Palantir and Anduril: Best Buds for Sure
March 12, 2021
I read “Anduril Industries Joins Palantir Technologies’ TITAN Industry Team.” In the good old days I would have been zipping from conference to conference outputting my ideas. Now I sit in rural Kentucky and fire blog posts into the datasphere.
This post calls attention to an explicit tie up between two Peter Thiel-associated entities: Palantir Technologies and Anduril. The latter is an interesting company with some nifty smart technology, including a drone which has the cheerful name “Anvil.”
For details about the new US Army project and the relationship between these two companies, the blog post was online as of March 8, 2021. (Some information may be removed, and I can’t do much about what other outfits do.)
Information about Anduril is available at their Web site. Palantir is everywhere and famous in the intelware business and among some legal eagles. No, I don’t have a Lord of the Rings fetish, but some forever young folks do.
Stephen E Arnold, March 12, 2021
Palantir Fourth Quarter Results Surprises One Financial Pundit
February 22, 2021
I read “Palantir Stock Slides As It Posts a Surprise Loss in Fourth Quarter.” The pundit noted:
Palantir stock has been very volatile this year. It is among the stocks that were been pumped by the Reddit group WallStreetBets. Palantir stock had a 52-week high of $45 amid frenzied buying. However, as has been the case with other meme stocks, it is down sharply from its recent highs. Based on yesterday’s closing prices, Palantir stock has lost almost 30% from its 52-week highs. The drawdown is much lower than what we’ve seen in stocks like GameStop and AMC Theatres. But then, the rise in Palantir stock was also not comparable to the massive gains that we saw in these companies.
Yikes. Worse than GameStop? Quite a comparison.
The pundit pointed out:
Palantir has been diversifying itself away from government business that currently accounts for the bulk of its revenues. This year, it has signed many deals that would help it diversify its revenues. Earlier this month, Palantir announced that it has extended its partnership with energy giant BP for five more years.
Who knew that a company founded in 2003 would have difficulty meeting Wall Street expectation? Maybe that IBM deal and the new US president’s administration can help Palantir Technologies meet financial experts’ expectations?
Search and content processing companies have been worn down by long sales cycles, lower cost competitors, and the friction of customization, training, and fiddling with content intake.
Palantir might be an exception. Stakeholders are discomfited by shocks.
Stephen E Arnold, February 22, 2021
IBM Acknowledges That Palantir Technologies Is Winning the Battle for Policeware and Intelware
February 9, 2021
I read “Palantir Surges on Deal to Offer Software through IBM.” Yep, the new IBM has apparently accepted reality: Its i2 Analysts Notebook products aren’t the powerhouses they were when Mike Hunter’s company was the go-to policeware and intelware product.
According to the “real” news outfit Bloomberg:
Palantir Technologies Inc. and International Business Machines Corp.are uniting in a partnership that will dramatically expand the reachof Palantir’s sales force while making IBM’s ownartificial-intelligence software easier for non-technical customers touse…
Why? The write up reveals:
Without providing a time frame, Thomas [IBM wizard] said he expects the partnershipto help boost IBM’s customers using AI to 80% from its current 20%. Palantir Chief Operating Officer Shyam Sankar said the technical fitwith IBM and its reach are part of his company’s long-term effort tofinally ramp sales. In addition to commercial customers, governmentcontracts have surged both in number and size during the pandemic. “This is the biggest [partnership] we’ve announced — expectmore,” Sankar said. He said he expects to triple Palantir’sdirect-sales team to about 100 this year, a significant hike for acompany whose management once prided itself on not employing a singlesalesperson.
A couple of minor points:
- Anyone remember the litigation between Palantir and i2 about intellectual property? Of course not.
- What Palantir executives were named in the i2 litigation? (This is a really good question by the way?)
- Do the Palantir solutions generate really happy licensees?
- How do the former i2 professionals perceive this tie up?
- How will the deal impact Palantir’s present cloud services providers?
These are questions which “real” news entities do not ask or answer.
Stephen E Arnold, February 9, 2021
Palantir Titan Positioning
January 7, 2021
I spotted the jargon now used by Palantir for its Titan platform. No, the jargon is not platform. Here’s what the policeware powerhouse states at the Titan Web page:
Titan’s platform upgrade makes Gotham more performant, open, and proactive, so that the world’s institutions can continue turning data into intelligence.
