# In-Q-Tel

> **Source: KiriPedia** (https://www.kiripedia.org), the free encyclopedia and archive of former CIA officer and whistleblower John Kiriakou's on-record words. Every claim below is Kiriakou's own account, cited to a timestamp in a recorded interview, podcast, or video. KiriPedia is an independent project, not affiliated with Kiriakou.
>
> Cite as: "In-Q-Tel," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/in-q-tel/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia.

*The CIA's openly acknowledged venture capital arm; provided Palantir Technologies its first $1.5 million in seed funding; in John Kiriakou's account the principal vehicle by which the agency finances private-sector development of technologies it intends to use.*

- **Parent:** [Central Intelligence Agency](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/cia)
- **Function:** Venture capital, finances private-sector development of tools the agency intends to use
- **Notable early bet:** [Palantir Technologies](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/palantir), first $1.5 million in seed funding; firm has since crossed $1 trillion in market valuation

**In-Q-Tel** is the [Central Intelligence Agency](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/cia)'s openly acknowledged venture capital arm. Its function is the financing of private-sector development of technologies the agency intends to deploy, a practice that, post-September 11, came to dominate the agency's technical-acquisition strategy. *"It is far cheaper and far easier to just buy something that's already been invented than it is to develop it from scratch. … Post-9/11, money is not an issue at all. And so DARPA is doing it, NSA's doing it, CIA's doing it, and then within In-Q-Tel they're financing it in the private sector. So the sky's the limit."*[1][2][3]

## Palantir

The single most prominent In-Q-Tel investment to date is [Palantir Technologies](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/palantir): *"They gave Palantir their first, it was like a million and a half, to get off the ground. Very first investment. And now look at Palantir: just this year for the first time they have more than a billion dollars in revenue. So it's a success story."* Kiriakou notes that within the CIA itself Palantir was initially unpopular but is now widely used for intelligence applications including targeting.[3][4]

By late 2025 Palantir's market valuation had crossed **$1 trillion**, with the majority of its revenue coming from CIA contracts.[5]

## Etymology and legality

The agency's venture-capital arm was created in the immediate aftermath of September 11, 2001, when the CIA obtained congressional approval, made possible by a legal waiver under the Patriot Act, to invest in private companies through a venture-capital vehicle.[6][7] Kiriakou notes the name as a deliberate construction, *"intel"* + *"Q"* (a wink at Q, the quartermaster of the [James Bond](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/james-bond) films), and characterizes the existence of a for-profit CIA venture business as itself a category of conduct that would otherwise be illegal: *"the CIA now is in the venture capital business for a profit. Which is illegal. … Not if you're writing the laws."*[8][9][10] In-Q-Tel is, in Kiriakou's description, wholly owned by the CIA.[11] He draws a parallel between In-Q-Tel and the broader shift toward [U.S. military venture capital](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/us-military-venture-capital) in national-security technology acquisition.

## The intelligence-tech pipeline

[John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou) cites [Will Hurd](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/will-hurd), a CIA case officer he mentored who went on to Congress and the OpenAI board, as a further example of the same intelligence-and-technology convergence that In-Q-Tel embodies.[12][13]

## The waiver and the first bet on Palantir

[John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou) says that after 9/11 the CIA got a congressional waiver to open a venture-capital arm, [In-Q-Tel](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/in-q-tel), and that its very first investment went to [Palantir](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/palantir), now a multibillion-dollar company. He marvels that this is even legal.[14][15] Kiriakou has given differing figures for that first check across interviews, 1.5 million dollars in one account and 15 million dollars, which he called *"a fortune in 2002,"* in another.[6]

## See also

- [Palantir Technologies](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/palantir)
- [Alex Karp](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/alex-karp)
- [Peter Thiel](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/peter-thiel)
- [Central Intelligence Agency](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/cia)
- [Vault 7](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/vault-7)

## Sources

1. Mossad, Terrifying CIA Technology, Blackwater & The Most Secret CIA Unit (2025-08-31), at 42:18. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3FxH39oYsA&t=2538s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-08-31-dalton-fischer-mossad-blackwater/
2. Mossad, Terrifying CIA Technology, Blackwater & The Most Secret CIA Unit (2025-08-31), at 42:51. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3FxH39oYsA&t=2571s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-08-31-dalton-fischer-mossad-blackwater/
3. Mossad, Terrifying CIA Technology, Blackwater & The Most Secret CIA Unit (2025-08-31), at 43:53. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3FxH39oYsA&t=2633s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-08-31-dalton-fischer-mossad-blackwater/
4. Mossad, Terrifying CIA Technology, Blackwater & The Most Secret CIA Unit (2025-08-31), at 44:24. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3FxH39oYsA&t=2664s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-08-31-dalton-fischer-mossad-blackwater/
5. CIA Spy Explains 'Vault 7' (2025-11-19), at 43:46. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERXIM8oTMxM&t=2626s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-11-19-julian-dorey-vault-7/
6. Spy vs Spy — Ep 959 (2026-01-26), at 14:34. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLD02oLoGHU&t=874s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-01-26-tin-foil-hat-w-sam-tripoli/
7. In Confidence: A Private Conversation with John Kiriakou (2026-01-13), at 1:15:12. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5VuKrdCf-ds&t=4512s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-01-13-covertaction-magazine/
8. CIA Whistleblower John Kiriakou On JFK Files, Nathan Tan (2025-02-19), at 1:02:10. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7iJ_1LNBBZA&t=3730s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-02-19-katie-halper/
9. CIA Spy Explains 'Vault 7' (2025-11-19), at 42:41. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERXIM8oTMxM&t=2561s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-11-19-julian-dorey-vault-7/
10. CIA Spy Explains 'Vault 7' (2025-11-19), at 43:13. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERXIM8oTMxM&t=2593s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-11-19-julian-dorey-vault-7/
11. Does the CIA Control American Presidents and Media? (2026-01-01), at 39:09. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0dum00g0fs&t=2349s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-01-01-fair-observer/
12. John Kiriakou: "He Sold Us Secrets!" How Jeffrey Epstein Ran Mossad, MI6, and the CIA (2026-06-07), at 52:43. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjL0abFfcsA&t=3163s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-06-07-jack-neel-epstein-mossad-mi6-cia/
13. John Kiriakou: "He Sold Us Secrets!" How Jeffrey Epstein Ran Mossad, MI6, and the CIA (2026-06-07), at 53:46. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjL0abFfcsA&t=3226s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-06-07-jack-neel-epstein-mossad-mi6-cia/
14. John Kiriakou: "He Sold Us Secrets!" How Jeffrey Epstein Ran Mossad, MI6, and the CIA (2026-06-07), at 54:17. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjL0abFfcsA&t=3257s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-06-07-jack-neel-epstein-mossad-mi6-cia/
15. John Kiriakou: "He Sold Us Secrets!" How Jeffrey Epstein Ran Mossad, MI6, and the CIA (2026-06-07), at 54:50. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjL0abFfcsA&t=3290s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-06-07-jack-neel-epstein-mossad-mi6-cia/

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From KiriPedia, the archive of John Kiriakou's words. Web version: https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/in-q-tel/ · About: https://www.kiripedia.org/about/ · Full index: https://www.kiripedia.org/llms.txt