Short answers, pulled from the story.
Palantir Technologies was founded in 2003 by Peter Thiel, Stephen Cohen, Joe Lonsdale, Alex Karp, and Nathan Gettings. Thiel named the company after the "seeing stone" in J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium. In 2004, Thiel hired Alex Karp, a former Stanford Law School colleague, as CEO.
Palantir has four main operating systems: Gotham, an intelligence tool used by militaries and counter-terrorism analysts; Foundry, a platform for commercial and civil government use; Apollo, a platform for continuous integration and delivery; and AIP (Artificial Intelligence Platform), launched in April 2023, which integrates large language models into privately operated networks. The company also offers products such as TITAN, MetaConstellation, Skykit, and ELITE.
Palantir went public on the 30th of September 2020, through a direct public offering on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol PLTR. In November 2024, the company transferred its listing to the Nasdaq Global Select Market, effective November 26, while continuing to trade under PLTR.
Palantir has held contracts with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement since 2014. In April 2025, the company signed a $30 million contract with ICE to develop ImmigrationOS (Immigration Lifecycle Operating System), a platform designed to track undocumented immigrants and expedite deportations. The contract was renewed in September 2025 despite internal employee concerns.
In November 2023, NHS England awarded Palantir a seven-year, £330 million contract to build a Federated Data Platform connecting patient data across England's healthcare system. The contract was immediately criticized by the British Medical Association and cybersecurity professionals over patient privacy, procurement transparency, and Palantir's contracts with the Israel Defence Forces. NHS England originally published the contract with more than 70% of its pages redacted, prompting legal action.
Palantir was unprofitable for 20 years, reporting its first quarter of positive GAAP net income in Q1 2023, totaling $31 million. For fiscal year 2024, the company reported earnings of $462 million on revenue of $2.9 billion; 2025 revenue reached $4.6 billion. Despite this, The Economist called Palantir possibly "the most over-valued firm of all time" in 2025, noting a market value of $430 billion representing over 600 times its 2024 earnings.