Palantant is a mysterious and powerful data analysis company co-founded by the billionaire Tech Peter Thiel. At Trump’s White House, the company wins a new influence.
Juana Summers, host:
It is not a familiar name, but its power is immense – Palant. For years, the surveillance company has worked for Pentagon and immigration and customs application, and now expects a boom in the second Trump administration. Bobby Allyn of NPR is more closely examining the rise in Palantir.
Bobby Allyn, Byline: the CEO of Palantir, Alex Karp, could not contain his excitement. He was on a call for results with investors earlier this year. The profits of Palantir rose.
(Soundbit of archived registration)
Alex Karp: We do it. We do it. And I’m sure you appreciate this as much as I do.
Allyn: Karp and investors have a lot to appreciate. PALANTOUT – The name comes from the view stones of the “Lord of the Rings” – was booming. It went from a company of $ 50 billion last April to now nearly 300 billion. For the context, it is larger than Verizon and Disney. Co-founded by the billionaire Peter Thiel After the September 11 attacks, Palantir spent years quietly winning enormous contracts with intelligence agencies and governments in the United States and abroad. Most large technological companies minimize their military work. But Alex Karp of Palantir, he boasts about it.
(Soundbit of archived registration)
Karp: Palant is there to disturb and make our – the institutions with which we associate the best in the world and, when necessary, to frighten our enemies and, on occasion, kill them.
Allyn: Although the company is well kept, it has raised the veil occasionally on the type of work it does. IA software from Palantant is used by Israeli defense forces to strike targets in Gaza. It is used to help the Ministry of Defense to analyze drone images. And this now helps Trump administration with the application of immigration. Ice Records shows that Palantir recently received a contract of $ 30 million to build a platform to follow the movements of migrants in real time. As its power develops, a former employee is expressed – something extremely rare for the secret enterprise.
Juan Sebastian Pinto: Palantir has built its brand and reputation throughout all these years, and its ability to divert a lot of criticism, because they have claimed to be a company that supports Western values.
Allyn: It’s Juan Sebastian Pinto. He helped market Palants products, including systems behind what is known as Kill – AI -focused Networks that help identify targets on battlefields. He has also sold out -of -governments surveillance tools to governments.
Pinto: What I was really doing is helping a business to create a monopoly on decision -making of artificial intelligence and do so first by targeting the federal government.
Allyn: And he says that the federal government was an easy target for business because its software capacities are far behind Palantir. Palantant refused the request for NPR comments, but the company justified its contracts in the past by saying that he was not a supporter, having worked in several administrations. Michael McGrath is not surprised that Palantant gets a lot of work in the Trump administration. He was the CEO of the data analysis company, i2. He is a competitor to palantir.
Michael McGrath: They could gather information from income statements, employment information, their immigration status, you know, how many children they have, whether their children are legal or illegal. It could be a great asset. You know, it could also be a big risk.
ALLLYN: Risks, according to Pinto, should be the object center, which is why it says that it is important as an employee to shed light on the operation of the company’s products.
Pinto: I simply cannot live in a world where my grandchildren must be treated via a database where their daily activities, including publications on social networks, because citizens are followed, collected and used for an authoritarian government’s police database.
ALLLYN: He admits that he struck for a while if he should publicly criticize the company.
Pinto: As a former employee, I am not even sure of my personal security with regard to speech.
Allyn: Other palantant employees wanted to warn how business technology can be abused by governments, but he says they are legal in order to remain silent. Bobby Allyn, NPR News.
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