President-elect Donald Trump’s tech summit on Wednesday was an expected “who’s who” of industry titans, save for one: Palantir CEO Alex Karp.

With a $20 billion valuation, the Palo Alto, Calif.-based Palantir remains one of the highest-valued private tech companies in the world, having utilized its data-mining services in the past for the CIA, Hershey Co., Bridgewater Associates LP and Credit Suisse Group AG.

But that valuation pales in comparison to the other companies represented at Trump’s roundtable discussion on Wednesday, which also included Apple (AAPL), Tesla (TESLA), Microsoft (MSFT), Intel (INTC), Facebook (FB), Oracle (ORCL), Cisco (CSCO), and Google’s parent company, Alphabet (GOOG, GOOGL), all of which have $30 billion-plus market caps.

Palantir’s presence is even more notable, given the omission of publicly-traded companies like Twitter (TWTR), which Trump’s transition team reportedly did not invite because it wasn’t “big enough.” While Palantir’s $20 billion valuation surpasses Twitter’s current $13.85 market cap, it’s notable that it was the only private company present on Wednesday.

Karp’s seat at the table can probably be attributed to the influence of billionaire tech investor Peter Thiel, a member of Trump’s transition team who also co-founded Palantir in 2004. At Wednesday’s meeting, Trump and Thiel appeared close, exchanging an effusive handshake.

“I want to start by thanking Peter, because he saw something very early, maybe before we saw it, and of course he’s known for that in a different way,” Trump said on Wednesday, possibly referring to Thiel’s early campaign endorsement. “[He] is a very special guy.”

Having Palantir at Trump’s tech summit helps raise the company’s profile, and “raising the profile helps with recruiting, IPO potential and probably with general influence,” a source who knows Thiel told Yahoo Finance.

Having Palantir present also potentially sets the stage for additional government contracts in the short- to medium-term, which would be a big boon for the company since it received about $83 million from the government this year alone.

“Palantir relies heavily on government contracts and literally now has a seat at a table to shape the rules of the game,” a source familiar with Palantir told Yahoo Finance.

Although Karp dismissed the idea that Palantir is struggling back in October at The Wall Street Journal’s WSJDLive conference, the startup has lost several notable clients over the last year, including American Express (AXP) and Coca-Cola (COKE).

Having Palantir reap the benefits from closer ties to the Trump administration would also be a boon for Thiel himself, given much of his own net worth is tied to the company.

It’s unclear at this time whether Thiel signed the transition team’s ethics agreement that forbids officials from working on matters that may overlap with their financial interests. Regardless, Thiel must tread lightly, given concerns around conflicts of interest — a theme that continues to plague the Trump administration’s early days. Indeed, three of Trump’s children — Ivanka, Donald Jr., and Eric — were present at Wednesday’s tech summit, as well.

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JP Mangalindan is a senior correspondent for Yahoo Finance covering the intersection of tech and business. Follow him on Twitter or Facebook.

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