishly claim is inspired by The Lord of the Rings And, for those who missed the reference, the Palantir is the "all-seeing" device used by the formerly good wizard who defects to the dark side partway through the series. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palantir https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palantir
  - derefr 13y ago
    Ah. It does look like a crystal ball on a stand, once you know what you're looking at.
  - Anderkent 13y ago
    Which the founders surely know. Unless you believe they model themselves after the evil wizards (and barely anyone ever thinks of themselves as evil), it's more of an acknowledgement of the risk.

jweir 13y ago

http://ecorner.stanford.edu/authorMaterialInfo.html?mid=3052 http://ecorner.stanford.edu/authorMaterialInfo.html?mid=3052 Podcast with Stephen Cohen speaking at Stanford on starting Palantir.

bonemachine 13y ago

s/Big Data/Big Brother/g;

jameszhang 13y ago

Great for them; Palantir is definitely a company I respect. I went to their office for an interview about 10 months ago for a job I didn't really want. I didn't get the job and I'm in a better position today, but I have nothing except great things to say about their people and office. During the visit, I learned a decent chunk about how big agencies use software like their's just in a 1-hour demo. They also use their own software to do a lot of humanitarian work.

anonu 13y ago

this round of funding is strange to me. Is it necessary? Its already well established and probably generates sufficient revenue to fund itself - or at a minimum raise debt if its in need of cash.