Notorious Palantir lands record $10bln contract with the US Army
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With this deal, Palantir cements its suspicious role in military data operations and AI systems like Maven Smart System.
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Alex Karp, CEO of the software firm Palantir Technologies, arrives as then-Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer convenes a closed-door gathering of leading tech CEOs, Wednesday, Sept. 13, 2023 (AP)
The US Army awarded Palantir a contract worth up to $10 billion over the next decade, with the agreement being finalized on Thursday.
Marking the largest contract ever awarded to the software and data analysis company, this deal solidifies Palantir's position as a key military data processor, following an additional $795 million investment earlier this year into its AI targeting system, Maven Smart System.
According to an Army statement, the new enterprise agreement represents a major change in how the Army acquires software, creating a broad structure to meet its long-term data and software requirements. The Army stated that the new agreement would streamline current software contracts while generating "significant cost efficiencies across mission-critical programs."
Co-founded by billionaire investor Peter Thiel, CEO Alex Karp, and three others with an explicitly patriotic mission following 9/11, Palantir has recently expanded aggressively within Washington, securing new contracts across seven federal agencies.
This transition has been partly fueled by the Trump administration's emphasis on AI and its push to move more government operations toward private-sector providers.
Palantir has been in the spotlight recently, after US President Donald Trump went to the company to develop software to aid his deportation efforts.
Wider context
Founded in 2003 by billionaire investor and Donald Trump supporter Peter Thiel and currently led by CEO Alex Karp, the data-mining company Palantir has drawn growing scrutiny and public interest as details emerge about its expanding contracts with multiple Department of Homeland Security divisions as well as other federal agencies.
In April, Palantir secured a $30 million contract with ICE to develop a surveillance system named ImmigrationOS, which, according to the agreement, would be designed to "streamline" the process of identifying and apprehending immigrants marked for deportation, enable real-time monitoring and documentation of self-deportations, and significantly enhance the overall efficiency of deportation operations.
The $30 million contract adds to Palantir's existing work with ICE, which began with an initial agreement under the Obama administration in 2014 and has been extended multiple times since, while the company has also been contracted to assist the so-called "department of government efficiency" (DOGE) in developing a "mega API" to access Internal Revenue Service data, as reported by Wired.
Company operating genocide
Palantir's ties are not only deepening with the US administration; it also has deep ties and provides significant support to Israeli occupation forces amid their genocidal war on Gaza. As the death toll in Gaza continues to surge past 60,000, the software firm could be streamlining the genocide "Israel" is conducting in Gaza.
According to the IOF, Palantir supports battlefield and urban surveillance analytics conducted by the Israeli military, and it even opened a Tel Aviv office in 2025 and has since worked very closely with Israeli defense firms.
Palantir’s technology specializes in integrating diverse data streams to enable real-time combat decision-making, a capability that closely aligns with "Israel’s" advanced digitized warfare approach currently being employed in Gaza. The company's software enables predictive policing and profiling in Occupied Palestine, tracking and targeting individuals based on large-scale data harvesting, and even enhancing drone operations and live targeting coordination.
Human rights advocates have criticized the use of Palantir's software in "Israel's" operations, including its dehumanization of Palestinians, automated tools enabling strikes on civilian areas, and obscure decision-making lacking any accountability.
Critics point out that despite its role in the war in Gaza, Palantir has concealed how its technologies and services are being used, while US officials have not condemned the implications of tech support to a military under ICC war crime investigations.
