Palantir’s “revolving door” with the government annoys great growth

Palantir benefits from a “rotating door” of managers and civil servants who pass between 264 billion USD Data Intelligence Company and High positions in Washington and Westminster and create an influence network that has conducted its extraordinary growth.

The US group, whose billionaire, chairman Peter Thiel, was an important supporter of Donald Trump, recorded an amazing share price rally on the strong increase in sales by government contracts and with the world’s largest companies in the world.

Detailed findings from the Tech Transparency Project (TTP), These analyzed transparency reveals and dozens of jobs as well as the public records in the United States and Great Britain obtained from the Financial Times show how Palantir was put in detail by government agencies, which are of crucial importance for its sales.

The analysis shows the extensive network of influence of the US group, which includes the following: deep connections to the largest customer, the Ministry of Defense; a six -fold increase in lobby editions in the United States in the past ten years; and creation of a non -profit foundation to finance academic research and design the political discussions.

Palantir has gained more than $ 2.7 billion in US contracts in US dollars since 2009, including $ 1.3 billion in Pentagon contracts. According to Tussell, a data provider, Palantir has awarded more than 376 million GBP of contracts in Great Britain. Palantir refused to comment.

The company’s managers “” have “their fingerprints about the transition and administration of Trump,” said Bill Hartung, Senior Research Fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible StateCraft.

“The Silicon Valley always said:” We don’t have to have a lobby because we have a superior product “, but now everything is in politics.”

Palantir argues that his data analysis products are required by customers, including BP and Hertz, due to their market -leading ability to analyze complex information rates. His technology is contributed to killing Al-Qaida leader Osama Bin Laden, distributing Covid 19 vaccines and condemning the financier Bernard Madoff.

Palantir boss Alex Karp – a pronounced democratic donor who supported Trump’s opponent Kamala Harris – said that he would obtain further robbery through the expected focus of the new president on the budget efficiency and the higher expenses for national security.

The stocks rose by 340 percent in the course of 2024, when the top performer was in the S&P 500. Palantir’s top executives Thiel and Karp, have earned over 1 billion USD in stock sales of over 1 billion USD since Trump’s election victory in November.

“This is a revolution. Some people will cut their heads, ”said Karp and announced Stellar quarterly profits On Monday it sent it to new heights. “We expect really unexpected things to see and win.”

The rotating door

While Elon Musk appeared as Trump’s largest Silicon Valley Booster, Thiel was the champion of the president of the President during his first campaign in 2016.

The investor also played a crucial role in the rise of JD Vance and started the risk capital career of the new Vice President before becoming the largest donor in his campaign for US Senate in 2022.

Thiel A celebration party for Trump’s inauguration in his DC house last month, in which Vance took part, as well as the leaders of the Silicon Valley like Mark Zuckerberg from Meta and the Sam Altman of Openaai.

After the US elections in November, Trump started fulfilling Palantir managers for important government roles.

Jacob Helberg, senior advisor of Karp, was nominated as Foreign Minister for Economic growth, energy and the environment, which would make him the top economic policy and trade official of the Foreign Ministry.

In the meantime, Gregory Barbaccia, who worked in Palantir until 2020, was appointed federal executive of the Executive Office of the President and monitored the country’s IT budget worth 70 billion USD.

Palantir has also gathered former legislators and government officials in both Republican and democratic backgrounds.

In August, Mike Gallagher recruited an ex-Republican Congressman who headed the house selection committee for China to determine the determination of contractual options. He resigned from the house in April 2024 and under federal politics, the congress of lobbying is prohibited for a year.

In 2023, Palantir Geof Kahn, a former CIA veteran who worked in the Transition team of Trump in 2016, and Jamie Fly, former foreign and National Security advisor of the governor of Florida, Marco Rubio, Trump’s Foreign Minister.

