Palantir's Code of Conduct says its technology should "protect the vulnerable." Its ELITE system uses Medicaid records -- healthcare data that poor people submitted to access medical treatment -- to identify deportation targets for ICE. Read that again. You applied for healthcare because you couldn't afford a doctor. The government recorded your information. Palantir's AI ingested that data, combined it with your IRS tax records, Social Security files, passport data, and license-plate sightings, and generated an arrest dossier. The system that was supposed to give you healthcare became the system that located you for removal. And Palantir's $30 million ImmigrationOS contract was sole-source -- the government said no other company could do it. Palantir promised to protect the vulnerable. Then it built the system that hunts them. Alex Karp told investors his product kills people. Then he published a manifesto about how society is too eager to kill. He demands privacy for himself while his software scrapes every purchase, message, and location of ordinary people. He calls for universal mandatory military service at age 58 with no military experience and no children. He says free speech matters, then calls for pro-Palestinian protesters to be exiled to North Korea. Belgian philosopher Marc Coeckelbergh has a word for this: "technofascism." Bellingcat's Eliot Higgins has another: "the public ideology of a company whose revenue depends on the politics it's advocating." Palantir isn't a technology company with political opinions. It's a political project with a technology product. The manifesto isn't philosophy. It's a sales pitch for permanent war, written by the man who profits from it.
What they claim: In 2020, Palantir declined certain ICE contracts due to concerns about "disproportionate immigration enforcement," positioning itself as a company with ethical boundaries around surveillance technology.
What we found: In April 2025, Palantir signed a $30 million sole-source contract to build ImmigrationOS for ICE -- a comprehensive AI system for tracking and deporting immigrants. The contract was designated sole-source because Palantir was the "only source" capable of delivering. The ICM deal has ballooned to over $145 million total. DHS awarded a 5-year, $1 billion AI platform contract. In May 2025, 13 former Palantir employees -- software engineers, managers, and members of the privacy and civil liberties team -- signed an open letter condemning the company's ICE work. They specifically noted the 2020 refusal and called the 2025 contract a direct reversal: "We no longer believe Palantir's executives are upholding these values. By supporting Trump's administration, Elon Musk's DOGE initiative, and dangerous expansions of executive power, they have abandoned their responsibility and are in violation of Palantir's Code of Conduct." Current employees vented in internal Slack threads. Palantir began auto-deleting Slack conversations after 7 days in at least one channel following internal pushback.
What they claim: Palantir positions its law enforcement tools as transparent aids to policing, helping communities become safer through data-driven insights and pattern recognition.
What we found: The New Orleans Police Department used Palantir Gotham for predictive policing throughout the 2010s -- and hid the program from the city council and the public. The Intercept exposed the secret program in 2018. Palantir's software combined siloed databases to allow comprehensive queries on individuals across multiple systems simultaneously. The LAPD used Palantir Gotham for near-total integration of surveillance data, with ethnographic research documenting the scope. Civil liberties advocates compared predictive policing to Minority Report -- arresting people based on algorithmic predictions rather than evidence of crimes committed. Research consistently shows predictive policing reinforces algorithmic bias, contributing to disproportionate policing of Black and minority communities. Historical crime data reflects historical policing patterns -- over-policed neighborhoods produce more data, which produces more policing, which produces more data. Palantir's algorithms didn't predict crime. They predicted where police had previously been sent.
What they claim: Palantir CTO Akash Jain publicly stated: "Palantir is not building a master database, and is neither conducting nor enabling mass surveillance of American citizens."
What we found: DOGE staffers are building a master database by combining IRS, SSA, HHS, and other agency data -- feeding directly into ImmigrationOS infrastructure. Palantir's ELITE system already combines Medicaid records, passport records, Social Security files, IRS tax data, and license-plate reader data into unified AI-generated dossiers. The ImmigrationOS contract specifically covers the integration of data across multiple federal agencies into a single operational platform. Legal challenges have been filed to block DOGE from accessing IRS and SSA data. Whether Palantir calls it a "master database" or a "federated data platform" or an "integrated case management system" is semantic -- the functional result is the same: data from multiple government agencies, collected for different purposes under different legal authorities, combined into a single searchable system that generates enforcement actions against individuals. The denial is a vocabulary dispute, not a factual one.
What they claim: Palantir's Code of Conduct states its mission is to "protect the vulnerable" and support "responsible use of technology."
What we found: On February 28, 2026, a US Tomahawk missile struck an Iranian elementary school on the first full day of the Trump administration's war in Iran, killing more than 120 children. Investigations concluded the US was responsible and that surveillance tools including Palantir's Maven system had been used during that day's strikes. Palantir employees asked internally "were we involved, and are we doing anything to stop a repeat?" Management did not directly answer. A PCL employee admitted on a recorded internal AMA that "a sufficiently malicious customer is basically impossible to prevent at the moment."
What they claim: Palantir positions itself as a responsible AI company building software that "protects civil liberties"
What we found: In April 2026, Palantir won a $30 million contract from ICE to build an operating system for identifying undocumented immigrants and tracking self-deportations — its largest single ICE award. The system creates a centralised database for mass deportation operations. Palantir has secured over $10 billion in US government contracts since the start of Trump's second term.
