Puff, puff, pass the spreadsheets.
Tech companies like Palantir and Hello Patient are stocking office vending machines with tobacco products to increase productivity among employees—and it seems to be working.
Tobacco startups Lucy Nicotine and Sesh have installed branded vending machines in Palantir’s Washington D.C. office, full with nicotine pouches that are leaving employees zipped up and ready to work.
Long a safer (re: more legal) alternative to the drugs that Wall Street bankers of old would use to follow market updates, tobacco products have started to make a comeback to the workplace, especially in the form of nicotine products as companies like Zyn and On! offer a less invasive way to get that nicotine high without clouding up office air.
Now, as companies stock their fridges with these pouches—usually the size of a piece of gum that remains tucked between one’s gums and cheeks—they’re seeing an increased byproduct of the new office treat: if you can’t get them hooked on the work, get them hooked on the work perks.
The pouches are available for free in Palantir’s offices for employees and guests over the age of 21, a Palantir spokesperson told The Wall Street Journal. Palantir, which did not respond to requests for comment, pays to stock the products.
Eliano A. Younes, Palantir’s Head of Strategic Engagement, posted a photo on X of a Lucy Nicotine-branded vending machine filled with nicotine products, with the caption “Palantir DC Office 🤝 @LucyNicotine 😵💫 🚀.”
No smoke without fire
Palantir’s move is just one of the ways “bio-hacking” has taken the Silicon Valley tech space by storm. As people in the tech world become microcelebrities in their own right thanks to the extent they take their bio-hacking—Bryan Johnson for one gets transfusions of his teenage son’s plasma—the influx of bio-hacking clinics has led to people taking health matters into their own hands.
(Culturally, Zyn has a certain cache among right-of-center figures such as Joe Rogan and Jake Paul, with Max Read coining the phrase “Zynternet” to describe the online aesthetic of pretty much anything Joe Rogan-tinted. Palantir, co-founded by Peter Thiel and notable as a unique firm that mashes up consulting, defense contracting and artificial intelligence, is arguably a Zynternet poster child, but it’s unclear if these Zyn vending machines are intentionally aligned with that specific culture.)
However, doctors have offered a blunt warning against using tobacco as a means to bio-hack, saying the evidence is pretty clear tobacco has significant, long-term health effects.
Although the pouches are considered a tobacco product, they don’t contain any tobacco, and are instead made from the plant fiber cellulose. There’s a blend of nicotine powder in the pouch, which is then mixed with sweeteners and flavoring. Because the pouch is placed between one’s gums and cheek, the nicotine enters the bloodstream directly, no smoking or spitting needed.
“That’s what this new product is touting: that it’s a smoke-free alternative,” wrote Dr. Jennifer Cofer, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.
“If your goal is to be free of the addiction, oral nicotine pouches are not the best way to go,” her statement read.
The sentiment is echoed by another tech startup that equally has started to put vending machines in its offices.
Alex Cohen, the founder of the AI-powered health care app Hello Patient, said he also brought a nicotine-pouch fridge to the Austin-based office—but the results weren’t worth the squeeze.
“They were very productive, so I thought maybe there’s something here,” he told The Wall Street Journal, referencing when he saw Zyn tins on engineers’ desks.
After going through two or three pouches a day, he knew he had to stop.
“Then, I accidentally got addicted,” he said.
