Peter Thiel's Surveillance Empire Finally Captures the Federal Government

From CIA startup to battlefield tracker to the complete digitization of American citizens— and how a Narativ investigation exposed it.

On April 13, I posted Part 1 of Narativ’s New Feudalism series, which detailed how DOGE was building a surveillance state on Palantir’s AI Foundry platform. The story broke a full 7 weeks before the New York Times published its May 30 story. While the Times story added important new details about Palantir’s contract with the Trump Administration, two independent AI analyses confirm the essence of the story was an amplification of what we originally published on April 13, 2025. We were able to beat the Times to the story because of our eight-year tracking of Thiel. Here’s some of what we found out along the way:

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When Peter Thiel co-founded Palantir in 2003 with CIA venture funding, the company's mission was analyzing terrorist networks in the post-9/11 world. Twenty-two years later, that same technology now digitally maps every American citizen through DOGE's federal database integration.

The progression was methodical. What began as a tool to track foreign enemies evolved into the infrastructure for domestic surveillance on an unprecedented scale.

The Battlefield Testing Ground

By 2017, Palantir had proven its capabilities in Afghanistan and Iraq. Erik Prince's proposal to privatize the Afghanistan war wasn't just about mercenaries—it was about deploying Palantir's real-time battlefield intelligence, cell-phone tracking, and social media analysis at scale. The technology could monitor entire populations, not just insurgents.

Thiel's relationship with Prince ran deep—so deep that when he showed New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd a photo of himself posing with Prince and Trump, he joked it was "N.S.F.I."—Not Safe for the Internet. The connections were meant to stay private.

Military commanders praised the system's ability to integrate vast data streams: troop movements, weather conditions, communications intercepts, financial transactions. Palantir didn't just collect data—it created predictive models of human behavior.

Prince, Thiel had discovered something valuable: surveillance technology developed for foreign battlefields could be applied anywhere.

Expanding the Network

The next phase involved infiltrating civilian infrastructure. Through Jeffrey Epstein's investment network, Thiel connected with Israeli surveillance company Carbyne, which specialized in penetrating 911 emergency systems and personal devices. The partnership demonstrated how military-grade surveillance could be embedded into everyday civilian technology.

Carbyne's approach was elegant: instead of external monitoring, the company provided the actual software running emergency services. Every 911 call, every location ping, every emergency response became a data collection point. The technology didn't just observe civilian communications—it controlled the infrastructure.

Thiel recognized the model's potential. Rather than fight privacy protections, his network would become the technology infrastructure itself.

The Intelligence Integration

Former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn became Palantir's most aggressive advocate within government, pushing military adoption across agencies. Flynn's connections to Russian intelligence created additional complications, but his advocacy demonstrated how surveillance technology moves between military, intelligence, and private sectors.

The pattern repeated across multiple administrations: military officials would retire and join Palantir; Palantir executives would rotate into government positions; the technology would expand into new agencies.

By 2024, Palantir's Foundry platform was operating across multiple federal agencies, integrating databases that had previously been separate. The company had successfully positioned itself as essential infrastructure rather than an external vendor.

The DOGE Takeover

Trump's creation of DOGE provided the mechanism for complete integration. With at least three former Palantir employees and two executives from Thiel-funded companies directly embedded in DOGE, the department wasn't selecting a vendor—it was installing existing leadership.

This wasn't coincidence. Musk and Thiel have been connected since PayPal's early days, when Thiel served as CEO and Musk was a major stakeholder. Their business relationship evolved into a strategic partnership spanning multiple ventures. When Musk positioned himself to control federal database integration through DOGE, and Thiel's Palantir emerged as the primary surveillance vendor, their trajectories aligned perfectly.

Two decades of parallel development—Musk building communication and transportation infrastructure, Thiel constructing surveillance technology—converged in a single moment when DOGE gained control of federal data systems.

The technical integration began immediately. DOGE engineers worked with Palantir representatives to build single API layers above all federal databases: IRS financial records, Social Security Administration data, DHS immigration files, health records, student loans, disability status, bank account numbers.

The system wasn't designed for specific investigations or targeted surveillance. It was designed for total population monitoring.

Breaking the Story First

Narativ's April 13 investigation "The New Feudalism" first documented DOGE engineers collaborating with Palantir representatives to build API layers above federal databases. While mainstream media focused on government efficiency rhetoric, Narativ's network analysis revealed the surveillance infrastructure being constructed.

The breakthrough came from years of tracking Thiel and Musk's overlapping networks—connecting dots between Palantir's military contracts, Carbyne's civilian penetration, and DOGE's federal integration. When the New York Times finally confirmed the story seven weeks later, two independent AI analyses verified that Narativ had broken it first.

This wasn't luck—it was the result of understanding how surveillance networks expand and recognizing the significance of personnel movements between Thiel's companies and government positions.

The Complete Picture

What Thiel's network accomplished was remarkable in its scope: a CIA-funded startup had evolved into the central nervous system of federal government surveillance. The technology that once tracked terrorist cells in Afghanistan now processes the complete digital footprint of every American citizen.

The New York Times' May confirmation of DOGE-Palantir integration revealed the system's current capabilities: "hundreds of data points on citizens" accessible through centralized platforms controlled by Thiel's network.

This isn't expansion of existing surveillance—it's the creation of entirely new capability. Government agencies can now cross-reference previously separate databases in real-time, creating comprehensive profiles that combine financial, medical, educational, and behavioral data.

The Network's Logic

Thiel's approach was methodical: prove the technology works in military contexts, adapt it for civilian infrastructure, embed personnel within government agencies, then integrate everything through administrative reorganization.

Each phase built on previous capabilities while expanding the scope of data collection. The network didn't fight privacy restrictions—it became the infrastructure that those restrictions were supposed to regulate.

What makes this particularly audacious is that Palantir began as a CIA-funded venture, and the CIA is explicitly prohibited from domestic surveillance operations. Yet through privatization and corporate evolution, that same technology now monitors every American citizen. The legal prohibitions remain—but they apply to government agencies, not private contractors running government systems.

Twenty-two years after its founding, Palantir has achieved something unprecedented: a private company now controls the primary surveillance infrastructure of the federal government. Every American citizen exists as a data profile within systems designed by Peter Thiel's network.

The surveillance state is operational.

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Narativ has been on this file for a 8 years, that’s how we beat the New York Times to the story by seven weeks. It’s a testament to our unique methodology which blends traditional investigative journalism and analytical techniques normally a part of the intelligence sector. Sign up for Narativ today and Know Sooner.