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Peter Thiel is a proud nerd. So it only makes sense he named his data-mining startup after a creation of JRR Tolkien.

In “The Lord of the Rings,” a palantir is a powerful crystal ball, a sort of telepathic device that shows the viewer glimpses of both present and past; in Tolkien’s invented High Elvish language, “palantir” means “far-seeing.” It’s a way to gain knowledge, offering information that would otherwise be impossible to obtain. This, surely, was what Thiel had in mind when he co-founded Palantir Technologies nearly 15 years ago.

Yet in the possession of the powerful, the palantir can have a dark side. In Tolkien’s trilogy, a palantir falls into the hands of Saruman, a wizard who’s believed to be leading the battle against the dark lord Sauron. But Sauron has a palantir, too. And he uses it to manipulate Saruman, sending him images and messages—in other words, data—that convince Saruman the fight is hopeless, that the only option is to embrace evil. The palantir brings Saruman new and powerful information, yes. But it’s up to him to make sense of it. Humans (or wizards, as it were) still have to process the information a palantir provides.

Which brings us back to Palantir, with an uppercase P. Thiel’s startup has created what is by all accounts one of the most powerful tools for data collection and analysis in human history, one that could be used to discover life-saving new drugs and fight financial fraud. But it’s also one that can (and has) been used for much more nefarious means. Its original purpose was as a tool of war in Afghanistan and Iraq. Across the US, it’s being deployed by police departments for the rather “Minority Report” purpose of “predictive policing.” By tracking in detail the everyday lives of American citizens, Palantir’s software could in certain hands be a serious threat to safety and privacy. All that data still must be processed.

The company’s name may be more accurate than Thiel ever intended.

Minor controversies have erupted, but for the past decade-and-a-half, Palantir has largely managed to stay out of the public eye. Will that change if it becomes a publicly traded company? The fact that we may be about to find is one of the six big things to know from the past week in VC:

1. A Palantir IPO looms

Reports emerged this week that the Thiel-founded startup is working with Morgan Stanley on an IPO for either 2019 or 2020. The financials around such an offering will be highly interesting: While Palantir’s valuation topped $20 billion in 2015, a Bloomberg report from earlier this year indicated Morgan Stanley had marked its valuation of the company down by some $6 billion. Palantir expects to turn a profit this year for the first time.

2. Farewell, sweet Theranos

The most spectacular collapse in venture capital history is almost complete. As soon as September 10, Theranos will officially begin winding down its operations after spending the past five months seeking a miracle round of funding, according to a letter sent to investors this week by CEO David Taylor. A one-time $9 billion valuation is long, long gone. May the blood-testing startup live forever as the ultimate example of why investors should conduct at least a titch of due diligence.

Read more – www.pitchbooks.com

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