Peter Thiel—Co-founded Palantir Technologies, providing surveillance and data-mining tools to ICE and military agencies
Peter Thiel co-founded Palantir Technologies in 2003, which became a major provider of surveillance and data analytics tools to US government agencies including ICE, the Department of Defense, and intelligence agencies. Palantir built the Investigative Case Management system used by ICE to track immigrants, and its FALCON database was used in immigration raids. Federal contracts grew from $4.4M in 2009 to $970.5M in 2025. Thiel remains a board member and major shareholder.
Scoring Impact
| Topic | Direction | Relevance | Contribution |
|---|---|---|---|
| Military & Defense Contracts | +toward | secondary | -0.50 |
| Surveillance Technology | +toward | primary | -1.00 |
| Overall incident score = | -0.993 | ||
Score = avg(topic contributions) × significance (critical ×2) × confidence (0.66)
Evidence (2 signals)
Intercept revealed Palantir software used to target parents of migrant children as early as 2017
A 2019 investigation by The Intercept revealed that ICE used Palantir's Investigative Case Management software to target the parents and relatives of unaccompanied migrant children crossing the border, as documented in a May 2017 ICE document. This was a precursor to the Trump administration's family separation policy.
Thiel co-founded Palantir in 2003 with CIA backing, company grew to $970M in federal contracts by 2025
Peter Thiel co-founded Palantir Technologies in 2003 with funding from In-Q-Tel, the CIA's venture capital arm. The company built surveillance and data analytics platforms used by ICE, DoD, and intelligence agencies. Federal contracts grew from $4.4M in 2009 to $541M in 2024 to $970.5M in 2025.