The connection between Gandalf’s Palantir and Peter Thiel’s Palantir
I want to scream and shout that I am a great fan of Lord of the Rings, so I can’t imagine a better Brand name for a company than a word that J.R. Tolken created. So Palantir it is, Palantir (The Palantíri actually) in appearance were dark perfectly smooth spheres of varying sizes. Most of us remember Sauroman and Sauron using them to communicate, but in the real life Palantir is a company that has as a main activity to built products which can help to a greater purpose like world peace or healthcare for everyone.
Palantir was created from a super elite founders team Peter Thiel (PayPal Mafia), Joe Lonsdale, Nathan Gettings, Alex Karp and Max Levchin (PayPal Mafia), in 2004 (incorporated in 2003) and from the early stages where able to raise 2 millions from the C.I.A (They are not a very common Venture Capital :P ). What Palantir is doing is to create synthesis from computer scientists and analysts from intelligence agencies and create a software which will help analysts to find solutions. The basic idea began from the PayPal when they created a software to detect fraudulent activity. What Palantir supports is that computers alone using A.I could not defeat an adaptive adversary, so the solution Palantir proposed using human analysts to explore data from many sources, called intelligence augmentation.
Do you like that idea?? Palantir find a way to use data, built a form of A.I. and connect it with the intelligence of humans. I find that fascinating and I believe that it is even more fantastic what they have achieved till now. Palantir has two products the Palantir Gotham (Batman!!!!) and the Palantir Metropolis (Superman!!!). Both of those products have many uses and some of them are to support and give solutions to extreme situations like hurricane Sandy and in social institutions like hospitals. Also, there is a rumor that Palantir played a major role to the Osama Bin Laden death from the American Army.
The company right now is valued at 9 billion dollars (maybe some more) and they are able to provide solutions in a great variety. The solutions that can provide start from anti fraud and continues to capital markets, case management, crisis response, cyber security, defense, disaster preparedness, disease response, healthcare delivery, insider threat, insurance analytics, intelligence, law enforcement, legal intelligence, palantir verus, pharma R&D, trader oversight and of course custom solutions. So no matter what your problem is tell them and most times they will have a solution.
Most important for me than finding solutions is that they use data in a very useful way as it seems. Most of you know that one of the biggest trends during the last five years are the analysis and exploitation of the big databases that exist. The huge difference between other companies and Palantir is that in Palantir they use data in important matters and to create a more solid solution. Other companies that also use data usually make reports and don’t propose solutions or they are analysing data based on the market and how you can have a better product, which is not wrong but I prefer to think big and act fast so that in the end there is a difference in society.
To sum up, the company Palantir is something like Gandalf (Grey or White I don’t care :P ), he knows the way to win fights against the dark powers and also is a powerful ally with knowledge that only few have. Their magic is the way they combine A.I with humans and at Palantir they are not afraid to get their hands dirty. I really want to see if in the future they are going to keep growing and the impact they will have, after all Gandalf or else Mithrandir was the one that find the right people (and elves and eagles :P ) and the right time to destroy the Sauron.
