Palantir Technologies: The Big Data Firm That Purportedly Helped Kill Bin Laden Just Raised $50 Million

Palantir Technologies, the big data company with clients like the NSA, FBI and CIA, raised $50 million in a financing round, according to an SEC filing. Forbes contributor Ryan Mac reports that the latest round could raise eight times that amount.

If the latest round raises $400 million, it could lift the analytics company to well over the $9 billion valuation it was priced at only one year ago, the report said. Palantir is one of Silicon Valley’s most valuable data companies, counting the NSA, CIA and FBI as clients, as well as companies like CitiBank. The analytics firm is also rumored to have helped kill Osama bin Laden.

Palantir had raised $950 million to date, according to Crunchbase, and it competes against the likes of IBM and Booz Allen Hamilton for big data contracts. Its data analytics tools are used in efforts against everything from terrorism to human trafficking, stopping cyberfraud and improving disaster response.

Marines have used Palantir in Afghanistan to predict insurgent attacks, and its software also helped track Mexican drug cartels. It has also been hired by pharmaceutical companies to analyze drug data.