I once heard a Fast Search & Transfer whiz kid use the word “performant.” In 2006, I asked, “What does performant mean?” The answer was, “It means fast.” I asked, “Like the name of your company or fast as in speed?” The reply, “Fast.” That’s the type of answer that may have contributed to some of Fast Search’s challenges.
I also like the Palantirish word “proactive,” which seems forward leaning.
The search and business intelligence vendors have been using the phrase “turning data into intelligence” for years.
To sum up, Palantir is becoming performant in marketing its platform which converts all sorts of information into “intelligence.” Now what is “intelligence”? Answer fast or performantly, please.
Stephen E Arnold, January 7, 2021
Palantir Founder European Investments
December 22, 2020
Just a suggestion for those who want to know what Peter Thiel finds financially interesting. Point your browser thing at “Here’s Where Peter Thiel Is Investing in Europe.” The write up includes some biographical details about one of Palantir’s founders. Then the guts of the write up is a list of companies in which Mr. Thiel’s funds have invested. The list is organized by country so one can see that Belgium has only one outfit with Thiel appeal, Topcompare.be. Germany and the ever interesting UK each have about a dozen hoped to be winners. One of Mr. Thiel’s UK investments is the money sucking Google DeepMind. There’s a pony in there somewhere at the digital stables.
Stephen E Arnold, December 22, 2020
Palantir Technologies Sparks a Controversial Metaphor
December 4, 2020
In an interview with a policeware/intelware vendor, I learned about a financial company’s view of Palantir Technologies. This is the 13 year old start up which recently went public. The company had an astounding 130 customers, about $600 million in revenue, and a modest $500 million in losses in 12 months.
Here’s the comment which I chased down in its original tweeter output glossiness:
The operative phrase is:
A full casino.
If I were a Palantirian unpacking boxes in Denver, Colorado, I would hit the Yellow Pages or the Seeing Stone. An attorney might have some thoughts about a malicious metaphor disseminated via the marvelous firm managed part time by a bearded CEO.
Palantir. A full casino. Whatever does that mean?
Stephen E Arnold, December 4, 2020
Palantir Technologies: Once Secretive Company Explains What It Is Not
November 17, 2020
I enjoy once-secretive companies explaining what they are not. A good example of this type of re-formation is “Palantir Is Not a Data Company (Palantir Explained, #1).” The headline makes it clear to me that there will be additional “we are not” essays coming down the intelware pike. The first installment of what a stealth company communicated incorrectly it seems is:
Palantir is not a data company and not a data aggregator.
The write up wants to differentiate from a company like Datminr or Oracle BlueKai and similar firms. These outfits suck up information and then sell access to those data.
Palantir Technologies is not in that “data” business. The company processes the data its clients have, license, or to which the clients link in an appropriate manner.
The essay makes clear that Palantir is a “software company.” That’s true. Much of the software is open source or crafted to perform specific functions which customers pay Palantir to effectuate. (There are partners and integrators who perform other work for Palantir licensees. Most of these companies keep a low profile and do not advertise their Palantir goodness.
Several observations:
- Palantir is a hybrid outfit; that is, it combines open source software, custom code, and consulting to generate revenue
- Partners and integrators contribute expertise and software shims to allow a licensee obtain a desire output from the Palantir system
- Much of Palantir “runs” on cloud services; for example, Amazon Web Services.
Now that Palantir is a publicly traded company, the once stealthy firm which operated as a start up for more than a decade has to demonstrate that it is avoiding some of the public relations pitfalls for intelware and policeware vendors in the public eye.
How difficult is this task? Quite challenging in my opinion.
I am looking forward to the second installment of explaining Palantir.
Stephen E Arnold, November 17, 2020
France: No Palantir Gotham Clone. Really?
October 29, 2020
DarkCyber noted “A French Alternative to Palantir Would Take Two Years to Make, Thales CEO Says.” The Reuters news story contains information which allegedly originated with Patrice Caine, the CEO of Thales, a rough equivalent to a large US defense contractor like Raytheon or the British outfit BAE Systems.
Factoids which appear in the write up:
- DGSI, the French equivalent of a mash up of the FBI and NSA, said there was no comparable product available from a French company
- France wants to achieve digital sovereignty in the intelware and policeware markets; that is, use French products
- The time required to clone Gotham is 24 months; however, the assistance of the French government would be needed.
