| Notes |
In 2003 when Thiel connected with John Poindexter, a former Reagan administration official, through mutual acquaintance Richard Perle.
Poindexter, who had worked on integrating intelligence data post-9/11, introduced Thiel to the challenge ---challenge --of unifying disparate government data sources—think spy reports, financial records, and phone logs—to prevent attacks..
Thiel envisioned a software solution that could "see" patterns in this chaos, naming it Palantir after the "seeing stones" from J.R.R.
Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, symbolizing its ability to provide insight from afar. This is how the name 'palantir ' was born. |