SUBJECT-4168.dossier · company · status: active
KI
subject of file

Keyhole Inc

CIA-funded satellite mapping software company acquired by Google (became Google Earth)
Tracked because CIA-funded satellite mapping software company acquired by Google (became Google Earth) · 9 documented connections
Facts on record16
Connections mapped9
Sources cited22
Evidence: 4P 12S+4
Network web → Timeline → Compare with… → Position Drift → Coverage tone → View on Graph → View Card → Export CSV JSON Dossier ← Entity Directory
Stated vs Revealed
No documented contradictions on file.
PATTERN company → [investor] → company → [affiliation] → person 178× PATTERN person → [affiliation] → company → [investor] → company 178× PATTERN institution → [contractor] → company → [investor] → company 169× PATTERN company → [investor] → company 103× PATTERN company → [investor] → company → [investor] → institution 73×
Connection Map
Key Connections
→ Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) institution
investor
In-Q-Tel is the CIA's venture capital arm and made the $2M investment in Keyhole.
→ National Imagery and Mapping Agency government agency
customer_or_end_user
The investment from In-Q-Tel was In-Q-Tel's first engagement on behalf of the National Imagery and Mapping Agency (NIMA), which deployed EarthViewer within two weeks to support troops during the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
→ Google company
acquired_by
Google acquired Keyhole Corp in October 2004 for approximately $35 million, rebranding EarthViewer as Google Earth in 2005. The acquisition also provided shares to In-Q-Tel.
→ In-Q-Tel institution
portfolio_company
In-Q-Tel investment later acquired by Google, became Google Earth
Facts (16)
Data Freshness
Ageing Last update: 159d ago · Avg age: 2584d
Confidence Tiers: Primary Source — cross-referenced government/corporate filings Pending Review — sourced but not independently verified AI Inference — analytical hypothesis from cross-referencing
✓ Verified Findings (15)
Independently re-checked: a second model read the source artifact and confirmed it supports the extracted claim.
✓ verified Partially Corroborated Keyhole Corp was headquartered in Mountain View, California — the same city as Google (and later Alphabet).
Date: 2001-2004 Added: 02 May 2026 ↗ SOURCE: GOOGLE ACQUIRES KEYHOLE CORPORATION
✓ verified Pending Review CNN paid Keyhole $75,000 for a license to use EarthViewer during its coverage of the 2003 Iraq invasion — a contract that required CNN to display the Keyhole URL on air.
Date: 2003-03-15 Added: 02 May 2026
✓ verified Primary Source In May 2004, Skyline Software Systems filed a patent infringement suit against Keyhole over U.S. Patent No. 6,496,189 (remote landscape display). The case was dismissed in favor of Google in March 2007.
✓ verified Pending Review Rob Painter, Director of Technology Assessment at In-Q-Tel who led the Keyhole investment, joined Google in 2004 as federal manager for Google Earth Enterprise and later ran Google Federal.
Date: 2004-06-15 Added: 02 May 2026
✓ verified Primary Source In-Q-Tel sold 5,636 shares of Google stock worth over $2.2 million on November 15, 2005 — shares obtained through Google's acquisition of Keyhole.
Date: 2005-11-15 Added: 02 May 2026 ↗ SOURCE: Pissed at Google (In-Q-Tel Google stock sale)
✓ verified Partially Corroborated Keyhole Markup Language (KML), created by Keyhole, was adopted as an OGC (Open Geospatial Consortium) international standard in 2008 and later used by NASA for Earth science data.
Date: 2008-04-14 Added: 02 May 2026 ↗ SOURCE: Google's KML Format Approved As Open Standard
✓ verified Pending Review After Google's acquisition, EarthViewer was rebranded as Google Earth in June 2005. Google Earth technology also became the foundation for Google Maps and Street View.
Date: 2005-06-28 Added: 02 May 2026
✓ verified Partially Corroborated Keyhole CEO John Hanke served four years with the United States Foreign Service in Washington, D.C. and overseas in Myanmar working on foreign policy issues before founding Keyhole.
Date: 1990-1994 Added: 02 May 2026 ↗ SOURCE: John Hanke — Wikipedia
✓ verified Pending Review Google acquired Keyhole Corp in October 2004 for approximately $35 million, immediately reducing the consumer price of Keyhole 2 LT from $69.95 to $29.95 per year.
Date: 2004-10-27 Added: 02 May 2026
✓ verified Pending Review Keyhole raised a total of $527,500 in venture capital from investors including Sony Music Entertainment (Sony venture fund), NVIDIA (via a bundling deal), In-Q-Tel (CIA), and angel investor Brian McClendon.
Date: 2001-2003 Added: 02 May 2026
✓ verified Primary Source Within two weeks of In-Q-Tel's engagement, NIMA deployed EarthViewer to support US troops during the 2003 invasion of Iraq. TV networks including CNN, ABC, and CBS licensed the technology for live war coverage.
✓ verified Primary Source In February 2003, the CIA's venture capital arm In-Q-Tel made a strategic investment in Keyhole for approximately $2 million. This was In-Q-Tel's first engagement on behalf of the National Imagery and Mapping Agency (NIMA).
✓ verified Partially Corroborated Keyhole developed EarthViewer, a 3D satellite imagery application that combined multi-terabyte databases of satellite imagery and aerial photography with videogame-style 3D graphics.
✓ verified Pending Review Keyhole Inc was founded in 2001 as a spin-off from Intrinsic Graphics, a 3D graphics company co-founded by Brian McClendon and Michael Jones, both former Silicon Graphics engineers.
