Via International Man - June 12, 2025

International Man: Palantir is a data analytics and AI company known for its work with governments, particularly in defense, intelligence, and law enforcement.

Critics argue it enables mass surveillance, predictive policing, and military applications. A significant portion of its revenue comes from classified government contracts, and some allege ties to the Deep State.

What is your perspective on Palantir?

Doug Casey: When Palantir was founded in 2003, all the initial funding came from Peter Theil and In-Q-Tel, an investment arm of the CIA. The US government and its agencies are by far its biggest customers, along with foreign governments and large corporations. Its revenues have grown around 40% annually since it went public in 2020.

The nature of Palantir’s clientele underlines what I’ve been saying about fascism as an economic system: Almost every country in the world is fascist—the economic system characterized by a total melding of the interests of government and large corporations.

Remember that Benito Mussolini coined the word “fascism” and defined it to mean the integration of the State with privately owned business. It’s different from socialism, where the State owns the means of production.

Fascism makes it possible for businessmen to become wealthy by catering primarily to the needs of the State, as opposed to the public. Corporations, by their nature, focus on creating wealth. That wealth becomes available to their shareholders, their managers, the State, and the apparatchiks in government who help the corporation. Fascism is naturally much more efficient than socialism, which always and inevitably generates losses. While fascism can look like capitalism, its prime interest is serving the State—not serving either consumers or workers.

Palantir is the Platonic ideal of a fascist business. It caters exclusively to . . .

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