What is Palantir and why is it controversial?
Government faces warning that reliance on Palantir creates 'unacceptable point of weakness' in UK
The government is facing further calls to remove contracts with controversial US company Palantir, after MPs warned its use in the UK could weaken the country.
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The Commons Science, Innovation and Technology Committee said reliance on a small number of US-based providers represents a “clear vulnerability”.
Britain has contracts with the company to provide data analytics within the Ministry of Defence and the NHS, but is now under pressure to curb the awarding of any more deals.
Here is what you need to know.
Read also: MPs warn reliance on Palantir creates 'unacceptable point of weakness' in UK
What is Palantir?
Palantir is a US-based data analytics company, which was co-founded by Peter Thiel, a tech billionaire and ally of Donald Trump, in 2003 with Alex Karp, the current chief executive.
German-American investor Mr Thiel was also a co-founder of PayPal and Founders Fund as well as being the first outside investor in Facebook.
He has been a major donor to the Republican Party and Mr Trump. The other co-founders were Stephen Cohen, Joe Lonsdale, and Nathan Gettings, with the company’s name being that of a magical stone used in Lord of the Rings.
Since the pandemic, Palantir has used AI-driven software to help its clients organise vast and heavy datasets, and has found a large potential for growth.
As of June 2026, the company has a valuation of $375 billion.
Its list of customers includes the Israeli military and the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), as well as the NHS, after a deal struck in November 2023, and with the UK’s Ministry of Defence.
For the NHS, it helps with keeping track of patient records and personal data.
The NHS said of the appointment: “They were required to demonstrate their financial, commercial, security and technical capability to meet contractual requirements.
“The procurement process also required suppliers to evidence their commitment to sustainability and social value.
“The platform was procured via a rigorous, competitive procurement process in line with government procurement legislation.”
There have been two chief concerns over Planitir operating in the UK:
- Its widening reach across the UK’s public services, and,
- Concerns around the company's values and ethics.
The Commons Science, Innovation and Technology Committee said reliance on a small number of US-based providers represents a “clear vulnerability”.
A statement read: “Our view that Palantir’s increasing presence across the public sector represents an unacceptable point of weakness is not ideologically motivated or driven by concerns about the quality of their products.“
The Government should retain the ability to pick and choose individual suppliers and safeguard against the risk of vendor lock-in and debilitating dependencies, particularly in areas of critical national importance such as healthcare and national security infrastructure.
"Committee chairwoman Dame Chi Onwurah added: “We welcome the Government’s intentions to make the UK a ‘truly digital state’, but it’s not clear how this will be delivered.
"A critical part of this transformation should include reducing the UK’s dependence on a small number of big US tech companies like Palantir.”
The concerns have risen after Palantir announced plans in September for a £1.5 billion investment to establish the UK as its European headquarters for defence, creating 350 “high-skilled” jobs.
It has also been reported that disgraced US ambassador Lord Mandelson attempted to organise a meeting between Palantir and Sir Keir Starmer.
Ideologically, concerns have been raised over Palantir’s ties to Israel and the Trump administration as well as chief executive Mr Karp writing that "some cultures are superior.“
"Some cultures have produced vital advances; others remain dysfunctional and regressive,” he wrote in a 22 point manifesto.
He has also declared the company to be anti-woke, embraced support of Israel and said that AI-weaponry is the future.
AI expert Aisha Down told the Guardian: “While it is unproven, there is a sense that Trump could use US laws to subpoena and get UK sovereign data.”
Martin Wrigley, a Liberal Democrat MP, responded: “Palantir’s manifesto, which embraces AI state surveillance of citizens along with national service in the USA, is either a parody of a RoboCop film, or a disturbing narcissistic rant from an arrogant organisation.”
The concerns from both sides came to a head when Sadiq Khan blocked a £50 million Met Police deal with Palantir after it trialled AI to monitor staff behaviour.
Dr Rhiannon Mihranian Osborne, an NHS doctor, health inequalities researcher and activist with the No Palantir in the NHS campaign, told LBC that other contracts should be blocked as well.
She said: “Most recently, a leak revealed that Palantir staff were being given unrestricted access to patient identifiable information within the FDP, after years of NHS England insisting this wouldn’t happen.”
She added: “The NHS has a chance to break its contract with Palantir in less than a year. If even the Mayor of London thinks Palantir is too controversial for the police, how can they be embedded in our health system?”
Palantir UK chief Louis Mosley said the committee “has decided to put the politics of the playground before public services”.
He said: “The committee heard evidence from the highest levels of the NHS that adoption has exceeded targets and that NHS trusts were seeing benefits ‘in the form of additional operations, waiting list management and discharge co-ordination’.
“By calling for the cancellation of the programme that is delivering these benefits, they are trying to grab a quick headline at the expense of their own constituents’ care.”