Palantir, the worrying ally of the French intelligence services
Is Palantir an indispensable ally or a disguised threat to France? The question arises in light of the growing dependence of French intelligence services.
Written by | L’Essentiel de l’Éco
(Translated from French to English)
The DGSI has just renewed its contract with Palantir, an American-made software company that plays a central role in intelligence operations, for another three years. This choice highlights a growing technological dependence and raises serious questions of sovereignty, ethics, and control.
An exceptional tool installed in an emergency
Palantir’s first foray into French intelligence dates back to November 2015, following the Paris attacks. In the absence of a national or European alternative, the General Directorate for Internal Security (DGSI) turned to this American company founded by Peter Thiel and supported by the CIA.
The software used, OTDH (Heterogeneous Data Processing Tool), is based on the military version of Palantir, known as Gotham. It enables the analysis of vast volumes of data from disparate sources, facilitating their cross-referencing, prioritization, and operational use. Designed to overcome traditional silos between databases, it now forms the core software architecture of the DGSI (General Directorate for Internal Security).
The initial €10 million contract, signed in 2016, was renewed for the first time in 2019. Palantir recently confirmed the extension of its collaboration with the French services until 2028.
Palantir is proud to announce a three-year renewal of its contract with the DGSI, France’s domestic intelligence agency, extending a partnership that has been ongoing for nearly a decade.
Alex Karp, co-founder and CEO of Palantir, said: “We are very proud to support the DGSI in…
— Palantir (@PalantirTech) December 16, 2025
A technical dependency that has become structural
Initially presented as a temporary solution, Palantir has become a permanent fixture. In the context of a persistent terrorist threat and constant operational pressure, the DGSI prioritised the stability of a proven system over the uncertainty of a technological migration.
Changing platforms is not simply a software update. Such an operation involves redesigning analysis chains, redefining internal procedures, revalidating control standards, and retraining teams, all without interrupting intelligence work. These are all obstacles that make any transition project risky, costly, and potentially dangerous in such a sensitive sector.
Technological sovereignty put to the test
The renewal of the contract with Palantir reignites the debate on the dependence of French institutions on critical foreign technologies. In intelligence, this dependence is not neutral. It raises the question of effective control over the tool and the possibility of a unilateral withdrawal by the supplier. The case of Ukraine, where certain American technologies were temporarily suspended, is often cited as an example.
Palantir assures that the data processed by the DGSI is stored on dedicated servers, hosted in France, and accessible only by authorised French agents. However, these technical guarantees are insufficient to dispel doubts about the true sovereignty of operations conducted with a tool whose code, updates, and overall architecture are entirely beyond national control.
A French alternative that is still marginal
Faced with this dependence, attempts have been made to build a sovereign solution. The French company ChapsVision has positioned itself as the leading alternative player. It claims to be able to meet the performance, security, and compliance requirements of intelligence services.
A plan to switch over the existing system had even been considered before the 2024 Paris Olympics. But it didn’t come to fruition. The DGSI (General Directorate for Internal Security) determined that the reliability of a new tool could not be guaranteed in the short term without taking excessive risks. In a sector where mistakes are costly, the imperatives of sovereignty remain subordinate to those of continuity and efficiency.
Palantir, a company with an opaque culture
The company’s name references the magical stones from The Lord of the Rings saga, capable of seeing everything from a distance. This symbolism reflects a binary worldview: that of a confrontation between good and evil, embodied in the internal slogan “defend the Shire”.
© Peter Thiel, co-founder of Palantir, a company partly funded by the CIA (Photo: TechCrunch / CC BY 2.0)
Founded in the post-9/11 Silicon Valley ideological wave, Palantir boasts a unique corporate culture. Its co-founder, Peter Thiel, is known for his libertarian views and support for Donald Trump. The current CEO, Alex Karp, claims the company operates according to strict ethical principles, while also urging people not to take his word for it.
Public contracts under surveillance
Since its inception, Palantir has secured numerous high-profile contracts with US government agencies. One of the most controversial involves ImmigrationOS, software sold to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to facilitate the identification and arrest of undocumented immigrants. The company received over $113 million in federal contracts under the Trump administration.
Since the COVID-19 crisis, Palantir has also positioned itself in the healthcare sector, where it provides data analytics tools to several governments. This diversification fuels fears of uncontrolled cross-referencing between medical, judicial, and social records, despite assurances regarding the traceability of consultations.
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