It’s not without some irony that a company named after a questionable magic ball from Lord of the Rings helps process data from what can most concisely be described as an Eye of Sauron over villages in Afghanistan.
The whole story is such a direct fable of the danger of powerful tools being used perhaps initially with neutral or good intent but ultimately serving the interest and aims of powerful evil people, how the very power itself will inevitably corrupt the bearer and how some tools are perhaps just better off never ever being used. With a company actually called Palantir, is this just lack of awareness or is it nihilism?
Far too fitting indeed.
I'd argue this is more a case of an aptronym, mentioned in the second paragraph of the wiki entry you referenced. "Nominative determinism differs from the related concept aptronym, and its synonyms aptonym, namephreak, and Perfect Fit Last Name (captured by the Latin phrase nomen est omen 'the name is a sign'), in that it focuses on causality. Aptronym merely means the name is fitting, without saying anything about why it has come to fit."
on a more serious note, people do choose the names for their companies/products. they could be totally meaningless, merely sound good, or convey something about the brand. it's not a rigorous argument, but nor is it ridiculous to wonder what they were going for here.