Palantir’s ‘rotating door’ with the government spur great growth

Palantir is benefiting from a “rotating door” of executives and officials that pass between the data intelligence of $ 264 billion and high -level positions in Washington and Westminster, creating a network of influence that has guided its extraordinary growth.

The American group, whose billionaire president Peter Thiel has been a key sponsor of Donald Trump, has enjoyed an amazing concentration of prices of actions in depth of the strong increase in sales of government contracts and deals with the world’s largest corporations .

Detailed findings by the Technological Transparency Project (TTP), which analyzed the revelations of transparency and dozens of work movements, as well as the public records of the United States and the United Kingdom obtained by Financial Times, show how Palantir has hired broadly from critical government agencies for their sales.

The analysis reveals the extensive influence network of the American group that includes: deep ties with the largest client, the Department of Defense; an increase of six times in lobbying spending in the United States in the last decade; and create a non -profit base to finance academic research and shape policy discussions.

Palantir has won more than $ 2.7 billion in US contracts. UU. Since 2009, including more than $ 1.3 billion in Pentagon contracts, according to federal records. In the United Kingdom, Palantir has received more than 376 million in contracts, according to Tussell, a data provider. Palantir declined to comment.

Company’s executives “have their digital footprints throughout Trump’s transition and administration,” said Bill Hartung, a member of the Senior Research of the Quincy Institute for the state of the state of remains.

“Silicon Valley used to say ‘we don’t have to press because we have a higher product’, but now everything is in politics.”

Palantir argues that their data analysis products have customer demand, including BP and Hertz, due to their leading market capacity to analyze complex information sets. It is attributed to its technology to help kill the leader of Al-Qaeda, Osama Bin Laden, distribute Covid-19 vaccines and condemn the financial Bernard Madoff.

The head of Palantir, Alex Karp, an open Democratic donor who supported the opponent of Trump, Kamala Harris, said he would gain greater unexpected profits of the expected approach of the new president in budget efficiency, as well as a higher expense in national security.

Their shares increased 340 percent in the course of 2024, when it was the best performance in the S&P 500. The senior executives of Palantir, Thiel and Karp have won more than $ 1 billion in sales of shares since the victory of the victory of the Trump’s November elections.

“This is a revolution. Some people cut their heads, ”Karp said announcing stellar quarterly gains on Monday that they sent actions to new maximums. “We hope to see really unexpected things and win.”

The rotating door

While Elon Musk has become the greatest reinforcement of Trump Silicon Valley, Thiel was the champion of the president of the technological sector during his first campaign in 2016.

The investor also played a crucial role in the ancestry of JD Vance, launching the New Vice President’s Risk Capital career before becoming the largest donor of his campaign for the United States Senate in 2022.

Thiel organized a celebration party for the inauguration of Trump in his home of DC last month, attended by Vance and leaders of Silicon Valley as Mark Zuckerberg of Meta and Sam Altman of OpenI.

After the US elections in November, Trump began taking advantage of Palantir executives for the roles of the key government.

Jacob Helberg, Karp’s main advisor, was nominated as Secretary of State for economic growth, energy and the environment, which would make it the senior official of economic policy and trade in the State Department.

Meanwhile, Gregory Barbaccia, who worked in Palantir for a decade until 2020, was appointed Federal Information Director in the president’s executive office, supervising the IT budget of $ 70 billion in the country.

Palantir has also brought together former legislators and government officials of Republican and Democratic history.

In August, he recruited Mike Gallagher, a former Republican congressman who led the China Select Committee of the House of Representatives to help identify contract opportunities. He resigned from the Chamber in April 2024 and under federal politics he is prohibited from pressing Congress for one year.

In 2023, Palantir hired Geof Kahn, a former CIA veteran who worked in the Trump transition team in 2016, and Jamie Fly, former foreign and national security advisor of the Florida Senator, Marco Rubio, Secretary of State of Trump

Since 2019, he has hired the former legal and legal officials, such as those appointed by the Trump Matthew Turpin and Alexander Alden administration, the employee of the Wendy Anderson era and former biden assistant Funmi Olorunnipa Badejo.

