When we talk about Gotham, we first think of the city where Bruce Wayne, alias Batman, must work miracles to prevent it from descending into chaos. But Gotham is also the name of Palantir’s platform for public bodies, including intelligence services. This makes it possible to exploit colossal quantities of data, and the legend even says that it would have helped to locate Osama Bin Laden.
Founded after the September 11 attacks by Alex Karp and Peter Thiel, the latter co-creator of PayPal and active supporter of Donald Trump, with the financial support of the CIA via its In-Q-Tel fund, this American company has continued to be the subject of controversy in nearly 20 years of existence. But since 2013, Palantir, which specializes in big data (analysis and data sciences), has opened up to companies around the world with its Foundry platform, adapted to the needs of large industrial groups thanks to the expertise gained with Gotham.
If the objectives sought differ between intelligence services and companies, the needs of these actors are relatively similar. “Our main mission is to make critical data available to operational staff for faster and more efficient decision-making”summarizes François Bohuon, general manager of Palantir France, who sees in Foundry “a secure platform which is destined to almost become the lung, even the heart of the organization”.
15 days less for the maintenance of the Airbus A350
Palantir’s approach, which went public in 2020, caught the eye of Sanofi, Axa, Scuderia Ferrari, Credit Suisse, American Express, but also Stellantis and Airbus. With the European aircraft manufacturer, the group has developed the Skywise digital platform based on Foundry.
Operational in 2017, this has enabled Airbus to connect directly to customer airlines and to more easily extract the added value of data concerning the performance of its aircraft, so as to achieve much more predictive maintenance, in particular with the A350. In 2017, this model remained 25 days in a station of the Airbus assembly line in Blagnac. In 2019, this only required 10 days. “We saved Airbus hundreds of millions of euros”rejoices François Bohuon.
We are anti-Gafam.
If Foundry has demonstrated its effectiveness in the aeronautics sector, the platform can be adapted to other areas, such as automotive or health. “With our platform, we are able to address any type of sector on any subject”, assures the general manager of Palantir France. Accustomed to agglomerating very different data sources, the company wants to be reassuring in terms of their protection in order to attract more companies. “The use of this data remains the exclusive property of the client. We are anti-Gafam: we do not store data, we do not sell data”assures François Bohuon.
With this strong tackle aimed at Amazon, Meta and others, Palantir intends to continue its rise in power with companies, particularly in France, today the group’s third largest market behind the United States and the United Kingdom. In Paris, he even settled down at Station F, the start-up mega-campus created by Xavier Niel. A symbolic presence to feed on the ecosystem, and perhaps convince French start-ups to use its platform while unicorns are multiplying in France.