DarkCyber observations:
First, the perception that no French company can deliver this type of system may come as a surprise to some French companies. Firms like Sinequa have marketed intelligence capabilities for many years. Some policeware and intelware is just enterprise search gussied up with a stage costume and some eye liner. Plus, there are other companies as well who might interpret the “no comparable product” comment as an affront; for example, hot ticket Datanami or the quite functional Amesys Eagle and Shadow technology.
Second, the desire to use French products is important. However, the French government has not moved with sufficient purpose to cultivate the type of innovation in intelware evident in the UK, for example. The UK is a policeware and intelware hot spot; for instance, the Gamma Group among others. The deanonymization of digital currencies revolution has been chugging along for a number of years because one university moved forward.
Third, the idea that two years are needed before France has a system comparable to Palantir Gotham is either wildly optimistic or an understatement about the time required. Fast ramping is possible with a French nucleus, supplemented with strategic acquisitions. For example, tap Dassault Exalead, provide funding, and recommend that innovative companies be identified and moved lock, stock, and barrel to Montpellier or Toulouse.
DarkCyber’s team can identify what to buy and what to do to assemble a French solution to the need for a Palantir-type system. It is important to remember that Palantir Gotham is “old” in Internet years. There are innovators and talent to create what France wants more in step with the modern era, not the emulation of a i2 Ltd’s late 1990’s thinking.
And where did the phrase “red tape” originate? Yep, France.
Stephen E Arnold, October 29, 2020
Palantir Round Up: The Beyond Search Commentary
October 27, 2020
I received a request for the links to my Palantir Technologies coverage. Here’s a hot linked list to the 17 essays, news items, and analyses which appeared in Beyond Search / Dark Cyber from March to October 2020. Stories prior to this year’s may be located using the search function on the Beyond Search / Dark Cyber blog.
- “Two Palantir Profiles: Some Peculiar Omissions.” This essay identifies several Palantir activities not included in the September 2020 New York Magazine profile of the company and the October 2020 New York Times Magazine article. Why were this events ignored or overlooked by the respective publishing companies?
- “Palantir Technologies: Minor Questions Remain.” A list of nine questions which have not been answered comprehensively. This article appeared in early October 2020.
- “Palantir Technologies: A Problem for Intelware Competitors?” This essay compares Palantir Technologies to Autonomy. Both companies have something in common: Revenue. But Autonomy had generated more revenue than Palantir, and Autonomy chose to sell itself to Hewlett Packard. This essay appeared in September 2020 and included the names of the five prime movers at the company.
- “Palantir: Will Investors Embrace Intelware Outfit Generating Consistent, Substantial Losses for More Than a Decade?” This article appeared in September 2020 and focuses on Palantir’s consistent record of losing money in a boom market for policeware.
- “Palantir Has Only Unicorn Scorn for Fellow Travelers.” The essay identifies Palantir’s signal that it is different from other unicorns. The story appeared on September 7, 2020.
- “Palantir: Planning Ahead.” This is a September 4, 2020, essay about the company’s desire to have a special type of control after the initial public offering.
- “Palantir: Stakeholders May Know Whom to Blame If Money Does Not Flow.” This August 2020 essay considers founder control in perpetuity.
- “Palantir Technologies: Maybe Stealth Is Better for Specialized Services Companies?” This essay explores the upside and downside of a policeware company which goes public, thus exposing more of its information to outsiders. This article appeared on August 24, 2020.
- “Palantir Technologies and Semi Hard Numbers.” A short item about Palantir’s revenues. The story appeared on July 10, 2020.
- “A Peek into Google and Palantir Contracts: The UK National Health Service Versions.” This article provided links to Palantir’s agreements with the UK NHS and was published in June 2020.
- “Palantir Technologies: A Very Unusual Emission from a Specialized Services Firm.” This May 26, 2020, essay points to challenges NSO Group faces and raises the question, “Will Palantir face similar scrutiny when it goes public?”
- “Schmidt Versus Thiel May Be a Proxy for Google Trying Catch Up with Palantir.” This May 2020 article touches on the relationship between Palantir and the current administration in Washington, DC.
- “Palantir to Help HHS Track Coronavirus.” This April 2020 news item points to Palantir’s contract with the US Department of Health and Human Services.
- “Palantir Technologies: Getting the NSO Treatment.” This April 24, 2020, essay points out that Palantir is getting more attention from publications like the Wall Street Journal.
