It’s TACO Tuesday and today we’ll dig into the one company that has succeeded more in the the last six months then virtually any other single company not named Trump. With hooks into virtually every Federal agency in the national bureaucracy courtesy of the punkass MuskMinions of Doge and all of our private and social media data courtesy of Meta and its participation of Detachment 201, Palantir has amassed more information and by extensions power - about ordinary Americans than the IRS, Social Security Administration, and any other agency you care to mention. While the Gestapo had to make do with cross referencing physical index card files, Palantir has all the power and wealth of Silicon Valley and AI technology at its disposal. It never sleeps, it never eats, it doesn’t need to take a vacation, and more importantly, you can’t reason with it and appeal to its compassion to help you. Palantir doesn’t care and its founder, Peter Thiel certainly cares even less. As one of the leaders of the NRx (Neo-reactionary movement/Dark MAGA) Theil has largely kept a low profile in comparison to his fellow former PayPal Pal, Elon Musk, but his influence is doubly pernicious because its depth and sway are largely unaccounted for. As a full throated supporter of Eric Land and Curtis Yarvin, Thiel has not been shy voicing his skepticism of democratic systems of government as well as his desire to replace our Democratic Republic with a Corporate Techno-Fascist State - no voice/free exit. Thiel has been one of the original backers of the TACO regime as well as Project 2025 and was largely responsible for the AI components of the One Big Beautiful Bill and the AI Action Plan. Thiel, even more than Musk, wields power and influence far beyond anyone else in MagaLand and is JD Vance’s Rabbi. He single handedly created the callow young Yalie into the Feckless HillBilly Heidegger a heartbeat away from the Presidency - and if that doesn’t keep you awake in a cold sweat at night, you’re simply not paying attention. And with that…On with the Show…
America’s Shadow Architect of Surveillance
Imagine a company so deeply entwined with national security that it effectively helps draft the wiretaps and the search warrants of tomorrow. That company is Palantir—and the scale of its power is growing amid little real accountability. Let’s break down how it rose to this point—and how we could curb its unchecked reach before it outpaces our democratic norms entirely.
A Brief History Told in Data
Palantir began in 2003, backed by the CIA's venture arm In-Q-Tel and tech philanthropist Peter Thiel. Its core tools—Gotham (for intelligence agencies) and Foundry (for civilian and commercial use)—offered one key advantage: they turned chaos into clarity. Suddenly, U.S. agencies could stitch together disparate data—travel logs, social media, hospital records—into predictive intelligence.
Corporate Rise: Revenue, Valuation & Military Infrastructure
Early investors valued Palantir at $9B in 2014, rising to $20B by 2015. After its IPO in 2020, it expanded into the S&P 500 by late 2024, and as of mid‑2025 trades with one of the highest earnings multiples in the index.
For Q2 2025, Palantir reported first-ever quarterly revenue exceeding $1B, net income of $327M, while projecting $4.14–4.15B revenue for the year.
As of today, Palantir’s Government sales surged 53%, while commercial revenue nearly doubled (93%), underscoring the increase of surveillance technologies and enterprise AI as DOGE began stealing American citizens’ data from across the multiple agencies they infested as part of the accelerationist creed they were created to enforce as part of Project 2025/NRx.
The Trump Inflection Point
Under Trump’s second term, Palantir locked in over $300M in new federal contracts, including mega-deals with the Army ($10B over a decade) and Pentagon’s Maven AI system (~$795M to $1.3B). As cost-cutting measures dissolved high priced contracts with the traditional integrators like Accenture and Deloitte, Palantir stepped in (often sole-sourcing) positioning itself as indispensable to “government modernization.”
In addition, Palantir is deeply connected to the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), a shadow legal structure building a centralized “master database” of Americans’ records. Lawsuits under the Privacy Act of 1974 challenge its extralegal data pooling.
Critics—including economist Robert Reich and 13 former Palantir employees—warn that the company is central to constructing a highly efficient machine of digital authoritarianism.
Surveillance on Autopilot
Palantir bridges every sector of power: intelligence, DHS, IRS, CDC, even local enforcement. Its tech enables granular profiles of citizens—built from social media, GPS data, credit history, medical info, and visa records. Palantir claims agencies retain control—but it's the platform layer that performs the real magic (and really, the real risk). Though Palantir claims not to collect personally identifiable data, its software enables agencies to compile detailed personality and risk profiles on U.S. citizens. This mass aggregation estranges long-standing norms around privacy, consent, and oversight.
Where AI and Ideology Collide
The company’s platforms are AI-driven. They support predictive policing, border enforcement, and even military targeting. But Palantir’s ideology—espoused by Thiel and CEO Alex Karp—echoes technocratic, anti-democratic strains like “Dark MAGA” and Neoreaction (NRx) as promulgated by Curtis Yarvin and Eric Land. In their worldview, democracy is a failed system and must ultimately give way to an accelerationist wave of technology to keep the citizenry cowed and unable to pierce the fog of misinformation - ultimately ensuring algorithmic control.
Legal and Ethical Fault Lines
Even former Palantir employees voice concern: they helped build it—and now they’re scared of what it’s become.
How Do We Rein It In—Before It’s Too Late?
Here’s what accountability could and should look like:
Empower the PCLOB (Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board): Currently under-resourced and understaffed, it needs a full quorum—and authority to audit government–vendor collaborations like Palantir’s. (arXiv, Wikipedia)
Federal Privacy Law (APRA): The American Privacy Rights Act would grant citizens data access, deletion rights, and prohibit data sharing without consent. It would also penalize noncompliance—finally applying privacy uniformly across all sectors. (Wikipedia)
Independent Algorithmic Audits: Like financial or environmental regulation, AI systems—especially those used in governance—should face external, accredited third-party audits with public disclosure of findings. (arXiv)
Democratic Institutional Approval: Algorithms deployed by governments must undergo public review and be approved through democratic processes—not quietly adopted via backroom tech contracts. (arXiv)
State-Level Innovation, Not Federal Preemption: Rather than a blanket 10-year ban on state AI regulation, America needs a federated system where states pilot privacy protections while the federal government constructs standards—rather than erasing existing safeguards. (The Verge)
Final Thought: Palantir’s Power—and What We Must Demand Instead
Palantir hasn’t just changed how government does data—it has blurred the boundary between state and corporation. As surveillance becomes industrial-scale and ideological alignment with illiberal politics rises, civil liberties face unprecedented challenges.
This isn’t just about one company. It’s a bellwether for the future of democratic norms in a world governed by private algorithms. If Palantir continues unchecked, the privacy guarantee once taken for granted may disappear altogether.
Without these reforms—APRA, PCLOB empowerment, third-party audits, democratic approval, and state-level innovation, we risk handing over control to a data-driven oligarchy disguised as innovation.
Smash the Machines!
now i know what agita feels like; I got it a quarter-way through reading this. I appreciate your prescriptions at the end of these posts….