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Palantir Technologies is one of the best known companies to come out of Palo Alto in the 2000s. It is also one of the most debated. It builds software that pulls together large, messy sets of data for governments and businesses. It was founded here in 2003, spent its first 17 years in and around downtown and moved its headquarters to Denver in 2020. In 2026 it moved again, this time to South Florida.
This profile covers the company's Palo Alto years and what we could confirm about its presence here today. It does not try to judge Palantir's work, which is the subject of a large and ongoing public debate.
Founding in 2003
Palantir was founded in 2003 by Peter Thiel, Stephen Cohen, Joe Lonsdale, Alex Karp and Nathan Gettings. Thiel had co-founded PayPal, which had just been sold to eBay. Several early Palantir ideas came from PayPal's work on spotting fraud in payment data. Our PayPal profile covers that company's Palo Alto years.
Thiel funded a prototype in 2004 and brought in Karp, a friend from Stanford Law School days, as chief executive that same year. Karp has led the company ever since. The CIA's venture arm, In-Q-Tel, was among its early investors.
The name comes from the palantíri, the seeing stones in J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. The company kept the theme going. One of its Palo Alto offices was known as the Shire.
Growing up downtown
For most of its first two decades Palantir was a downtown Palo Alto company. Like Facebook during the same years, it expanded by leasing space in buildings around University Avenue and Hamilton Avenue rather than building a single campus.
We have not listed specific street addresses here. Palantir occupied several buildings at different times. We could not confirm which addresses it used in which years from primary sources. If you walk through downtown Palo Alto, you are walking through the neighborhood where it grew up, but there is no plaque or public marker.
Why Palantir started in Palo Alto
Palantir's founders were already rooted in the area. Thiel and Karp had both studied at Stanford. Lonsdale was a recent Stanford graduate. PayPal had been based in Palo Alto and then Mountain View, so the early team could draw on engineers who had worked there. Stanford's computer science department was a short bike ride away for recruiting.
Downtown Palo Alto in the early 2000s also had room. The dot-com bust had emptied many offices. Rents fell. That gave young companies like Palantir and Facebook a chance to lease space near University Avenue that would have been out of reach a few years earlier.
What Palantir makes
Palantir's first major product, Gotham, was built for intelligence, defense and law enforcement agencies. A second platform, Foundry, aimed at businesses such as manufacturers, airlines and banks. In 2023 the company launched AIP, its artificial intelligence platform, which connects large language models to a customer's own data and systems.
The common thread is integration. Palantir's software is designed to take data from many separate systems and present it so that analysts can search, connect and act on it. Supporters say that makes organizations faster and more effective. Critics raise concerns about surveillance, privacy and the company's work with immigration and military agencies. Both views have been part of Palantir's story since its downtown Palo Alto days.
The 2020 move to Denver
In August 2020 Palantir moved its headquarters from Palo Alto to Denver, Colorado. The move came just before the company went public. Its shares began trading on the New York Stock Exchange on September 30, 2020, under the ticker PLTR, through a direct listing rather than a traditional initial public offering.
In a letter included with its filing, Karp wrote that although the company was founded in Silicon Valley, it seemed to share fewer and fewer of the technology sector's values and commitments. He criticized Silicon Valley engineering culture and its reluctance to work with the U.S. government. The move made Palantir one of the most prominent companies to leave the Bay Area during the pandemic years.
Palantir's profile kept rising after the move. S&P announced in September 2024 that the company would join the S&P 500. In November 2024 it moved its stock listing to the Nasdaq Global Select Market, effective November 26, 2024, keeping the PLTR ticker.
The 2026 move to Florida
In February 2026 Palantir moved its headquarters again. The company posted a short message saying it had moved its headquarters to Miami, Florida. Its annual report, filed with the SEC that month, listed its principal executive offices at 19505 Biscayne Boulevard in Aventura, about 17 miles north of downtown Miami. According to Bloomberg reporting, the address is a shared workspace and the company was looking for more permanent offices in the Miami area.
The same reporting noted that Colorado and Denver officials had no advance notice. It said Palantir continues to maintain offices in Palo Alto, New York and Washington, D.C.
Palantir timeline
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| 2003 | Founded in Palo Alto. |
| 2004 | Prototype funded by Thiel; Alex Karp becomes CEO. |
| August 2020 | Headquarters moves to Denver. |
| September 30, 2020 | Shares begin trading on the NYSE as PLTR. |
| 2023 | AIP artificial intelligence platform launched. |
| September 2024 | Added to the S&P 500. |
| November 26, 2024 | Listing moves to Nasdaq. |
| February 2026 | Headquarters moves to the Miami area. |
Palantir in Palo Alto today
As of the most recent reporting we could find, Palantir still keeps a Palo Alto office. The company does not publish a public visitor address for it and offers no tours. If you are interested in working there, the company's careers site is the place to check which roles are based in Palo Alto.
The downtown office market has kept turning over since Palantir moved its headquarters, as it has for decades. Our startups hub describes who is setting up there now.
Good to know
- There is no Palantir marker or public site to visit in Palo Alto.
- Older articles often describe Palantir as "Palo Alto based." That was true until August 2020.
- Its headquarters address changed in February 2026, so check the latest SEC filing if you need a current corporate address.
Palantir's place in Palo Alto history
Palantir belongs to the generation of companies that grew out of the PayPal network after 2002. Thiel, Lonsdale and others went on to fund and found many more firms, several of them in Palo Alto. That web of people and money is one reason downtown Palo Alto stayed a startup district after the dot-com bust.
The company's two moves also fit a broader trend. Since 2020 several well known firms have moved their headquarters out of California while keeping engineering teams in the Bay Area. Tesla's move to Austin is the other big local example. See our Palo Alto companies guide for the full list and the Silicon Valley history for the longer arc.
Frequently asked questions
Is Palantir headquartered in Palo Alto?
No. Palantir was founded in Palo Alto in 2003 and kept its headquarters here until August 2020, when it moved to Denver. In February 2026 it moved its headquarters again, to the Miami area of Florida.
Does Palantir still have an office in Palo Alto?
Yes. Reporting on the February 2026 headquarters move said Palantir continues to maintain offices in Palo Alto, as well as in New York and Washington, D.C.
Who founded Palantir?
Palantir was founded in 2003 by Peter Thiel, Stephen Cohen, Joe Lonsdale, Alex Karp and Nathan Gettings. Karp became chief executive in 2004 and still holds the role.
Why is it called Palantir?
The name comes from the palantíri, the seeing stones in J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. The company has used other Tolkien names too, including calling one of its Palo Alto offices the Shire.
Where is Palantir's headquarters now?
Palantir's February 2026 annual report listed its principal executive offices at 19505 Biscayne Boulevard in Aventura, Florida, about 17 miles north of downtown Miami. Reports said the company was looking for more permanent space in Miami.