Date: 2001-06-15 Added: 02 May 2026
✓ verified Partially Corroborated Keyhole Inc filed filing with the SEC on 2015-02-09. Accession number: N/A.
Raw Filing Records (1) — unsourced metadata
Pending Review Search scope note: No usaspending contracts found for "Keyhole Inc" in automated database search as of 2026-04-13. This reflects search coverage limits, not confirmed absence from public record.
Added: 13 Apr 2026 UNVERIFIED Research: Keyhole Inc — USASpending contracts (no results)
All Connections (9)
→ In-Q-Tel institution
portfolio_company, investor primary
In-Q-Tel investment later acquired by Google, became Google Earth · CIA's venture capital arm invested ~$2M in Keyhole in February 2003 for equity and technology access rights on behalf of NIMA (National Imagery and Mapping Agency).
investor primary since 2003
In-Q-Tel is the CIA's venture capital arm and made the $2M investment in Keyhole.
→ National Imagery and Mapping Agency government agency
customer_or_end_user primary since 2003
The investment from In-Q-Tel was In-Q-Tel's first engagement on behalf of the National Imagery and Mapping Agency (NIMA), which deployed EarthViewer within two weeks to support troops during the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
→ Google company
acquired_by primary since 2004
Google acquired Keyhole Corp in October 2004 for approximately $35 million, rebranding EarthViewer as Google Earth in 2005. The acquisition also provided shares to In-Q-Tel.
→ Nvidia company
investor inferential since 2003
Keyhole raised venture capital from investors including NVIDIA via a bundling deal.
investor inferential since 2022
In-Q-Tel (parent of QIC) made early investments in Keyhole Inc., which later became Google Earth; QIC likely facilitated or represented such investment interfaces.
← Michael M. Crow person
affiliation inferential since 2021
Michael M. Crow is listed alongside Christopher Darby and Norman R. Augustine in the context of In-Q-Tel affiliated entities, suggesting a connection to Keyhole Inc through In-Q-Tel.
technology_acquisition_target inferential since 2004
Keyhole Inc was acquired through In-Q-Tel, which serves the Intelligence Community including NSA. The documented facts mention Keyhole Inc in the context of In-Q-Tel, which provides technology solutions to agencies like NSA.
← Norman R. Augustine person
affiliation inferential since 2008
Norman R. Augustine appears in proximity to Keyhole Inc (later Google Earth, originally funded by In-Q-Tel), suggesting a potential association through intelligence community investments.
Sources (22)
2026-05-10 UNVERIFIED SEARCH_ERROR: Keyhole Inc not found in opencorporates claim_flag Processed 📜 Receipt
2014-02-12 ↗ SEC EDGAR: filing — Keyhole Inc (2014-02-12) sec_filing Processed 📜 Receipt
2012-01-26 ↗ SEC EDGAR: filing — Keyhole Inc (2012-01-26) sec_filing Processed 📜 Receipt
2008-02-15 ↗ SEC EDGAR: filing — Keyhole Inc (2008-02-15) sec_filing Processed 📜 Receipt
2009-02-13 ↗ SEC EDGAR: filing — Keyhole Inc (2009-02-13) sec_filing Processed 📜 Receipt
2010-02-12 ↗ SEC EDGAR: filing — Keyhole Inc (2010-02-12) sec_filing Processed 📜 Receipt
2015-02-09 ↗ SEC EDGAR: filing — Keyhole Inc (2015-02-09) sec_filing Processed 📜 Receipt
ongoing ↗ John Hanke — Wikipedia external_handoff Processed 📜 Receipt
2008-04-14 ↗ Google's KML Format Approved As Open Standard external_handoff Processed 📜 Receipt
2005-11-15 ↗ Pissed at Google (In-Q-Tel Google stock sale) external_handoff Processed 📜 Receipt
2006-06-05 ↗ Skyline Software Systems, Inc. v. Keyhole, Inc et al external_handoff Processed 📜 Receipt
2018-06-08 ↗ What Big Tech Has Acquired From In-Q-Tel, The CIA's VC Arm external_handoff Processed 📜 Receipt
2015-12-30 ↗ The CIA's EarthViewer was basically the original Google Earth external_handoff Processed 📜 Receipt
2004-10-28 ↗ Google buys CIA-backed mapping startup external_handoff Processed 📜 Receipt
2003-06-25 ↗ Keyhole Press Release: In-Q-Tel Announces Strategic Investment in Keyhole external_handoff Processed 📜 Receipt
2004-10-27 ↗ GOOGLE ACQUIRES KEYHOLE CORPORATION external_handoff Processed 📜 Receipt
2026 UNVERIFIED Research: Keyhole Inc — Parliamentary records (no results) parliamentary_record Processed 📜 Receipt
2026 UNVERIFIED Research: Keyhole Inc — Court records (no results) court_document Processed 📜 Receipt
2026 UNVERIFIED Research: Keyhole Inc — Lobbying disclosures (no results) government_disclosure Processed 📜 Receipt
2026 UNVERIFIED Research: Keyhole Inc — Corporate registrations (no results) government_disclosure Processed 📜 Receipt
2026 UNVERIFIED Research: Keyhole Inc — USASpending contracts (no results) contract Processed 📜 Receipt
2015-02-09 ↗ SEC EDGAR: filing — Keyhole Inc (2015-02-09) web_search Processed 📜 Receipt