Palantir helps the United States and Ukraine to carry out covert operations. What you need to know

One of the most controversial companies in the world is the IT corporation Palantir. It provides American intelligence agencies and large banks with tools for processing big data, allowing them to carry out high-level analytics. This makes it possible to have a serious impact on political events and military actions. At the same time, Palantir may be vulnerable to hacking by hackers. What you need to know about the company's participation in the global backstage is in the Izvestia article.

What does Palantir do?

• Palantir was founded in the USA in 2003. Its name is taken from the "Lord of the Rings" universe, where a palantir was a stone ball that could be used to see from a distance and collect information. Palantir headquarters in different parts of the world are named after the toponyms from the trilogy. One of the founders and chairman of the board of directors of the company is Peter Thiel, who also created the PayPal payment system.

• Since its foundation, the company has been engaged in the processing and analysis of big data, as well as their subsequent visualization. Palantir uses its own software to perform intelligent search based on customer requests, while providing the final result using an intuitive interface that does not require additional engineering or programming training for the customer to work with.

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• Palantir's first and only client until 2008 was the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Later, she began serving other American law enforcement agencies and special services, such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Department of Defense, the immigration police, and customs. With the help of Palantir, US government agencies maintain databases and analyze them, search and perform various types of operations. The product targeted at them is called Gotham.

• Since 2011, Palantir has been cooperating with commercial structures. Such large banks and corporations as JPMORGAN, Bank of America, SAC Capital, BP, Kimberly-Clark, and Hershey's have received its business intelligence tools. Separate Gotham-based products such as Foundry and Metropolis have been created for commercial use. As of 2020, when Palantir conducted its initial listing and began trading on the stock exchange, the average revenue per customer was $5.6 million.

The reputation of the "grey cardinal"

• Cooperation with American intelligence agencies and large business structures has given Palantir a reputation as a company with a special influence on what is happening in the world. She does not fully disclose the full scope of her activities, which gives rise to many assumptions about her capabilities, which the company itself is in no hurry to refute. The results achieved by customers thanks to Gotham, Foundry and other products can exceed any expectations. At the same time, Palantir insists that they do not own or manage their clients' data, but only provide information processing tools.

• Palantir first made itself known when it became known that its analytics allowed the United States to track down terrorist Osama bin Laden and eliminate him in Pakistan. Later, she was accused of interfering in many other controversial operations conducted by American intelligence abroad. In the United States itself, the company is criticized for the fact that its software allows immigration police to track and catch migrants.

• The Government of Ukraine has also become a client of Palantir. The company has developed tools to improve the effectiveness of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) during the conflict in the east of the country. Palantir has introduced field artificial intelligence into the military structures of Ukraine, allowing it to solve combat missions and obtain intelligence data. For the company, this was the first experience of direct involvement in military operations on an unlimited scale.

• In 2025, Palantir attracted renewed attention when it was revealed that it had been used by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to collect information about Iran's nuclear program. It was through Palantir that the IAEA stated that Tehran possesses enough uranium to create nine atomic bombs. The information obtained ended up in Israel and was used as an excuse for the 12-day June war.

A place in the stock market

• Despite the fact that Palantir is closely linked to the special services and is directly involved in their operations, it remains a commercial company formally beyond the control of the American authorities. Its shares are traded on the New York Stock Exchange and are subject to both economic and political factors.

• Proximity to the US authorities makes Palantir shares an attractive asset. The company is reliably supported by long-term government contracts, which each new administration seeks to extend. The company began to feel particularly good during Donald Trump's second term. Thiel has a strong relationship with him, and Vice President J. D. Vance is called a protege of the head of Palantir. The expansion of the US military presence in the world provides Palantir with new profitable orders, due to which the company's shares are steadily growing.

Hacking by hackers

• At the same time, Palantir is no stranger to the problems that can arise for any other company that gains excessive influence. Blogger Kim Dotcom revealed in February 2026 that Palantir had been hacked. The attackers used artificial intelligence to gain superuser rights and learn all the details of Palantir's clandestine activities.

• The discovered data allows us to conclude that Palantir monitors world leaders and heads of major corporations. The companies' mechanisms have been implemented into their electronic devices and vehicles. This made it possible to create a large archive of compromising data. It even included private conversations involving Trump and Vance.

Dotcom also noted that with the help of Palantir, Ukraine has begun developing nuclear and chemical weapons that can be used in a confrontation with Russia within a year. The CIA supports Kiev in this. The ongoing peace talks are being used by Ukraine to delay time in order to complete all the projects supervised by Palantir. However, now, according to Dotcom, the data obtained by hackers will be transferred to Russia and China.