Palantir Surveillance 2025: $10B+ in Government Deals

One Company Connects Every Surveillance Database

2024 revenue: $2.9 billion. 55% from government. Stock up 200% since Trump elected.^[1][2]

July 31, 2025: Army awards Palantir $10 billion over 10 years - consolidating 75 contracts into one massive surveillance deal.^[3]

May 2025: Pentagon boosts Maven AI warfare contract to $1.3 billion - doubling to 20,000+ military users.^[4]

April 2025: ICE pays $30 million for ImmigrationOS - "near real-time visibility" tracking immigrants.^[5] This builds on Palantir's [cumulative $287 million in ICE contracts since 2014](/articles/surveillance/palantir-immigration-machine-277-million).

Peter Thiel's company integrates surveillance data, financial transactions, communications intercepts, travel records, criminal databases into one platform. Used by CIA, FBI, ICE, Pentagon, local police, and now your healthcare system. It powers [ICE's complete surveillance arsenal](/articles/surveillance/ice-surveillance-arsenal-complete-tech-stack) and enables [political surveillance of Trump critics](/articles/surveillance/political-surveillance-trump-2025-critics-targeted).

💰 The Money: $2.9 Billion in Surveillance Revenue

2024 Total Revenue

$2.9 billion total (28.79% increase from 2023)^[1]
Government: 55% ($1.57B, +28%)
Commercial: 45% ($1.30B, +29%)
Stock price up 200%+ since Trump elected^[6]

Trump Administration Boost

$113 million spent by Trump admin (as of May 2025)^[6]
DHS and Pentagon contracts
US government revenue: 45% year-over-year growth^[1]
Q1 2025: $375M of $884M total from US gov^[1]

Contract Pipeline 2024-2025

$10B - Army (July 2025)
$1.3B - Maven AI (May 2025)
~$1B - Navy (November 2024)
$30M - ICE ImmigrationOS (April 2025)
£330M - UK NHS (2023-ongoing)

🏛️ The Army Deal: $10 Billion to Connect Everything

July 31, 2025: Largest Contract in Palantir History

Contract value: Up to $10 billion over 10 years^[3]

Structure: Enterprise Service Agreement - consolidates 75 separate contracts (15 where Palantir is prime, 60 as subcontractor) into one massive deal^[3]

Why: Bulk buying discount. Connect disparate databases. Automate data analysis with AI.^[3]

What the Army Gets

Palantir's platforms across all Army operations:

Gotham: Intelligence and targeting
Foundry: Data integration and analytics
Apollo: Software deployment to secure/remote locations
AIP: AI-powered analysis and automation

Army benefits (according to contract):^[3]

Connect previously isolated databases
Automate analysis, freeing operators to focus on interpretation
Greater use of artificial intelligence across operations
One unified software system instead of 75 separate contracts

What this means: Every Army unit, every database, every intelligence system runs through Palantir. One company sees everything.

🎯 Maven: The AI That Picks Targets

May 23, 2025: Pentagon Doubles Down on AI Warfare

Contract increased to: $1.3 billion through 2029^[4]

Original contract (May 2024): $480 million over 5 years

Increase: $795 million boost^[4]

Reason: User base more than doubled since January 2025 - now exceeding 20,000 active Maven users across military and combatant commands^[4]

What Maven Smart System Does

Origin: Project Maven launched in 2017 to enable "wider use of AI-enabled technologies that can autonomously detect, tag and track objects or humans of interest from still images or videos captured by surveillance aircraft, satellites and other means"^[4]

Current capabilities (2025):^[4]

Autonomous detection: AI identifies targets without human review
Object tracking: Follows vehicles, equipment, people across video feeds
Human tracking: Tags and monitors "persons of interest"
Multi-source integration: Combines data from aircraft, satellites, drones
Real-time command and control: Used by combatant commands for "dynamic operations"

The Google Controversy That Wasn't

In 2018, Google employees protested Project Maven, forcing Google to drop the contract. The controversy was about AI being used for lethal targeting.

Palantir had no such qualms. Took the contract. Expanded it. Now it's $1.3 billion and growing.

