By Stephen Council,Tech Reporter
June 26, 2025 (SFGate.com)
Protesters rallied against the tech company Palantir on June 26, 2025 in Palo Alto, Calif.Stephen Council/SFGATE
More than a hundred protesters gathered at Palantir’s Palo Alto offices on Thursday afternoon, with signs, speeches and chants that painted the data mining company as a force for evil. Attendees decried Palantir’s work with Immigration and Customs Enforcement and with the Israeli government, equating the $337 billion company to “Big Brother” and “the surveillance state.”
The rally featured similar rhetoric to other anti-ICE and anti-oligarchy protests that have popped up around the Bay Area since the start of President Donald Trump’s second term, but was targeted at a narrower enemy. The Denver-headquartered company is working with ICE to speed its controversial deportation efforts, and, per the New York Times, creating a “master list of personal information on Americans” that critics argue could be used for mass surveillance. Speakers at the protest said that, after ICE’s raids in Los Angeles, Palantir could help the Trump administration target dissenting Americans next — boos rained in response.
“Palantir is the most dangerous company that you might never have heard of,” Katie Na, an organizer with Planet Over Profit, one of the protest’s planners, told SFGATE before the event. She pointed to Palantir’s co-founder, the Trump ally and conservative financier Peter Thiel, and called the company a “weapon” for his vision, she said, of “authoritarianism, mass surveillance, deportation and genocide.”
At first, attendees met outside the Palantir office on the corner of Alma Street and Hamilton Avenue. They hefted a banner reading, “Palantir Powers ICE” — which people from inside the office ran out to tear away — and blocked off Alma Street with lines of protesters. Signs included phrases like “Palantir Powers ICE & Automates Cruelty,” and “Predatory Tech.” During speeches, a pro-Palestine activist tied Palantir’s surveillance work to Israel’s destructive strikes in Gaza, a Google worker spoke about workers’ opposition to tech’s military use and an activist from the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment accused Palantir of “enabling the ICE raids that are separating our families.”
Then came a twist. After the speeches, Na directed the crowd to march, and led them around the corner to another building labeled with Palantir’s logo. Inside, she said, the company was running a recruiting event; she later said she saw people paper up the front door as the crowd approached.
“You’re doing the worst possible thing with your talents,” Na said into a megaphone, directing her message to potential recruits, as other protesters pounded on the windows and shouted for the event to be shut down. “Don’t stain your hands with blood while you fill your pockets with money, it’s not worth it.”
SFGATE wasn’t able to immediately verify what was happening inside the building. Palantir did not respond to a request for comment as of publication. Six people were arrested at a protest against Palantir at the company’s New York office on Thursday, the Guardian reported, but there were no arrests in Palo Alto.
Na wrapped up the protest by declaring it a “f–king victory” and claiming that the event inside had been shut down due to the noise and attention. She, as well as fellow Planet Over Profit organizer Alice Hu, emphasized their hopes to SFGATE that damaging Palantir’s reputation might damage its stock price, in the mold of this spring’s “Tesla Takedown” protests.
Attendees on Thursday had varying degrees of familiarity with Palantir, which has long remained under the radar thanks to its non-consumer-facing business model. The company, which is named for the magical “seeing stones” in “The Lord of the Rings,” sells software meant to help companies and governments deal with massive amounts of data. It has nearly doubled in value this year on investor excitement over its artificial intelligence tech and its government contracts — as of Thursday, it was worth more than either Coca-Cola or Samsung.
Alex Karp, the company’s CEO, has been unabashed about his views that Silicon Valley should take a larger role in Washington, and in particular, in making products for military use. Protests against his company’s work with ICE are nothing new — 2018 saw an action at this same office, and in 2019, tech activists blasted Palantir on its Github page. But the company’s recent work has brought new critics into the fold.
Linda Maki, who heard about the protest through a “Raging Grannies” email group, told SFGATE she’d attended a series of the anti-Tesla protests in the Bay Area this year, and lambasted the recent actions by ICE agents. She held a sign reading, “ICE = BOUNTY HUNTERS,” and blamed Palantir for helping the agency’s work.
“I’m for law and order,” Maki said, referencing instances in which the masked agents seem to be operating extrajudicially, including the beating of a California gardener who was father to three Marines. She called the agents “armed thugs” and “lawless vigilantes, but on our dime.”
A protester at the rally against Palantir on June 26, 2025 in Palo Alto, Calif., holds up a handmade sign.Stephen Council/SFGATE
Rocky Chau, another attendee, said he hadn’t known much about Palantir until about a month ago, but quickly recognized it as part of a “common enemy” of multibillion dollar corporations.
Along with Palestinians in Gaza, Chau said he was protesting on behalf of vulnerable, marginalized groups harmed domestically by the Trump administration. He added, “Who knows who will be targeted next?”
Work at a Bay Area tech company and want to talk? Contact tech reporter Stephen Council securely at stephen.council@sfgate.com or on Signal at 628-204-5452.
June 26, 2025
TECH REPORTER
Stephen Council is the tech reporter at SFGATE. He has covered technology and business for The Information, The Wall Street Journal, CNBC and CalMatters, where his reporting won a San Francisco Press Club award.Signal: 628-204-5452
Email: stephen.council@sfgate.com