Since 2019, it has been commissioned by former high-ranking defense and legal officers, such as the Trump administration, Matthew Turpin and Alexander Alden, the employees of Obama era Wendy Anderson and the ex-bidend assistant Funmi Olorunnipa Badejo.

According to the Ministry of Defense, at least six people between Palantir and the Chef -digital and Artificial Intelligence Office (CDAO) of the Pentagon, an office that monitors the acceptance of data, analyzes and AI.

In the meantime, Joe Lonsdale, a risk capital and co-founder of Palantir, has played a central role in the establishment and staff of the Musk department for government efficiency, a new advisory group that tries to reduce the parts of the federal budget.

Lonsdale, a close ally of the Tesla boss, also helped to establish and finance the Pro-Trump America-Pac, which became the vehicle, donated $ 239 million for Trump’s campaign.

This type of steps enable companies such as Palantir to get “credibility on Capitol Hill”, said Jeff Hauser, managing director of the Revolving Door Project, and help them “have both direct and indirect influence on contract and funds”.

Hauser added: “Palantir does this because it has been demonstrated for decades that the rotating door can help companies win more contracts.”

Increase lobbying

In October, Palantir hired the company of one of the best -known company lobbyists in Washington, Miller Strategies, according to the federal government and funds.

The company’s head, Jeff Miller, had established herself as a lobbyist to influence the Trump administration during the first term of office of the President. His other technical customers include SpaceX, Amazon and Apple.

Overall, Palantir increased the expenditure for lobbying to $ 5.8 million last year, compared to around $ 1 million in 2015, according to FederalAlal. However, this corresponds to $ 12.3 million from Google and $ 12.4 million and $ 8.8 million from traditional defense companies Lockheed Martin and Norththrop Grumman.

Palantir also supported the creation of a lobby trade group, the New American Industrial Alliance, who is advised by the former officials of the Trump administration and revised the work of the Pentagon with defense company. It is also supported by the 8 -VC venture company from Lonsdale.

In 2023 it started the Palantir Foundation for Defense Policy and International Affairs, which received a non -profit tax exemption status.

The group said that it was an “non-partisan organization that is devoted to the further development of national security” and was set up to influence the political discussions by finishing academic research and hosting conferences. It publishes a diary called The Republic with its first edition entitled “Lass Copyright American Ai not” not let Copyright Kill kill “.

Palantir used a similar game book in Great Britain. His British business is monitored by Louis Mosley, a former activist in the conservative party, during the senior British corporate affairs Ben Mascall was previously a consultant at the Ministry of Defense and Head of Strategic Communication in Downing Street.

Before winning a contract GBP worth up to 330 million With the NHS in November 2023 to manage patient data, Palantir recruited Two high -ranking NHS officials who specialize in AI and data, one step that spoke concerns about the growing connections of the company to healthcare.

Palantir also hired civil servants from departments, including the British Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of the Interior, and other connections to British government officials. It used former high-ranking officials such as the former MI6 boss Sir John Sawers to convey the introduction to the British government.

The company was a customer of Global Counsel, the lobby company founded by Labor Peer Peter Mandelson – The incoming British ambassador in the USA. Lobby issuing data is not publicly available in Great Britain.

Palantir accepted at least 13 sessions at the ministerial level between 2022 and 2023, but also expanded hospitality such as drinks and dinner to high -ranking civil servants such as Caroline Bellamy, whom Chief Data Officer of the Ministry of Defense, in which Palantir has a contract for $ 75 million.

In January 2024, Thiel Lord Dominic Johnson, the then investment minister, personally met in order to “build a relationship”, according to documents that were published according to transparency laws for the FT.

Johnson planned to pronounce the concerns regarding the lack of access to the European market by Palantir’s low-defense and Pitch-Großbritain as a “leading goal and incubator for venture Philanthropy”, as the documents show.

According to greatly reduced meetings that were made available to the FT, Thiel Pessimism expressed the British economy, the high taxes, low growth and “the fact that growth is powered by real estate rather than innovations such as technology”.