- “Palantir Technologies: Evidence That Making Big Money Comes from a Financial Play, Not a Product.” This April 12, 2020, article raises the question, “Is Palantir a financial play, not a viable company?”
- “MiningLamp Technology: Another Palantir?” This March 30, 2020, article draws attention to a Chinese company which appears to have duplicated some of Palantir’s functionality.
- “DCGS: Palantir and BAE Seem to Be Winners.” This March 9, 2020, article considers the demise of DCGS as a viable wartime information and the pivot to BAE Systems and Palantir as alternatives.
There are other, earlier stories. These provide a snapshot of the Beyond Search and Dark Cyber coverage of the company. Remember. Each of these articles is anchored to an open source news story.
Stephen E Arnold, October 27, 2020
Two Palantir Profiles: Some Peculiar Omissions
October 26, 2020
Not long ago, I was interviewed for a “real” news story about Palantir which appeared in New York Magazine in late September 2020. That story — “Techie Software Soldier Spy: Palantir, Big Data’s scariest, most secretive unicorn, is going public. But is its crystal ball just smoke and mirrors?” — was chock full of information about Palantir Technologies. [1] Alas, the New York Times’s reporter never called me, but what’s new? On Sunday, October 25, 2020, the Times’s profile “The All Seeing Eye: Palantir became a tech giant by helping governments and law enforcement decipher vast amounts of data. Is it dangerous to let this software know so much?” appeared in print. Yep, another “real” news report about the company, and this one has nifty graphics.
There are some similarities between the two write ups. First, the origin story of Palantir is similar. For practical purposes, they are close enough for horse shoes. What seems to have slipped through the cracks is the information the Silicon Valley-centric team formed around Peter Thiel has been ignored. Some of these “founders” are quite fascinating individuals. Palantir was less a seeing stone than a step beyond what is now IBM’s i2 Analyst’s Notebook, one of the grandpeople of today’s policeware and intelware systems. [2] The differences between Analyst’s Notebook and Palantir Gotham can still trigger inter-agency memo battles among LE and intel professionals. But in terms of functionality, both ingest information and provide outputs useful to those interested in entities (banks, people, and other proper noun type things). Palantir anchored its system on techniques in use at a US intelligence agency more than a decade ago. i2 Ltd. based its approach around the work processes of UK law enforcement. Similar but different. Again, the differences are not germane beyond the point that i2 refined the use of software to assist UK LE. Palantir tailored an i2-type method for US intel professionals. That’s important to me and probably no one else.
Another similarity is that the theme of doing good runs through both write ups. Based on my limited knowledge, the “doing good” thing is indeed a factor for those working on Analyst’s Notebook and Palantir Gotham. Most people involved in LE and intel embrace the idea that bad actors can exert a negative influence on some society cohorts. Specialized software like i2 clones are useful, and they are not code confections I want to see available to bad actors. However, the “doing good” is often cheek by jowl with “making money.” Keeping control of proprietary features is also important. Plus, dropping a shroud over what these intelware systems can deliver is quite important in my opinion. Both write ups keep that shroud in place. That’s good.
A final similarity is the Lord of the Rings’ trope. The name Palantir, the seeing stone, the wonky fantastical terminology appear in both write ups. The angle of attack, however, is different in each story. The “real” journalist at the New York Times Magazine seems to have leaned heavily on what Alex Karp conveyed as the truth about himself and the company’s 17 year journal to the promised land of the IPO. The New York Magazine profile pulled information from Beltway insiders and old-fashioned research, none of that “we were classmates stuff.” Score one for New York Magazine team. But the net net is the same: Hard charging Palantirians labored to overcome established government contractors and won over the hearts and minds of LE and intel professionals.
When I reread both articles Sunday, October 25, 2020, I noted some factoids that did not appear in either write up. It is entirely possible that my 76 year old eyes missed or my creaky brain ignored some polished sentences. For that, I apologize.
Here’s what I noted as missing in action:
- I recall mentioning a couple of historical item’s about Palantir’s stroll to its IPO. Neither of these items merited inclusion in the final version of the article which was published and disseminated online. Did the New York Times’s journalist fail to uncover or elect to discard these events?
- Palantir’s method of working around established US government procurement procedures. Sure, there are references to providing software to those in theater, but that’s a darned important fact. It’s a bit like “move fast and break things” methods which have delivered the fine environment in which Silicon Valley companies thrive. i2, on the other hand, was and is a “play be the rules” outfit. That approach has been maintained by IBM even as today’s owner of Analyst Notebook has been unable to keep pace with other, more zippy investigative software solutions.
