Palantir Technologies is, let's say, a technology company with an ideology (other technology companies also have an ideology, but they hide it more). Ultraconservative, naturally. Palantir is dedicated to the analysis of massive data, or big data. It provides services to governments and also to large companies such as Airbus, Panasonic, Merck, and others. It is valued at 380 billion dollars, was founded in 2004, and its name refers to the magic stones that appear in the novel The Lord of the Rings, by J. R. R. Tolkien (which you can read in Catalan, by the way, in the excellent translation by Francesc Parcerisas). Its two most visible leaders are Peter Thiel and Alex Karp, two singular gentlemen. Thiel, a German citizen naturalized American who was also a co-founder of PayPal, is an ultracapitalist shark, specializing in venture capital funds. His theory is that democracy is incompatible with freedom; if not with economic freedom. Thiel is a money supremacist above all other values.Alex Karp, for his part, comes from the humanities: he is the son of a progressive Californian family, studied philosophy in Germany, and was a disciple of Jürgen Habermas, the philosopher defender of democracy. He is fascinated by literature and adores The Lord of the Rings: despite these characteristics, or precisely because of them, Thiel saw in Karp (they had met, when young, at Stanford University) someone who understood Palantir's idea better than anyone, and that is why he pushed him to become the company's CEO. Palantir's idea: to dominate the world through the data generated on the internet (about 400 million terabytes a day) and artificial intelligence. Karp explains it in a book he published last year, The Technological Republic, which is considered the company's manifesto. Karp says that the era of atomic deterrence is ending and a new era is emerging, that of deterrence based on artificial intelligence. Karp considers this deterrence essential to protect Western values (he no longer speaks of democracy, but of a "lifestyle" that must be safeguarded). Palantir is dedicated to this.Karp does not hide, rather the opposite, his company's close collaboration with the governments of the USA and Israel. Palantir's programs are behind operations such as the detention of Maduro or the start of the ongoing war in Iran and the Middle East. He does not believe it is Palantir's place to define the limits of the use of its programs. He leaves that to the clients: the CIA, the FBI, the Mossad, or even the American ICE. Palantir also works with other governments such as those of Canada, France, Germany, Ukraine, the United Arab Emirates, or Saudi Arabia. Or Spain, which in 2023 awarded it a contract from the Ministry of Defense for 16.5 million euros, with the task of implementing military intelligence software named Gotham. Yes, it is the name of the city where Batman lived. Yes, the future is in the hands of highly dysfunctional people.

Entangled with the banner of “patriotic technology”, a series of companies are redefining strategic order, conventional warfare, and even the sovereignty of states. The line between civilian and military, and between the public and private power of these technological oligarchies, is becoming increasingly blurred. The controversial manifesto from Palantir – Peter Thiel’s company turned data management giant for military use –, published on X, announces a new era of AI-based deterrence. In reality, what it is building is an empire of new technological vulnerabilities and rights in favor of the power and software of Silicon Valley giants.

Imposing compulsory military service, developing artificial intelligence-driven weapons without getting bogged down in "theatrical debates", the superiority of the United States over other countries, the belief that some cultures are superior to others and must be defended... These are some of the ideological foundations of the company Palantir that its co-founder, Alex Karp, details in the book The technological republic (in Spanish, published by Tenos). The military technology multinational that Karp created with Peter Thiel has been built on these foundations, which align with its name. Palantir has a political agenda and, while making money, works to expand and promote it.