Palantir overview
Palantir Technologies builds software that lets large organizations pull scattered data into a single model of their operations and act on it. Its first platform, Gotham, serves defense and intelligence agencies; Foundry does similar work for companies and civilian government bodies; and AIP, introduced in 2023, connects large language models and AI agents to both. A fourth platform, Apollo, delivers and updates the software in cloud, on-premises and field environments. Customers range from the U.S. Army and England’s National Health Service to Airbus.
Peter Thiel, the PayPal co-founder, started Palantir in 2003 with Alex Karp, a friend from Stanford Law School, and three younger technologists: Stanford students Joe Lonsdale and Stephen Cohen and former PayPal engineer Nathan Gettings. The plan, formed in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks, was to apply the kind of analysis PayPal had used against fraud to counterterrorism. Thiel and his funds paid for most of the early work, In-Q-Tel, the CIA’s venture capital arm, also invested, and the company took its name from the seeing stones in J. R. R. Tolkien’s fiction. It released Gotham to intelligence customers in 2008.
For much of its history Palantir was a private, loss-making company that worked mainly for government agencies. It began selling to businesses such as Credit Suisse and released Foundry for commercial customers in 2016. In 2020 it moved its headquarters from Palo Alto to Denver and went public that September through a direct listing on the New York Stock Exchange. After reporting its first quarterly GAAP profit in early 2023, it joined the S&P 500 in September 2024 and moved its stock listing to the Nasdaq that November.
Generative AI accelerated the business. Palantir sold AIP partly through bootcamps in which customer teams build working applications on their own data within days, and its U.S. commercial revenue grew 149% year over year in the second quarter of 2026. Total revenue rose 56% in 2025 to about $4.5 billion, with 54% coming from government customers. In February 2026 the company announced it was moving its headquarters from Denver to the Miami area. Its work for military, intelligence, immigration and police agencies has drawn sustained criticism from civil liberties and privacy groups; Palantir says it does not collect or sell data and that its software helps customers analyze information they already hold.
Software by Palantir
3 products profiled, from Palantir Gotham (2008) to Palantir AIP (2023).
- Palantir FoundryOntology-based data operations platform for enterprises and governments Data & AI Platforms 2016 Enterprise licensing
- Palantir AIPPalantir’s platform for putting LLMs and AI agents to work on operations Data & AI Platforms 2023 Enterprise licensing
- Palantir GothamSoftware for defense and intelligence analysis, planning and targeting Data & AI Platforms 2008 Enterprise licensing
Palantir history and milestones
- 2003
Peter Thiel, Alex Karp, Stephen Cohen, Joe Lonsdale and Nathan Gettings found Palantir, incorporating it in Delaware in May.
- 2008
Palantir releases Gotham, its first platform, to intelligence customers, and U.S. Army special operations units begin using its software.
- 2016
Palantir releases Foundry for commercial customers, and Airbus adopts it as its core data platform.
- 2020
Palantir moves its headquarters from Palo Alto to Denver and lists on the New York Stock Exchange through a direct listing.
- 2023
Palantir reports its first quarterly GAAP profit and unveils AIP, its platform for large language models and AI agents.
- 2024
Palantir joins the S&P 500 in September and transfers its stock listing to the Nasdaq in November.
- 2025
Annual revenue rises 56% to about $4.5 billion, with government customers providing 54% of the total.
- 2026
Palantir moves its headquarters from Denver to the Miami area and reports 93% revenue growth for the second quarter.
Who founded Palantir?
Alex Karp
Co-founder; CEO since 2005
Alex Karp grew up in Philadelphia, studied philosophy at Haverford College and earned a law degree at Stanford Law School, where he met Peter Thiel. He went on to complete a PhD in neoclassical social theory at Goethe University Frankfurt and worked in finance, founding an investment firm called Caedmon Group, before joining Thiel in starting Palantir.
Karp has served on Palantir’s board since 2003 and as its chief executive since 2005. He led the company through its 2020 direct listing and its shift toward AI, and his letters to shareholders are published on Palantir’s website.
Peter Thiel
Co-founder; chairman since 2003
Peter Thiel co-founded PayPal in 1998 and was its chief executive until eBay acquired it in 2002. He then started the hedge fund Clarium Capital and, in 2003, Palantir, paying for much of its early development himself and chairing its board ever since.
Thiel is also a partner at Founders Fund, the venture capital firm he launched in 2005, and president of the investment firm Thiel Capital. He was Facebook’s first outside investor and served on the board of Meta Platforms from 2005 to 2022. He holds a bachelor’s degree in philosophy and a law degree from Stanford.
Stephen Cohen
Co-founder; president and secretary
Stephen Cohen studied computer science at Stanford University, focusing on machine learning and artificial intelligence, and worked at Peter Thiel’s hedge fund Clarium Capital before helping build the first Palantir prototype with Joe Lonsdale and Nathan Gettings in 2004.
