Palantir, the data-mining company, invested $25 million in the electric vehicle startup Faraday Future just before the EV company went public, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing.
Faraday Future has also signed a commercial contract to use Palantir’s Software. Neither company has revealed any details of the deal, though SEC filings show the contract will last between four and six years.
Faraday Future went public using the special purpose acquisition company route (SPAC), and Palantir’s investment was part of the so-called Private Investment in Public Equity (PIPE) portion where fundraising for the SPAC happens. Faraday Future raised a total of around $795 million, which included other investors like Geely, China’s largest private automaker.
Palantir headquarters and office in a stately brick build in Silicon Valley – Palo Alto, California, USA.
Palantir has made some similar investments in startups through the PIPE route. The investments are made with an agreement with the companies to use Palantir’s software in their company products. According to news reports, one robotics startup is paying Palantir $42 million to use its software, following a $21 million investment from the data-mining company.
Faraday Future’s EV, the FF 91 SUV, will go into production sometime in mid 2022. The electric SUV will use powerful sensors and cameras to power an advanced driver assistance system, which they want to make as close to full autonomy as possible. The SUV will come equipped with cameras and sensors for every seat, facial recognition, personalized app and media preferences, and climate settings. It will be a data-generating machine. And Palantir’s software is well equipped to sift through the data and perform optimally.
Palantir software has been used by the US Custom and Border Petrol Task Force to track immigrants during the Trump administration, as well as during the wide-spread civil unrest following the Black Lives Matter protests, for predictive policing software.
The secretive software company was co-founded by Facebook Inc. and Donald Trump supporter Peter Thiel.
The company went public in September 2020, after it moved one of the world’s most valuable startups to Colorado from the Silicon Valley. Its finances revealed in the public filings included $580 million in losses that year, and its heavy reliance on government contracts. Though, the company has recovered somewhat and has done better than expected in its latest quarterly results.
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