The UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) has awarded US tech company Palantir with a £240.6 million contract over three-years to work on its data analytics.

The deal will start on 1 April; the contract was described as an agreement “for continued licensing and support to data analytics capabilities supporting strategic, tactical and live operational decision making across classifications, across defense, and interoperable with Nato and other allied nations Palantir systems,” according to the contract tender.

The deal is met with multiple lines of controversy, as OpenDemocracy investigations uncovered a direct link between Palantir and the MoD, with the US-based tech company hiring four ex-MoD employees before the new deal was agreed.

The MoD did place restrictions on Palantir’s hire of Barnaby Kistruck, a former policy director at MoD, saying he could not rely on government information to give the firm an unfair advantage, must not use his government contracts, and may not advise on bids for government contracts in the 12 months following his departure from MoD.

Palantir confirmed to The Register that all employees are required to adhere to any non-compete clauses they are bound by.

Further, the MoD contract was awarded directly to Palantir rather than through a procurement competition, a decision rationalised by the MoD under a security and defence exemption.

Even without the leadership controversy, Palantir’s growing provenance in the UK’s government continues to raise hair. The UK’s continued reliance on US big tech and Palantir’s roles in surveillance, has struck a chord in the UK’s own discourse surrounding privacy and immigration.

Palantir, chaired by Trump ally and former PayPal chief Peter Thiel, is perhaps best known for its work with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), whose agents shot and killed two civilians in Minneapolis this month. 

The firm also established a “strategic partnership” with Israel to provide services for Israel’s “war-related missions” in January 2024.

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The data and analytics firm has established its European defense headquarters in London, and its new contract is seen as an expansion of its previous MoD contract signed in September to boost the use of AI by the UK’s military.

The firm was also chosen as the vendor for NHS England’s federated data platform back in 2023, which was also met with controversy.

New Green party leader Zack Polanski criticised the firm’s NHS contract, saying: “This Trump-supporting military surveillance outfit has no place in Britain’s most important institution.”

Thiel himself has been the subject on much controversy – and general dismay – for his own believes about society and AI. He recently presented his theory on the anti-Christ, which he frames as a figure that will use fears of an AI-driven, climate change-caused, nuclear Armageddon to frighten and control the globe, to a lecture hall in France.