What they claim: Palantir markets its platforms as tools for operational efficiency and national security
What we found: USDA awarded Palantir a no-bid contract worth up to $75 million to track federal workers' return-to-office compliance in 2026. The system monitors when employees badge in, how long they stay, and whether they meet attendance requirements — turning a national security contractor into a workplace surveillance vendor for the federal government.
What they claim: Palantir positions itself as a patriotic American company defending national security and democratic values, with its April 2026 manifesto calling for shared sacrifice and universal civic duty.
What we found: Palantir earned $4.475 billion in revenue in 2025 (up 56% year-over-year) with net income of $1.625 billion (up 252%). The company holds $7.2 billion in cash with zero debt. It was the second-best-performing stock in the S&P 500 in 2025, trading at approximately 261x price-to-earnings ratio. Federal contracts grew from $4.4 million in 2009 to $970.5 million in 2025. A $10 billion Army deal was signed in July 2025. Palantir paid zero federal income tax in 2025 despite receiving hundreds of millions of dollars in taxpayer-funded government contracts. The company calls for universal national service and shared sacrifice while paying nothing into the system that funds its contracts. American taxpayers fund Palantir's revenue. Palantir returns none of it in federal taxes.
What they claim: Palantir's founding documents and Code of Conduct promise that its software should "protect the vulnerable" and that the company builds technology to "augment human intelligence" for the benefit of society.
What we found: Palantir's ELITE system (Enhanced Leads Identification and Targeting for Enforcement) ingests Medicaid records from HHS -- healthcare data submitted by poor people to access medical treatment -- and combines it with passport records, Social Security files, IRS tax data, and license-plate reader data to generate AI-powered arrest dossiers for ICE. Medicaid data exists because the government promised to provide healthcare to low-income people. Palantir's system repurposes that data as a targeting tool to identify and deport them. ImmigrationOS, a $30 million contract awarded April 17, 2025, was designated as sole-source -- Palantir was the "only source" capable of delivering. The DHS awarded a 5-year, $1 billion contract for an AI platform covering both CBP and ICE. In December 2025, Palantir also received a USCIS contract -- meaning the company now has contracts with both the enforcement and benefits sides of the immigration system. Total federal contracts since Trump took office: over $900 million.
What they claim: Palantir's NHS Federated Data Platform contract states the company cannot commercialise or market NHS data, even anonymised, and positions the platform as improving patient outcomes across England.
What we found: NHS England published the 586-page Palantir FDP contract with the section on "protection of personal data" heavily redacted -- blacked out. The contract covers up to 240 NHS organisations and is worth £330 million over 7 years. Palantir entered the NHS by working for free during Covid, then received £23.5 million to continue, then won the full tender. By end of 2024, fewer than a quarter of England's 215 hospital trusts were actively using the platform. Leeds Teaching Hospitals responded to a Freedom of Information request saying FDP would cause them to "lose functionality rather than gain it." Greater Manchester found Palantir's platform "does not currently have any system-level products that offer the same or better functionality" as their existing system. In June 2025, the British Medical Association -- the UK's trade union for doctors -- voted to oppose FDP rollout and lobby nationally for termination of all NHS-Palantir contracts. NHS England investigated Palantir for a potential breach of contract after the company designed an influencer campaign targeting a prominent critic. UK ministers are reportedly considering triggering the break clause in 2027. Peter Thiel, Palantir's chairman, called the NHS "Stockholm syndrome" and advocated for its privatisation at Oxford Union.
What they claim: Palantir spokesperson: "We all pride ourselves on a culture of fierce internal dialogue and even disagreement."
What we found: After employees raised concerns about ICE contracts in Slack, Palantir started wiping Slack conversations after 7 days in the main internal debate channel (#palantir-in-the-news) without announcing the policy. When an employee asked why, cybersecurity said it was because of leaks. CEO Karp suggested employees sign NDAs before receiving information about ICE work. Karp told staff the company is "behind the curve internally" on popularity and previously said "if a position does not cost you ever to lose an employee, it's not a position." Employees described management responses as "philosophical soliloquies and redirection."
What they claim: Palantir markets itself as augmenting human intelligence, building "the infrastructure that allows institutions to function effectively" with platforms that enable "better decisions" and protect democratic values.
What we found: Alex Karp told investors: "Our product is used, on occasion, to kill people." He also stated Palantir is "here to scare our enemies and, on occasion, kill them." Then in April 2026, Karp and Nicholas Zamiska published "The Technological Republic," a 22-point manifesto viewed 32 million times, which states "our society has grown too eager to hasten the demise of its enemies" and "the vanquishing of an opponent is a moment to pause, not rejoice." The manifesto calls for universal mandatory military service -- written by a 58-year-old billionaire who has never served in the armed forces and has no children. Karp demands privacy for himself while his systems scrutinize every purchase, message, location, and transaction of ordinary people. He called for pro-Palestinian protesters to be exiled to North Korea because their behavior is "unforgivable" -- in a manifesto that calls for greater tolerance of speech. Belgian philosopher Marc Coeckelbergh called it "an example of technofascism." Bellingcat founder Eliot Higgins: "These 22 points aren't philosophy floating in space -- they're the public ideology of a company whose revenue depends on the politics it's advocating."