There is no mystery algorithm. It's just cheap college labor working obscene hours to pump out "data analysis" scripts. The sad thing is that it actually works. The places that hire palantir are so mired in bureaucracy and process that whatever palantir builds seems to be better. Of course, just like SAP and Accenture you're now kinda locked in with support contracts.
Modern tools like spark and mesos in theory let you do what palantir does and then some but it assumes your internal IT team is semi-competent which more often than not is not a correct assumption.
Maybe it tops out early, but I'm given to understand junior salaries are also very competitive. (Maybe this is less true by comparison in the States -- it's fairly true here in the UK.)
Modern tools like spark and mesos in theory let you do what palantir does and then some but it assumes your internal IT team is semi-competent which more often than not is not a correct assumption.