Palantir is Boosting its Presence in Israel

And how former Government officials work for Palantir

Scanning for links the other day, as I usually find myself doing, I found an unusual one. Not because of any funny codename or an exciting company name I could add to DataBase, but because for the first time I found a Foundry access link based in Israel.

I know Palantir isn’t new to the country and they both have strong ties with each other, with Israel having a dedicated Palantir link of its own, under a Palantir Global domain, but not specifically on Foundry up until now. The codename is Ether, and I haven’t been able to decipher it, yet. I’m sure there’s a reason it’s a codename and not directly a word one could relate to a specific mission or reason behind an Israeli entity using Foundry, but the fact remains this wasn’t the case before, and it’s super interesting.

Of course, I’m pretty sure that some Israeli operations use Foundry already, but this is notable because it’s directly based in Israel. Having access is not the same as owning it. Just a reminder, Palantir has had its own office in Tel Aviv since 2015.

Another curious fact that reaffirms my conviction in Palantir expanding its presence in the region is that theres’s only 1 Palantir Forward Deployed Engineer job search in LinkedIn, but has been active for just 1 month. Quite a small window if you ask me.

In November, CEO Alex Karp did an interview with a FDE to talk about turning insights into action using the Ontology in Foundry. And the engineer in that video (uploaded in December) happens to be the former CTO for the Prime Minister’s office in the Government of Israel, Eran Witkon.

He also coauthored a Palantir blog post on using Foundry for positive disruption back in November where one can see his past credentials and experience in Israel.

The wide range of ways Palantir can benefit Israel is quite evident, and one that comes to mind is for defense purposes. The Iron Dome system they use to take down missiles aimed at populated areas is known for its precision (reported at 90%) and its efficacy in saving lives without dramatically altering their citizens’ daily activities.

Israel also likes to spend big on R&D, with among the highest investment rates in the world, currently at around 5-6% of their GDP. So it’s only natural to think that Foundry would be the ideal platform for Israeli companies as Gotham is most probably a crucial necessity for its Government and military.

We still need to see official confirmation of all of this, but I think it’s pretty safe to assume an already established relationship not only because of the software Palantir provides the military with, but because Foundry can find an unprecedented market in Israel and their working culture, if not doing so already.