[Ed note: The following article first appeared in the 26 April Australian Small-Cap Investigator weekly update.]
Technology has a huge impact on how we fight terrorism and crimes against humanity. The high-tech gear used to catch the Boston Bombers demonstrated this.
You see bad guys have technology whiz-kids too. More than you’d like to know. So the real war is making sure the right side stays ahead of the technological curve.
It might sound a bit strange, but the heroes of our world are the computer engineers and coders. These people that create, innovate and invent to give the good guys the upper hand.
And there’s one company with an army of engineers and coders that’s at the forefront of this fight.
Because for this company war isn’t fought on battlefronts. The real war is in computer networks, data streams, and mountains of information.
To have the best information you need to be the best at making sense of it. In today’s world with huge amounts of data, it’s getting hard to gather clear and precise information.
Too much data slows the process of governments and corporations, as they simply can’t make sense of it all.
Think about it for a second. Consider the data you create on a daily basis. Your smartphone, email, TV, car and computer all generate data every second.
Cisco Systems [NASDAQ: CSCO] estimates by 2017 there will be over 11.17 Exabytes of mobile data traffic per month. That’s about 2.8 Billion DVD’s of data per month. That’s just the mobile data.
The problem is how to make sense of it all. It’s crucial to use data to make good decisions. This is important for billion dollar businesses, police, health organisations and telecommunication providers.
So as the flow of data continues to increase, it becomes increasingly difficult to spot trends and patterns to help good decision-making. But, if you can see through the information where others can’t, you hold an advantage.
And to hold any advantage over a competitor means you control the game.
To get this advantage, companies need to know how. And as most lack the ability and systems, they ask, ‘Is there someone to do it for us?’
The same goes governments. They could have all the data in the world, but if they don’t know what to look for or can’t see it, then it is useless.
To analyse and read the information almost becomes more important than the data itself.
Of course where there’s a need, there’s a Silicon Valley company to meet it.
A company has created software that is like no other that’s come before it. They’re world leading in information analysis. And governments and big business are climbing over each other to use their software.
Palantir’s Software is Like a Virtual Crystal Ball
Or as they see it, the ‘seeing-stones’ out of J.R.R Tolkien’s Lord of The Rings.
Having a self-confessed ‘limited-social life as a teenager,‘ the founder of this company named it Palantir. (Google, ‘Palantir – Lord of The Rings’ if you haven’t read the books.)
Palantir sprung from an idea by Dr. Alex Karp, a Stanford graduate with a PHD in Social Philosophy. His idea, to create software that can ‘make sense of massive amounts of disparate data.‘
Teaming up with his friend (and PayPal founder) Peter Theil, they started Palantir.
Palantir’s first client was the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). They now provide their software to a range of industries. Financial, Medical, Government and Not-For-Profit.
‘Palantir software represents the intersection of data, technology and human expertise. Our data fusion platforms sit above traditional data systems and enable people to ask the questions they need answered in a language they understand.‘ – Palantir
Here’s a list of the work Palantir has done over the last few years;
- The hunt for terrorist groups in Iraq. Palantir’s software found patterns and connections amid Iraqi fighters and suicide bombers. They called this The Sinjar Records. Until this work, the US had never properly understood the networks and funding of these groups. It was groundbreaking information for the US.
- Uncovering a cyber-spying network that hacked the Dalai Lama. An unnamed country received an email from China asking them to stop an event for the Dalai Lama. The shocking part was the event was not public knowledge. Only the country and the Dalai Lama knew of the details. Palantir’s software identified that the Dalai Lama’s networks were hacked, along with 1600 others.
- The world’s first Human-Trafficking Database. Palantir have joined with Google [NASDAQ: GOOG] and Salesforce [NYSE: CRM] to fight the multi-billion dollar criminal world of human-trafficking. They will record data from emergency calls and evidence found by Police. Using real-time trends and patterns Police can respond swiftly when these criminals surface.
For now Palantir is private, but rumours are circulating they might float in 2013. Valuations of Palantir range from $4 Billion to $7 Billion. With numbers like that, it’s a tempting suggestion.
But Palantir isn’t just about making money. They’re a company trying to change the world. A view held by a number of Silicon Valley companies.
Palantir is another example of a Silicon Valley success story. Dr Karp has a theory on why Silicon Valley companies seem to achieve greater success:
‘What makes a software product work is the ability to build a business around a compelling idea. And while this seems obvious in America and especially in Silicon Valley, in almost every other place if you want to build a business people say, ‘well how are you going to make money tomorrow?’ In Silicon Valley we build businesses around an idea. And then figure out how to make money.‘
So keep a close eye on Palantir. They are a piece of the puzzle that’s driving the technological revolution we’re in.
Sam Volkering
Technology Analyst, Money Morning
From the Archives…
The Day Japan and China Shook the Aussie Market
24-05-2013 – Kris Sayce
Why the Only Thing That Matters in the Markets is Japan
23-05-2013 – Murray Dawes
When Soros Buys Gold Stocks, You Better Take Note…
22-05-2013 – Dr Alex Cowie
Look for Small-Cap Resource Stocks with Plenty of Cash
21-05-2013 – Dr Alex Cowie
Why Bank Stocks have Outperformed Resource Stocks…
20-05-2013 – Kris Sayce
