Palantir’s Surveillance-Style Contracts Only Add to 491% Rally, Crazy Valuation

PalantirPLTR

has exploded into the public consciousness since its low-key 2020 IPO, in part because many are perplexed by what the firm actually does. Maybe its fantastical returns can be attributed to the fact that it knows what you do. The data analytics and software enterprise, up 491% over the last year, still has believers who are betting on it becoming the go-to software stack for the government.

• Building on some $113M in federal contracts under Trump, the NYT wrote that Palantir was ‘tapped’ to help build a piece of software that could “share data across agencies.”
• The effort aims to create a master citizens list, combining information about Americans’ financials, taxes, medical claims, and other sensitive information.

Five eyes, or more: Of course, Palantir’s new forays are considered controversial, not just because of their propensity to be used for mass surveillance — but because the government is working with a private company that might be able to side-step certain privacy protections. However, controversial contract wins (like Palantir’s recent DHS tie-up) are key to bets that the firm’s $309B valuation will only continue to grow, further divorcing itself from valuations. Themes ETF’s CRO, Paul Marino, said, “You’re starting to see … a Tesla effect where valuations don’t really matter because there are these true believers in the company.”