[argonaut]

I know some engineers who work or worked there. Aside from the normal engineers (tools, backend, etc.), they are essentially high-priced tech consultants sent to companies and orgs that have no internal software talent at all, to help them analyze their (atrociously stored/managed) data. None of them work on anything shady. They essentially build web apps and backend apps to analyze and visualize data. Nothing vodoo military about it, although the military is a customer.

The pay actually isn't actually particularly high for SV standards. I think Facebook outpays them, for example - and Facebook is less selective than Palantir. But their reputation is that they're full of top engineers and you'll learn a ton there, and that's why the people I know work/worked there.

The downsides I've heard about are no work/life balance and fratty culture. Those are real downside, not the FUD about ethics.