Palantir quietly borrowed its name from a fantasy novel’s warning.
In 2003 Peter Thiel, a Lord of the Rings devotee, named his data firm after Tolkien’s palantíri, with the CIA’s venture fund an early backer. Tolkien wrote the far-seeing stones as a parable for the perils of surveillance — crystal balls that deceive and corrupt whoever stares too long.
Palantir on Brandseum