On Saturday, August 23, 2025, activists across the United States are set to gather in protest against Palantir Technologies, a company that has become a lightning rod in the national debate over surveillance, privacy, and the role of billionaire tech figures in American democracy. The movement, calling to "defund Palantir," is fueled by mounting concerns over the company’s lucrative government contracts, its artificial intelligence-driven data analytics platform, and the influence of its powerful backers—including Peter Thiel, Elon Musk, and Alex Karp.
Palantir, founded in 2003 and headquartered in Denver, Colorado, has long marketed itself as a leader in AI-powered data integration and analysis. Its software is used by military and law enforcement agencies to sift through vast amounts of personal data, including social media profiles, physical characteristics, and other sensitive information. According to The New York Times, Palantir’s platform allows users to combine and analyze data from a dizzying array of sources, making it a favored tool for agencies tasked with everything from tracking criminal activity to managing national security threats.
The company’s profile—and the controversy surrounding it—reached new heights in March 2025, when former President Donald Trump signed an executive order mandating that all federal agencies and departments share data on Americans. Palantir Technologies was selected to manage this unprecedented data integration project. As reported by The New York Times, the company’s software is now used to combine information from the Department of Homeland Security, Department of Defense, Department of Health and Human Services, Social Security Administration, and the Internal Revenue Service. The administration has also signaled its desire to access bank account numbers and medical claims, raising alarms among privacy advocates and civil liberties organizations.
Elon Musk, the high-profile entrepreneur behind Tesla and SpaceX, played a key role in Palantir’s selection for the project. The company’s deep connections to influential figures in Silicon Valley do not end there. Peter Thiel, an early investor in Facebook and a co-founder of Palantir, still holds a major stake in the company. Thiel has not only worked closely with Musk but has also mentored political figures such as JD Vance, who later became Trump’s vice-presidential pick. Thiel’s influence in both the tech and political spheres has fueled criticism that a small group of billionaire capitalists are exerting outsized control over American institutions.
Palantir’s CEO, Alex Karp, has not shied away from controversy. On an earnings call earlier this year, Karp stated, "We want to disrupt and make the institutions we partner with the very best in the world and, when it’s necessary, to scare enemies and on occasion kill them." This stark language, combined with Palantir’s growing role in government surveillance, has only intensified public scrutiny.
The company’s financials are equally eye-popping. In 2024, Palantir disclosed that Karp received $6.8 billion in compensation—making him the highest-paid chief executive of a publicly traded company in the United States. This staggering figure has drawn criticism from those who argue that such levels of executive compensation are symptomatic of the very inequalities that threaten democratic governance.
Critics argue that the rise of Palantir and the concentration of wealth and power among its backers represent a new Gilded Age. According to reporting cited in the protest call, "A former generation of wealthy American conservatives backed candidates like Barry Goldwater because they wanted to conserve American institutions. But this group—including Thiel, Musk, Karp, and Vance—doesn’t seem to want to conserve much of anything, at least not anything that occurred after the 1920s, including Social Security, civil rights, and even women’s right to vote." Peter Thiel himself has written, "The 1920s were the last decade in American history during which one could be genuinely optimistic about politics. Since 1920, the vast increase in welfare beneficiaries and the extension of the franchise to women—two constituencies that are notoriously tough for libertarians—have rendered the notion of ‘capitalist democracy’ into an oxymoron."
Protest organizers and their supporters see Palantir as emblematic of a broader shift in American society, where the lines between private enterprise, government power, and personal privacy have blurred. They warn that the company’s AI-powered "super-database"—and the willingness of its leaders to embrace bold, even aggressive, rhetoric—pose a direct threat to the democratic values that have long underpinned American society. As the protest call puts it, "If ‘capitalist democracy’ is becoming an oxymoron, it’s not because of public assistance or because women got the right to vote. It’s because billionaire capitalists like Musk and Thiel are intent on killing democracy."
Yet, for all the controversy, Palantir’s business is booming. According to a recent analysis by Seeking Alpha, the company’s growth is "currently strong, fueled by AI hype and government contracts." Palantir’s unique, high-quality platforms benefit from the ongoing digitalization of government and enterprise operations, but the analyst cautions that the company does not represent "a fundamental breakthrough in enterprise software." Instead, Palantir’s high installation and maintenance costs restrict its adoption primarily to large enterprises and government agencies, making broad market penetration and sustained high growth unlikely. The analysis concludes that Palantir’s "valuation is extremely stretched, driven by speculative trading," and warns that the company’s stock is "significantly overvalued and vulnerable to a correction."
Supporters of Palantir argue that the company’s technology is essential for modern security and data management challenges. They point to its ability to rapidly analyze and synthesize information from disparate sources, potentially saving lives in times of crisis or helping to prevent criminal activity. For many government clients, the promise of greater efficiency and insight outweighs concerns about cost or privacy—at least for now.
Still, the debate over Palantir’s role in American society is unlikely to subside anytime soon. With the company’s deep ties to political power, its aggressive pursuit of government contracts, and its willingness to push the boundaries of technology and privacy, Palantir stands at the crossroads of some of the most pressing issues of the 21st century. The outcome of Saturday’s protests—and the broader public reckoning over surveillance, democracy, and corporate power—may well shape the nation’s future for years to come.
For now, Palantir’s story serves as a cautionary tale about the risks and rewards of technological innovation in an age of concentrated wealth and political polarization. Whether the company’s critics or its champions will ultimately prevail remains to be seen, but one thing is certain: the conversation about Palantir, and what it represents, is only just beginning.
