In 2020, Palantir moved its headquarters from Silicon Valley to Denver, CO

In 2025, four executives from large tech companies were given positions in the US Army Reserves—including Palantir Chief Technology Officer Shyam Sankar, which reinforced Palantir's ties with the US military and its role as a leading defense partner.

Palantir's executives have become increasingly involved in American politics in recent years

Palantir's government contracts have steadily increased since Donald Trump was re-elected in 2024, moving from intelligence and defense to public health and assisting in Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency efforts.

Since its founding, Palantir has refused to sell its software to China or Russia

In line with the founding principle of supporting Western institutions, Palantir has vowed to not share its technology with companies or government agencies in China and Russia—which Palantir frequently calls the West's largest threats.

A Palantir executive was named a Lieutenant Colonel in the US Army Reserve

In 2025, four executives from large tech companies were given positions in the US Army Reserves, including Palantir Chief Technology Officer Shyam Sankar. The Army says their role in Detachment 201, also known as the Executive Innovation Corps, is to inspire other tech executives to consider how their work can support the US Army—without leaving their careers.

Read about Palantir's early days—from a Stanford University dorm to an investment from the CIA

Palantir was originally founded after the 9/11 attacks as a private-sector solution to the government's growing need for advanced intelligence. One of its earliest investors was In-Q-Tel, the CIA's non-profit venture capital firm.

Listen to a former Palantir employee's take on the company

Among other former Palantir employees who have spoken out against the company's role in aiding surveillance and in the American government, former content strategist Juan Sebastían Pinto is concerned that Palantir is creating a monopoly over artificial intelligence.

Read about the day Palantir went public in 2020

After more than 15 years in business, Palantir held its initial public offering (IPO) via a direct listing—meaning the company didn't rely on underwriters to assess the initial trading price or stock value. Palantir's stock ended the day trading 31% higher than the reference price.

In 2025, more than 10 former Palantir employees published a letter condemning the company's partnerships

Thirteen so-called "ex-Palantirians," condemned a $30M deal that gave Immigration and Customs Enforcement near real-time insights on migrants. The letter, named "The Scouring of the Shire" in a nod to "The Lord of the Rings," alleges that the company is violating its code of conduct by supporting this application of its service.

Learn about Palantir CEO Alex Karp's background—including his history of social activism

Palantir has been criticized for its close proximity to conservative politics, including the company's partnership with ICE, cofounder Peter Thiel's long track record of large donations to Donald Trump's campaigns, and the company's support for Israel. But its leader, Alex Karp, is a self-proclaimed progressive with a PhD in social theory. For many, Karp's background and leadership are a paradox for Palantir.

After the October 7 attacks, Palantir took out a full-page New York Times ad supporting Israel

Palantir provides its software to the Israeli Defense Forces. Alex Karp has frequently said that while his company's support for Israel may be controversial, it's critical to support Western allies.

Learn more about Palantir's 'meritocracy fellowship'

In 2025, Palantir launched a fellowship program for high school graduates to bypass college and begin working at Palantir. The fellowship is positioned as an alternative to American universities, which Palantir leaders and cofounders frequently criticize, and offers students four months of paid training, seminars from business leaders, and return offers to top students.

Palantir's services allow both companies and the government to analyze complex data

There's a common misconception that Palantir buys, sells, and shares data, but Palantir insists it isn't a data broker. Rather, Palantir is more like a data analytics company that allows corporations and government agencies to combine messy, large, and often hard to access datasets to gather insights.

Listen to a conversation between two Palantir cofounders—Peter Thiel and Joe Lonsdale

Palantir cofounder Joe Lonsdale was an editor of the Stanford Review (which Peter Thiel founded), and Thiel became a mentor to Lonsdale. The two discussed shared sentiments about the importance of developing Palantir to maintain a largely American global order, as well as cultural revolutions.

Learn more about Palantir's core products, Gotham and Foundry

Palantir's core products, Gotham and Foundry, are designed to help government agencies and businesses turn complex or messy datasets into usable information. Gotham is designed primarily for government clients and connects disparate data points into recommendations and analysis. Foundry is designed for enterprise users.

The infrastructure, talent, and markets of Silicon Valley make the high-tech region ideal for startups

The number of startup employees, founders, and investors who have flocked to Silicon Valley over the years makes the California region ideal for networking in the tech space. Plus, California’s laws and specific rules around trade secrets help founders of fledgling businesses in Silicon Valley feel protected.

Data center companies are worsening housing undersupply in some regional markets

With large capital to spend, technology giants have disrupted the real estate market, driving up prices by outbidding commercial and residential developers and intensifying competition for available land. A property purchased over several years for $50M in Prince William County, Virginia, was sold to Amazon for $700M in 2025.

The name 'Silicon Valley' arose from the founding of Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory in Fairchild Semiconductor in 1956-57, founded near Stanford University in Palo Alto

The crypto city home to biohacking experiments

The DIY nature of biohacking gives the work an entrepreneurial feel, as seen by the emergence of community labs, at-home testing kits, and corporation-backed cities that don't necessarily require government-approved testing standards. Próspera, Honduras, created by a business of the same (first) name, was born from legislation that allowed international businesses to shave off a slice of the country to establish their own micronations.

In 2025, ByteDance agreed to sell the app's US branch

In 2024, US lawmakers passed a requirement for parent company ByteDance to sell TikTok or face a ban in the country, which the company challenged in court. After several extensions granted by President Trump, ByteDance agreed to sell the company's US branch to a group of US investors, including Oracle, which will oversee the app's security and cloud computing.

