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What’s a palantir?

Palantir Technologies
Software company
Palantir Technologies Inc. is an American publicly-traded company that specializes in software platforms for big data analytics. Headquartered in Denver, Colorado, it was founded by Peter Thiel, Stephen Cohen, Joe Lonsdale, and Alex Karp in 2003.


In J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, a palantír is a powerful, spherical stone that can be used for long-distance communication and, under certain circumstances, to see distant events. These stones were originally crafted by the elves and gifted to the Númenóreans. The word "palantír" translates to "far-seeing stone".