Ministry of Defence spent less on Palantir technology this year, documents suggest

The Ministry of Defence slashed spending on technology company Palantir from approximately £28m in 2019 to £2m this year, according to a Freedom of Information Request.

The reduction could be seen as a blow for the American technology company as Britain seeks to build capacity at home. Alex Karp, the firm’s co-founder, used Palantir’s close relationship with the US military and its allies as its unique selling point when it began trading on the New York Stock Exchange in a $15.8bn (£11.8bn) float earlier this year.

However, a Palantir spokesman said that the difference in spend could be explained by an upfront, multi-year contract signed historically and did not suggest a cutting of ties. They claimed the £2m was additional spend for a new contract — but did not detail what it was for. 

Palantir offers two products: Foundry, which integrates a government department or private company’s data sources to make it easier to analyse data; and Gotham, a data analysis tool used by counter-terrorism police. The former is largely engineered from Palantir’s UK office.

The MoD has previously said little about its use of Foundry, but Freedom of Information requests reveal the software is used to predict and limit the flow of staff leaving the Royal Navy.

Defence chiefs also struck a multi­million-pound deal for the company to provide tools for what was described as a search and analysis system in 2019.

A source close to the MoD contract process suggested that the difference may be down to the Government’s attempt to veil its use of Palantir by securing its software licences and personnel through third-party contractors. 

Another said any suggestion the Government was cooling on Palantir was misleading, as the firm played a key role in intelligence sharing with the US.

Palantir has faced criticism from civil rights groups over its contracts with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), which has come under fire over policies that separate children from their families. The firm has said its work with ICE is focused on cross-border criminal investigations, and that it is not involved in deportations or other operations targeting illegal immigrants.

The MoD did not respond to request for comment.