Posted Mar 29, 2019, 5:48 PM
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Registered User
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Join Date: Dec 2016
Location: San Francisco
Posts: 24,177
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On the day of Lyft's IPO, although I got a few shares of that one, here's the one I really want and constitutes more evidence of what's happening in Silicon Valley:
Quote:
Palantir wins competition to build Army intelligence system
By Shane Harris
March 26
The Army has chosen Palantir Technologies to deploy a complex battlefield intelligence system for soldiers, according to Army documents, a significant boost for a company that has attracted a devoted following in national security circles but had struggled to win a major defense contract.
Industry experts said it marked the first time that the government had tapped a Silicon Valley software company, as opposed to a traditional military contractor, to lead a defense program of record, which has a dedicated line of funding from Congress. The contract is potentially worth more than $800 million.
. . . the Distributed Common Ground System (or DCGS-A, for Army) . . . lets users gather and analyze information about enemy movements, terrain and weather to create detailed maps and reports in real-time. The system is designed to be used by soldiers fighting in remote, harsh environments . . . .
(The Army) put the software through a rigorous test, even parachuting out of airplanes with reinforced laptops containing Palantir’s software . . . .
Unlike most Silicon Valley start-ups, which aim to make their fortunes building consumer applications and software, Palantir at its founding set its sites on Washington, believing that its data analytics tools would find an eager market among U.S. spy agencies and the military, which are constantly trying to manage ever-expanding streams of information . . . .
The company got an early investment in 2005 from In-Q-Tel, the CIA’s venture capital arm, which tries to quickly develop technologies that the intelligence agency might use.
The In-Q-Tel connection helped Palantir get meetings with U.S. officials and intelligence analysts, and even test its software with the CIA’s counterterrorism center, according to people familiar with the matter.
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/world...=.9bfff30a9a4c
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