After the 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York City’s Financial District in 2001, many banks decided to relocate

Much has been said about why today’s top banks are typically no longer headquartered on Wall Street itself. The terrorist attacks in New York City’s Financial District on Sept. 11, 2001, are one reason many banks decided to relocate.

A Disney architect designed Epic's headquarters

Epic Systems provides electronic medical records in the US—but its offices are far from bland. The HQ has five different campuses that are inspired by "Harry Potter," "The Wizard of Oz," and "Alice in Wonderland."

Chipotle was initially started to fund another restaurant

Founder Steve Ells was a chef at Stars, a tony restaurant in San Francisco. His original plan for Chipotle—which first opened in 1993 in Denver, Colorado—was to make enough money to open a separate, higher-end restaurant.

Explore Bessemer's anti-portfolio of missed opportunities

From Pinterest to Yelp, Bessemer Venture Partners—one of the most well-known VC firms—has invested in many successful companies over the years. But the firm has also kicked itself for passing on a few great opportunities, like Apple and Google. Check out the other companies in Bessemer's "anti-portfolio" here.

Nvidia was founded in a Denny's restaurant

Nvidia is one of a handful of companies valued at more than $1T. In its early days, the semiconductor company sold GPUs, or graphics processing units, that were used for video games. But in recent years, Nvidia’s chips have been used for crypto and AI. Nvidia has faced several setbacks on its journey, including when the US sanctioned chip exports to China.

Why everyone is openly discussing pay

In 2021, Colorado became the first state in the US to require public disclosures of salary ranges. Flash forward a few years, and other places in America would get salary transparency laws, too, like Washington state, New York City, and California. But the salary transparency movement might have a downside: Some researchers believe it could hurt wage growth for workers over time. Watch this video to learn more.

‘I realized after I got there it was a cult,’ one former WeWork executive said

WeWork isn’t only known for how it revolutionized modern work, or its spectacular financial rise and fall. It’s also known for its former cultlike company culture under former CEO Adam Neumann, complete with a charismatic leader and “summer camp” company retreats that blurred the lines between work and personal life.

Show business is increasingly leaving Hollywood

Using tax incentives, states like Georgia, New Jersey, and New Mexico are luring studios to produce their films and television shows outside of California. Changing business models after COVID-19 largely influenced this change.

Watch this video that uses Lego bricks to explain how venture capital works.

Fast-casual restaurant Chili's is experiencing a resurgence, with its parent company recently reporting a nearly 32% increase in sales, thanks to passionate Gen Z fans on TikTok.

In 2009, the nation was gripped by the story of a missing young boy who was believed to be floating over Colorado in a homemade balloon, until it was revealed that he was at home the whole time.

Explore fun facts from the USPS, including unique post office buildings, a stamp that traveled past Pluto, and more.

In 2019, a laptop loaded with six of the worst malware in history and described as 'an exhibit of historical weaponry' sold for $1.3M.

Legendary architect Frank Lloyd Wright designed the SC Johnson headquarters in Wisconsin, aiming to make a cathedral-like workplace

An initial public offering or 'IPO' is the process of a private company becoming public by putting shares of the company on the stock market for purchase.

The Nasdaq's 'Magnificent 7' companies are responsible for roughly 40% of the Nasdaq 100 index's gains, while the remaining 93 companies account for the other 60%.

Massive 3D printers have been used to build homes by stacking layers of 'concrete toothpaste,' a fire-resistant material that effectively insulates against outside noise.

A 2019 Facebook event called on attendees to "Storm Area 51, They Can't Stop All of Us," resulting in countless memes, the creation of a music festival, and eventually the arrests of those who did try to approach the area.

Netflix profits when you're not watching, and its movies are designed that way—read a detail-rich critical essay exposing lesser-known Netflix takes

Read a deep dive on the 'all-purpose healing' peptide BPC-157.

In 2026, Finland was named the world's happiest country for the ninth consecutive year based on its wealth, social safety network, and high life expectancy, among other factors.

The Great Salt Lake's distinct dual coloration results from high-salinity organisms that only live in the northern portion and produce a purple protein.

Abraham Lincoln was almost assassinated weeks before his inauguration as he traveled from Illinois to DC through Baltimore in 1861; it took two independent claims for Lincoln to be convinced the threat was real

Louisiana's 'Cancer Alley' is infamous for having some of the highest industrial pollution, toxic air emissions, and cancer risks in the US.

Power lines are dotted with large, brightly colored balls to improve the visibility of these thin wires to helicopters and small planes and help prevent potential crashes.

Some Pokémon have been named after real and fictional organisms, while some real-world species have been named after Pokémon, such as Chilicola charizard and Binburrum zapdos.

Dorothy's famous entrance into Oz in 'The Wizard of Oz' relied on analog tricks, including a body double and sepia-toned paint, as much as it did on technology

Crows are believed to have intelligence on par with a seven-year-old child and demonstrate complex behaviors, from problem-solving with tools to recognizing human faces.

Hotels in Cannes, the glamorous city on the French Riviera, hire hawks to ward off seagulls during the city's famous film festival.

The rivalry between Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson centered on federalism—the question of how much power the federal government should hold relative to the states.

Apeirophobia is an overwhelming fear of living forever, perhaps stemming from the brain's inability to conceptualize an infinite life.