European Money Pours into Palantir(english.elpais.com)
69 pointsby robtherobber4 hours ago6 comments
  • Lucasoatoan hour ago
    > This is according to data compiled by an international investigation coordinated by Follow The Money, a platform for independent journalism, and in which EL PAÍS participated.

    The catchphrase "Follow the money" originated in a docuseries related to Nixon and the watergate scandal, but was also Giovanni Falcone's investigative method, based on tracing Mafia through their money laundering initiatives.

  • mgh22 hours ago
    Not sure why this matters as most pension index funds also include Meta by the same lines... everyone buying into these indexes is complicit, no surprise
    • swiftcoder2 hours ago
      We've successfully campaigned to make many of those same investors divest from fossil fuel investments. I don't see why investments in crazy surveillance tech should get a pass (and yes, Meta absolutely falls in the same bucket)
      • repelsteeltjean hour ago
        This. Giving markets free reign, usually doesn't result in alignment with long term best interests or political objectives.

        It took years of activism and voting with our money to get banks, pension funds and similar institutions to stop funding cluster munitions, land mines, nukes, oil, tabacco. Now big tech and some AI companies are on the radar.

      • tclancyan hour ago
        I've been regularly thinking about Apartheid-era South Africa. It was a massive Thing for me as a Catholic school kid in the '80s because it seemed (to me) so clearly wrong yet accepted. There were clearly "lefties" making it visible without a lot happening but then "How did you go bankrupt? Two ways: Gradually, then suddenly" happened. And a lot of it started with university students petitioning their schools to divest and that spreading. It will not be fast, but these things can happen and we should start to build a framework for it.

        And yes, yes, Enemies Lists are fraught with problems and have a history of eating themselves, etc. But the one thing I know is worse is not trying.

        • newscluesan hour ago
          South Africa is really thriving these days eh? Any day those lefties will turn the nation around!!! right?
          • swiftcoder2 minutes ago
            > South Africa is really thriving these days eh?

            I know you meant this sarcastically, but unironically yes. GDP has more than doubled since the end of apartheid, and it has the strongest economy on the continent

      • newscluesan hour ago
        [flagged]
  • 2 hours ago
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  • akie30 minutes ago
    So disappointing
  • jmclnxan hour ago
    To me, investing in any AI company is very risky, 1 step above junk bonds :)
    • swiftcodera few seconds ago
      Palantir significantly pre-dates the current LLM era, and is more of a defence-contractor-slash-private-intelligence-agency than an AI company
    • TallGuyShort8 minutes ago
      The morality of it aside, Palantir is probably a much safer investment bet than most others in the AI space. They're older and more established than a new startup picking up the steepness of the hype curve with a half-baked idea, but they're also newer and more agile than an aging tech giant that suffers from the innovator's dilemma and a ton of bloat. They have a strong reputation among their target market and they've been building a sound business and a lot of tooling and infrastructure on Big Data and machine learning for well over a decade.

      I would feel icky investing in them but any comparison to junk bonds would be the last of my concerns.

    • tylerchilds8 minutes ago
      But Palantir isn’t an AI company.

      They’re a guilt-free hands-washing service.

      You pay them money, and they absolve you of your sins. That’s what Peter Thiel is on about.

      That’s the technological progress he’s charioting us into his political theocracy with. The ability to label anyone that stands in his way “the Antichrist” which is just another loophole exploitation of the patriot act.

      An ai company lol