Palantir, Profit, and a Gut Check

Over ten years ago, I overheard a hallway conversation about a company called Palantir. At the time, it wasn’t widely known—just something the sharpest grads from Stanford and MIT were apparently choosing over Google or Facebook.

I looked them up.

They described themselves as a company defending Western values with what felt like common sense tech and analysts. Those ideas hit something in me. I’m not talking about slogans or flag-waving. I mean the kind of basic dignity that says a gay man shouldn’t be thrown off a rooftop because of who he is. In case you forgot, ISIS was doing that shit then. That kind of moral line.

So I bought a few shares. Not a big position, just enough to track. I figured if the mission was real—if they were building tools to help keep people safe while upholding democratic values—it was worth watching.

Recently, I sold some of those shares. The investment worked out fabulously. I still hold a few shares because I think they might metastasize/grow like NVDA.

But does it hold up morally?

If I apply the Harris common sense test—the one that asks whether something is honest, fair, non-extractive, and respects human dignity—it mostly checks out:

• I made a values-informed decision.

• I didn’t pump, dump, or exploit.

• I stayed curious and skeptical along the way.

But here’s where it gets murky.

Palantir has government contracts that make a lot of people uneasy—ICE, law enforcement, border control, international surveillance. Drones killing people, kill rates are the new KPI etc. Are they still defending democratic values? Or just giving powerful tools to the highest bidder?

That’s not a rhetorical question. It’s a real one. Because investing isn’t just about upside. It’s about what you enable. And who ends up carrying the cost.

- Ray