Colorado
Palantir — Colorado’s largest public company — is leaving Denver for Miami
Controversial data-analysis firm Palantir Technologies, the state’s largest public company with a market value of $312.2 billion, announced Tuesday morning on social media that it will relocate its headquarters from Denver to Miami.
“We have moved our headquarters to Miami, Florida” is all the straightforward post on X said.
No details were provided on how many Denver employees might be relocated to Florida or what functions will remain in Denver, if any.
The company has faced multiple protests during its time in Denver, initially for its support of the Israeli military and more recently for its work with U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement by using artificial intelligence to identify targets for deportation.
Members of the Denver City Council have publicly chastised the company for its work with ICE and advocacy groups have tried to push the council to divest from any services or contracts with Palantir.
Palantir faced a large protest on Jan. 31 at its new Cherry Creek office and another one this weekend, with protestors chanting “Palantir out of Denver” and “No AI for ICE.”
Palantir relocated from Palo Alto, California, to Denver in 2020, handling executive, engineering and operational tasks. It initially set up shop in the SugarCube Building before moving to the Tabor Center at 1200 17th St. In September, the company announced it would take 11,000 square feet at the Financial House at 205 Detroit St. in Cherry Creek.
When CEO Alex Karp announced the move to Denver in a 2020 letter, he said the company was leaving Silicon Valley due to cultural and ideological differences. He cited a more pragmatic environment in Denver at the time.
The company has more than 4,000 employees, according to its most recent 10-K filing, and while it hasn’t provided a precise breakout for its Denver headcount, it is estimated to be around 1,500. Many of its hires were recruited from local universities.
Karp has set a goal of growing the company’s revenues tenfold while cutting the headcount down to 3,600. He plans to do so by leveraging some of the company’s own artificial intelligence tools to boost productivity per employee.
The state legislature also passed the Colorado Artificial Intelligence Act, set to take effect this June, which is designed to regulate “high-risk” AI systems to prevent systemic discrimination. While not specifically targeted at Palantir, it would have created a stricter compliance regime for the data mining and predictive tools the company develops.
Although Colorado is a leader in quantum computing, it has lagged in artificial intelligence. The arrival of Palantir provided a big boost in AI, drawing in other companies and talent. It is unclear what its departure will mean for the state’s future in what is currently the hottest area of the tech sector.
“I’m not aware of the specific factors that led to this decision. What we do know is that Colorado’s technology economy remains exceptionally strong. According to our latest Colorado Tech Industry Report, tech accounts for 10% of statewide employment and 20% of Colorado’s GDP, and the sector has added more than 47,000 net new jobs over the past five years,” Brittany Morris Saunders, president and CEO of the Colorado Technology Association, said in an email.
She added that Colorado ranks third nationally for tech industry concentration, which is projected to grow 11.5% over the next five years. Colorado is also fifth nationally in venture capital investment.
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Denver Art Museum Workers United ratified a historic bargaining agreement on Saturday, becoming the first museum workers in the State of Colorado to have a union contract.
The contract is the result of nearly two years of negotiations between the union’s bargaining committee and museum management.
Pam Skiles, Senior Paintings Conservator, said, “It feels great to ratify our first contract and improve working conditions for our coworkers across the museum. We will only continue to build on these wins into the future.”
The union says the new three-year contract includes agreements on equitable pay, just cause rights, increased sick time, and updated policies on health and safety and parental leave.
The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, AFL-CIO, says this contract “sets the stage for further cultural organizing in the state.”
AFL-CIO said, “Now that DAMWU has a ratified agreement, the workers of the art museum join Jefferson County Public Library, as well as the more than 50,000 other cultural workers across the country who are building a national movement to raise employment standards in the cultural sector through AFSCME’s Cultural Workers United.”
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