Cohen has served on Palantir’s board since 2005 and is the company’s president and secretary. He has been closely involved in its engineering culture and hiring, and together with Alex Karp and Peter Thiel he holds the special Class F shares that give the founders a large share of the company’s voting power.
Joe Lonsdale
Co-founder; left in 2009 and later founded 8VC
Joe Lonsdale studied computer science at Stanford, where he edited The Stanford Review, the student newspaper Peter Thiel had co-founded, and interned at PayPal before working at Thiel’s hedge fund Clarium Capital. In 2004 he helped build Palantir’s first prototype.
Lonsdale left Palantir in 2009 and co-founded the wealth management software company Addepar that year. He later co-founded the government software company OpenGov and the venture firm Formation 8, founded the investment firm 8VC in 2015, and started the Cicero Institute policy group.
Nathan Gettings
Co-founder; engineer on Palantir’s first prototype
Nathan Gettings studied mathematics at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and was an early engineer at PayPal, where he worked on risk and fraud detection under Max Levchin. At Palantir he helped Stephen Cohen and Joe Lonsdale build the original software prototype that the company developed into its first product.
Gettings has also co-founded the robotics company RoboteX, and he was a co-founder and chief risk officer of Affirm, the consumer lending company started by Levchin.
How Palantir makes money
Palantir sells multi-year subscriptions to its software. Customers either use the platforms in environments that Palantir hosts and operates, which it calls Palantir Cloud, or license the software to run on their own infrastructure or cloud accounts, with operations and maintenance services included in both cases. The company also earns revenue from professional services. Deals tend to be large: in 2025 its top 20 customers generated an average of $93.9 million each, and it counted 954 customers at year end.
Government agencies provided 54% of revenue in 2025 and commercial customers 46%, and 74% of revenue came from the United States. Palantir pursues complex, high-value deployments and embeds its engineers with customers, while short AIP bootcamps and a limited Developer Tier let prospective customers try the software before signing larger agreements.
Who owns and runs Palantir?
Co-founder Alex Karp has been chief executive since 2005, and co-founder Peter Thiel has chaired the board since 2003. Co-founder Stephen Cohen is president, Shyam Sankar is chief technology officer and David Glazer is chief financial officer. Palantir is publicly traded on the Nasdaq, but Karp, Cohen and Thiel hold Class F shares through a founder voting trust that, combined with their other shares, gives them close to half of the total voting power.
- Alex KarpCo-founder and CEO
- Peter ThielCo-founder and chairman
- Stephen CohenCo-founder, president and secretary
- Shyam SankarChief technology officer and executive vice president
- David GlazerChief financial officer and treasurer
Palantir: frequently asked questions
Who founded Palantir?
Palantir was founded in 2003 by Peter Thiel, Alex Karp, Stephen Cohen, Joe Lonsdale and Nathan Gettings. Thiel, the PayPal co-founder, funded much of the early work; Cohen, Lonsdale and Gettings built the first prototype; and Karp, Thiel’s friend from Stanford Law School, became chief executive.
Who owns Palantir?
Palantir is a publicly traded company listed on the Nasdaq under the ticker PLTR, so its shares are owned by individual and institutional investors. Co-founders Alex Karp, Stephen Cohen and Peter Thiel hold special Class F shares in a voting trust that gives them close to half of the company’s total voting power.
Who is the CEO of Palantir?
Alex Karp is the CEO of Palantir. A co-founder of the company, he has been chief executive since 2005 and a board member since 2003. He holds a law degree from Stanford Law School and a PhD in social theory from Goethe University Frankfurt.
Where is Palantir headquartered?
Palantir’s principal executive offices are in Aventura, Florida, in the Miami area, after the company announced a move from Denver in February 2026. Palantir was based in Palo Alto, California, for its first 17 years and moved its headquarters to Denver, Colorado, in 2020.
What software does Palantir make?
Palantir makes four main platforms: Gotham, used by defense and intelligence agencies; Foundry, a data operations platform for companies and civilian government bodies; AIP, which connects large language models and AI agents to an organization’s data; and Apollo, which delivers and updates software across cloud, on-premises and field environments.
Is Palantir a public company?
Yes. Palantir went public through a direct listing on the New York Stock Exchange on September 30, 2020, and moved its listing to the Nasdaq in November 2024 while keeping the ticker PLTR. It joined the S&P 500 index in September 2024.
Why is the company called Palantir?
The name comes from the palantíri, the seeing stones in J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings that let their users see distant places and events. Peter Thiel chose the name, and the company has used other Tolkien references, such as calling its original Palo Alto office The Shire.
Sources
- Palantir Technologies annual report on Form 10-K, 2025 sec.gov
- Palantir reports Q2 2026 results sec.gov
- Palantir Technologies 2026 proxy statement sec.gov
- Palantir Technologies registration statement on Form S-1, 2020 sec.gov
- Palantir transfer of listing to Nasdaq, Form 8-K sec.gov
- Palantir, Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org
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