Palantir

Palantir Technologies, founded in 2003 by Peter Thiel, Alex Karp, and others, builds AI and data analytics platforms for governments and intelligence agencies. Headquartered in Denver, Colorado, its Gotham platform serves the US military and allied intelligence services; its Maven Smart System, the successor to Project Maven, provides battlefield AI targeting directly to US forces. Palantir is the closest thing the tech industry has to a dedicated military AI contractor. The Open Rights Group report "Tech Giants and Giant Slayers" (15 April 2026) found that Palantir's UK public sector contracts are expanding, not shrinking, framing this as evidence that Britain's tech dependency is deepening into the defence AI layer, not merely cloud infrastructure .

On 1 April 2026, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps named Palantir among 18 US technology companies as legitimate military targets, alleging AI targeting infrastructure support for US and Israeli strikes on Iran; Gulf employees were given until 8pm Tehran time to evacuate . Palantir also featured in US drone and defence AI procurement: the US Army awarded an Anduril sole-source ISR contract that Palantir had been expected to compete for, illustrating the increasingly crowded defence AI contractor market . US AI companies, including Palantir, simultaneously raised $125 million for a lobbying fund against AI regulation, on the grounds that safety rules hamper US defence AI competitiveness .

Of all the companies on the IRGC list, Palantir's designation requires the least inferential LEAP. Its Maven Smart System provides the analytical layer that translates sensor data into strike recommendations for US and allied forces. That its UK public sector contracts are simultaneously growing, flagged by ORG as a sovereignty risk, shows Palantir occupying both ends of the allied-nation spectrum: most operationally embedded in the US military, and deepening its grip on British state systems while the UK Government tries to build sovereign AI alternatives.