- Palantir ended up in court over the Dot ANB file format. This was a trade secret of i2 Ltd. I know because I did some tiny, unimportant work for i2 before it was sold off by its founder. In order to import Dot ANB files into Gotham, the seeing stone outfit needed a short cut. Palantirians found a semi-clever way to obtain this file format information. i2 Ltd. found out about file format fancy dancing, and a court battle ensured. Information about the litigation is scant, but the hassle was settled out of court and the terms of the deal were sealed. Some information is available in this Reuters’ story. Odd that this important litigation escaped the attention of the “real” journalists. It provides some insight into the actions of the hard-charging Palantirians.
- Palantir also allowed itself to become embroiled in what I call the HBGary misstep. You can wade through the unfamiliar players and locate the references to Facebook data and Palantir in “ChamberLeaks: Military Contractors Palantir And Berico Under Scrutiny.” Since Palantir presents a corporate story about law and order, the HBGary incident suggests that “law” and “order” may have a different meaning to some Palantirians in the “shire.”
None of these stories has been given an X-ray procedure. Why? [3] The research and analysis required to make sense of interface similarities and differences, legal jousting about file formats, or deals among the specialized services companies that serve LE and intel professionals are not going to find their way into “real” media. Maybe one of the crack MBA mills will produce a motivated whiz kid who will explore these three topics. (Guess what? There are more to uncover.)
From my point of view, Palantir’s current origin story in both Karp tales is entertaining. But like the omissions about Google (another Silicon Valley paragon), the information no one “remembers” or bothers to unearth reveal more about the Palantirians and their organization than the creative revisionism now circulating. What about those protests in front of Palantir’s Palo Alto office? I think it is like people conveniently not remembering the Google Yahoo settlement regarding ad technology?
To some Silicon Valley, “in the same dorm” outfits, the past and its impacts are irrelevant to the thumbtyping generation. The here and now is what matters. With some stakeholders rolling in dough, the past may not exist.
What’s the history of policeware and intelware history tell us about the future of Palantir Technologies? I am no master of prediction. I can’t predict if I will be around to see the end of the pandemic or the end of the week for that mater. Let me pose some questions, which are what got Socrates terminated with extreme poeticism.
- Will Palantir be able to generate sufficient sustainable revenue to produce a profit? Note: It’s been 17 years to lose only half a billion if the published data are accurate? Plus, there are dozens of startups chasing the same modest pool of whales known to consume policeware and intelware.
- Will Palantir be able to catch up with vendors of intelligence software systems which have leapfrogged Gotham? (My estimates suggest there are about 300 customers on the scale of the CIA globally, and newcomers like some startups in Herzliya and suburban Virginia who are a heck of a lot less expensive to license, support, and tune. Deals with the fish bigger than carp are locked up and not in play. Some countries want their own equivalent to Analyst’s Notebook and Palantir Gotham. A deal may be unlikely no matter how much high school French a Silicon Valley pitch person uses in a presentation in Paris. There is competition today. In the late 1990s, Analyst’s Notebook faced fewer competitive threats.)
- Will Palantir, even with its move from Silicon Valley, become a Denver-type company with all the healthy goodness of a firm breathing fresh mountain air and rooting for the Broncos? Note: You can take the people out of Silicon Valley, but removing the Silicon Valley DNA may be like beating down Covid 19.
The Lord of the Rings was a fantasy if I recall a painful reading assignment from a class taught at the one-horse university I attended. I think this observation is semi-accurate: Where Palantir is concerned, magic and a rainbow are necessary. Some financially savvy humans are helpful as well.
The reality of Palantir’s dogged slog for 17 years is a bit more banal despite the “with it” persona of its public-facing wizard. The glow of that seeing stone’s glow is sufficiently bright to make it possible to read the digits on those cash accounts. What else is necessary?
Stephen E Arnold, October 26, 2020
Blog notes:
- i2 Ltd. was sold to a venture firm. Then IBM bought i2. Today’s Analyst’s Notebook is called “IBM i2 Analyst’s Notebook.”
- The “lack of context” about competition, market size, revenue, and number of customers is fascinating. But neither writer had room for such irrelevancies.
- My question is, “What is the logic of editorial decisions to omit factual actions about the business processes of Palantir Technologies?”
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