Palantir is almost certainly “not that special.” It is fundamentally very boring data analysis software and its main differentiator is being available for/targeted at government clients.

The company has committed major marketing blunders by giving itself a creepy vibe, which is a well-deserved reputation, down to the very name of the company. These errors are unnecessary and unforced self-sabotage.

Palantir’s own marketing oversells the capabilities and in doing so also oversells the creepiness of the product.

It’s also worth pointing out that Peter Thiel is not some kind of evil genius villain figure, he’s just a guy who got lucky off of PayPal and Facebook and has some garbage opinions.

People like Peter Thiel and Elon Musk probably underestimate the damage their Bond villain reputations bring to their companies in the long term. Maybe they’ll never be financially impacted by that reputation but it’s very hard to see the what-if hypotheticals play out.

For example, the refreshed Model Y, Ys, Model 3, and even Cybertruck should all be selling better than they are. About 1 in 10 Teslas I see on the road have one of those anti-Elon bumper stickers on them. These are customers who otherwise love the product that will never buy it again. Volkswagen Group is outselling Tesla in Europe and it’s hard to argue that brand reputation isn’t involved in that trend.

Maybe this doesn’t matter because China is all Tesla cares about, and the vehicles still sell extremely well, but still…most car company CEOs are nameless figures that customers have no connection to.