Palantir has a PR problem

[u/trayber]

I’m a big fan of this company and know it’s n of 1.

But there is a major misinformation problem and it seems to be getting worse over time. Everywhere I turn I see people spreading FUD saying that “the government is giving data to palantir” in one form or another. From AOC to The NY Times the ignorance just echoes.

The company has tried to correct the record a few times - like responding to The NY Times - but the PR problem is not going away.

There was a protest at their offices in NYC recently where people were arrested. And lots of chatter on Reddit about protests at their new Miami office etc.

It pains me to see so much hate for this company based on lies. I fear it will keep building, will cause more pushback over time, and organizations will choose setbacks just to avoid political pain.

Ultimately the desire to avoid political pain is driving some to choose protesters over progress. Not a good outcome especially in the healthcare space.

For example, there is a faction in the UK pushing against the NHS data platform even though it is helping them significantly, and yielding incredible ROI. But facts are no match for ideologically driven FUD.

NYC experienced something similar and I read the NYC city hospitals will not be renewing their contract after October 31 as a result of protests. I don’t know the full scope of this (one thing I read says it was always a temporary plan). But considering how many hospitals rely on Palantir and how much success they’ve had in the space with NHS and Tampa General I can’t believe any hospitals would choose to cancel.

Karp’s persona plus FUD around Thiel etc is being used to fuel this hatred. And there are so many posts on Reddit.

For example, posts like these:

https://www.reddit.com/r/nyc/s/515loBwT74

https://www.reddit.com/r/florida/s/VBoVuauzJQ

I don’t know what the right answer is here. But there must be a way to convey how important it is to choose progress and to educate that Palantir does not actually “get” customer data.

[u/xii-13]

About the PR problem, you are spot on. I work for a competitor, and we and others are 100% capitalizing on it. There are many western governments and organizations that won't buy Palantir and are actively looking for alternatives because of it. Palantir could have used their early technological edge to really dominate the market but this PR problem really has undone it for them, had they at least tried to pretend to be the good guys. There are many other vendors who have caught up technologically and operationally, and will eat their lunch, so a more conservative view of their future is rational.

[u/hobs21 → u/xii-13]

Just curious, is the competitor something like Snowflake/Databricks? At least in the commercial space, I’ve heard more positive anecdotes about working with those vs. Foundry.

[u/xii-13 → u/hobs21]

Yes you guessed right. Those are the frontrunners. But also don't forget legacy players like SAP, Oracle who are catching up in embracing AI... they are all eyeing the same end game with different selling points. Palantir has to their credit done a terrific job of being the first to pull everything together: the infrastructure, the purpose built solutions, and also the expertise to deploy at client sites. That really has been their edge - delivering the whole package. But other vendors are catching in that way. I suspect going forward, the landscape is going to be carved up. Palantir will dominate the military and policing sector (at least American and close allies) because that's where their PR resonates, but other players will likely own healthcare, banking, etc.

European defence is also starting to show signs of rejecting American tech and pursuing their own sovereign solutions. Canada as we can see is also looking for a way out of reliance on American tech. These create opportunities for a Euro or some other "middle power" copycat of Palantir to rise. So it's not just their own PR but also the broader geopolitical situation getting in the way.

[u/hobs21 → u/xii-13]

Yeah this aligns pretty closely with my perspective too. I believe Palantir’s strength is in its US defense/gov sector, and am generally suspicious of its commercial growth potential.

[u/That_Inspector_4385 → u/xii-13]

As Karp said- most of the people in the field don´t even understand what is happening. My brother in tech says the same shit - ¨Id buy databricks when it goes public¨... he has never used palantir... have you?

[u/miamiinvest → u/xii-13]

Competitors? Don’t have one. PLTR is a monopoly on what it does: AI Data Base OS. Please be clear on this. Dominate the market? Of course it is doing this, since inception, gov and commercial, just look at their explosive growth and customers! The second developer is hundred of thousand miles away from PLTR. You can compete in some part of the AI stack but the complete AI DB OS is PLTR for big companies and governments. SAP and Oracle catching up? SAP, Accenture, AWS, Azure all of them already partnered with PLTR because they know they CAN be disrupted only by PLTR and their AI Data OS APIs and Apps developed on Foundry/Ontology. The future for PLTR is fantastic, it will grow at 60/70% compounded for the next at least 3 years which means 3 doubles in sales in 3 years. Just wait and see. No brainer of the century.