At least six people have moved between Palantir and the main digital and artificial intelligence office of the Pentagon (CDAO), an office that supervises the adoption of data, analysis and the department of Defense, according to the TTP.

Meanwhile, Joe Lonsdale, a risk capitalist and co -founder of Palantir, has played a central role in the creation and personnel of the Musk government efficiency department, a new advisory group that seeks to reduce the stripes of the federal budget.

A close ally of the Tesla Chief, Lonsdale also helped establish and finance the PAC America Pro-Trump, which became the vehicle through which Musk donated more than $ 239 million to the Trump campaign.

These types of movements allow companies such as Palantir to obtain “credibility in Capitol Hill,” said Jeff Hauser, executive director of the rotating door project, and helps them “exert direct and indirect influence on hiring and assignments.”

Hauser added: “Palantir is doing it because it has been demonstrated for decades that the rotating door can help companies earn more contracts.”

Rampeando lobbying

In October, Palantir hired the signing of one of the most prominent corporate lobbyists in Washington, Miller Strategies, to press on the defense policy and appropriations, according to federal revelations.

The head of the firm, Jeff Miller, had established himself as the lobbyist to influence the Trump administration during the president’s first mandate. Their other technology clients include Spacex, Amazon and Apple.

In general, Palantir increased lobbying last year to $ 5.8mn, compared to around $ 1MN in 2015, according to federal revelations. However, this is compared to $ 12.3m for Google, and $ 12.4mn and $ 8.8mn for traditional Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman defense companies, respectively.

Palantir has also supported the creation of a Lobby commercial group, the New American Industrial Alliance, which is advised by former Trump administration officials and aims to review the Pentagon’s work with defense contractors. It is also supported by the 8VC Risk Company of Lonsdale.

In 2023, he launched the Palantir Foundation for defense policy and international affairs, obtained by the state without profit without profit.

The group said that it is a “non -partisan organization dedicated to advancing national security”, and that it was established to influence policy discussions by financing academic research and conferences accommodation. He publishes a magazine called The Republic, with his first issue with an essay entitled ‘Don’t Let Copyright Kill American Ai’.

Palantir has used a similar play book in the United Kingdom. His British business is supervised by Louis Mosley, a former conservative party activist, while the head of corporate affairs of the United Kingdom, Ben Mascall, was an advisor to the Ministry of Defense and Head of Strategic Communications at Downing Street.

Before winning a contract worth up to £ 330 million with the NHS in November 2023 to help administer patient data, Palantir recruited two senior NHS officials specialized in AI and data, a movement that raised concerns about the Growing the company’s links with the health service.

Palantir has also hired public departments, including the United Kingdom Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Interior, and forged other links with British government officials. He has used former high -level officials, such as the former MI6 chief, Sir John Sawers, to run presentations to the United Kingdom government.

The company has been a customer of a global advisor, the lobbying firm founded by Labor Companion Peter Mandelson, the British Ambassador incoming in the United States. Cobil expenses are not publicly available in the United Kingdom.

Palantir attended at least 13 meetings at the ministerial level between 2022 and 2023, but also extended hospitality, such as drinks and dinners to senior officials such as Caroline Bellamy, data director of the Ministry of Defense, where Palantir has a contract of $ 75 million.

In January 2024, Thiel personally met Lord Dominic Johnson, then Minister of Investment, to “develop a relationship”, in accordance with the documents published to the FT laws under transparency.

Johnson planned to address concerns about the lack of access to the European market by Palantir’s defense arm and present the United Kingdom as a “world leading and incubator destination for risk philanthropy,” show the documents.

According to the notes of the very drafted meeting provided to the FT, Thiel expressed pessimism about the United Kingdom’s economy citing high taxes, low growth and “the fact that growth is driven by real estate instead of innovation such as technology.”