About

Palantir is an American data analysis and software services company that specializes in surveillance and spyware technologies for governments and law enforcers. Online, memes have mentioned the company and its executives in satirical images and videos criticizing a hyper surveillance society.

Origin

Palantir was founded in 2003^[1] in Denver, Colorado.^[2] Alex Karp is the company’s CEO and venture capitalist Peter Thiel is an early investor in the company.^[3][4] The company’s name is a reference to Saruman’s crystal ball, a magical artifact in The Lord of the Rings that allows the sinister wizard to spy on anyone anywhere.

Spread

Initial memes on Palantir are related to stock trading. PLTR shares have been categorized as a Meme Stock. ^[5] The company’s volatile stock price has made investors and traders anxious, despite their underlying notion that the stock will ultimately soar because the global population is moving towards a surveillance society.

Eventually data privacy-related memes on Palantir started to emerge. On August 2025, Tiktok user aubreeeeeezy uploaded a video clip from Toy Story with a caption that indicates Palantir knows every individual citizen. The video gained 136,400 likes and 13,300 shares.^[6]

Various Examples

Search Interest

References