🤖 TITAN: Space Sensors to Ground Targets in Seconds

The Army's Next-Gen Targeting System

Contract value: $178 million (March 2024)^[7]

Full name: Tactical Intelligence Targeting Access Node^[7]

Status: First 2 systems delivered March 2025 (on time, on budget)^[8]

Total prototypes: 10 systems (5 Advanced, 5 Basic variants)^[7]

What it does: Ground station connecting Army units to high-altitude and space sensors, processing data with AI/ML to provide targeting information and situational awareness^[7]

The kill chain:

Satellite/drone detects potential target
TITAN receives and processes sensor data
AI analyzes, identifies, tags target
System provides targeting coordinates
Soldier makes engagement decision

Speed: Seconds from detection to targeting data

🚓 The Police Surveillance: Gotham in Your City

US Police Departments

Confirmed Palantir users (current or past):^[9][10]

NYPD
LAPD (ended 2020)
New Orleans (ended)
Chicago PD
Salt Lake City
Washington DC
San Diego

Northern California: About 300 cities (8 million people) had access to Palantir through Northern California Regional Intelligence Center^[9]

International Police Use

Active deployments:^[11]

Denmark: POL-INTEL predictive policing (since 2017) - "heat map" of crime areas
Netherlands: Dutch police (since 2011)
Norway: Customs screening passengers/vehicles
UK: Metropolitan Police
Europol: Gotham system

What Police Get

Gotham integrates:^[11]

Criminal databases
License plate readers
Facial recognition systems
Social media
Financial records
Travel data
Cell phone location
Surveillance cameras

Predictive policing: AI flags "potential" criminals before crimes occur

The Racial Profiling Problem

LAPD's use of Palantir: The Intercept investigation found "data-driven policing" reinforced racist patterns^[10]

How it works:

Historical data fed to AI (reflects past policing bias)
Algorithm predicts "high crime areas" (over-policed minority neighborhoods)
Police deployed to those areas
More arrests in those areas
AI "learns" those areas are high-crime
Cycle repeats, reinforcing bias

Critics warn: Palantir's technology "could reinforce algorithmic biases that may contribute to increased racial profiling and disproportionate policing of minority groups"^[11]

LAPD response: Ended Operation LASER (2019) and PredPol contract (2020) citing "financial constraints"

New Orleans response: Ended Palantir partnership after community pressure

🏥 UK NHS: £330 Million for Your Medical Data

November 2023: Healthcare Surveillance Begins

Contract: £330 million ($420M) for Federated Data Platform^[12]

Purpose: Consolidate NHS data across 42 care regions^[12]

Status: 28 of 42 regions using it by late 2024, two-thirds of NHS trusts on board^[12]

The Redaction Scandal

Initial publication: 417 of 586 pages redacted when contract published^[12]

What was hidden: Most of the section describing "protection of personal data"^[12]

NHS admission: Palantir will "collect and process confidential patient information"^[12]

Lawyer warning: "People are very easy to re-identify from pseudonymised data"^[12]

Legal action: Good Law Project sued to uncover redactions. NHS England forced to republish with fewer redactions.^[12]

Public Opposition

Poll results: Nearly half of UK citizens would opt out of sharing their data if managed by a private company like Palantir^[12]

The concern: Defense and intelligence contractor handling sensitive healthcare data. What could go wrong?

🕵️ The Platforms: How Palantir Actually Works

Gotham (Defense, Intelligence, Police)

Primary users: US Intelligence Community, Department of Defense, law enforcement^[11]

What it does:

Integrates "vast sets of data to detect patterns, identify threats"
Combines surveillance data, financial transactions, communications intercepts, travel records, criminal databases
AI-enabled analysis and recommendations
"Live operating pictures" integrating historical and streaming sensor data
Enriches mission plans with live AI insights

Originally built for: Counterterrorism after 9/11. CIA was first customer (2005-2008).^[1]

Now used for: Immigration enforcement, predictive policing, military targeting, intelligence operations

Foundry (Commercial & Government)

Primary users: Corporations, government agencies for non-combat operations^[11]

Corporate clients: Morgan Stanley, Merck, Airbus, Fiat Chrysler, PG&E^[11]

Government use: At least 4 agencies including DHS and HHS^[1]

Capabilities: Data integration, analytics, predictive modeling across industries

Apollo (The Deployment System)

Purpose: Continuous integration/delivery (CI/CD) across all environments^[11]

Key feature: Push updates to software running in "the most restricted or remote locations" - government satellites, secure military bases, classified networks^[11]

2024 partnership: Microsoft + Palantir deploy Apollo in Azure Government Secret (DoD Impact Level 6) and Top Secret clouds^[11]

AIP (Artificial Intelligence Platform)

The newest platform: AI-powered analysis and automation

Integration: Works across Gotham, Foundry, Apollo

What it adds: Large language models, machine learning, automated decision support

🔗 The Network Effect: Connecting Every Database

May 30, 2025: The National Database Controversy

New York Times reports: Palantir expanding AI product to potentially build "interagency database that would merge huge sets of government information on Americans, from medical to financial"^[6]

Palantir's denial: "Not a vendor on any 'master list' or 'merged database' project"^[6]

Reality check: That's literally what their platforms do - integrate disparate databases into unified systems

Congressional concern: Republican privacy advocates criticize Trump administration's work with Palantir to analyze "massive pool of government data on Americans"^[6]

What Palantir Can Already See

Through existing contracts, Palantir platforms integrate data from [ICE's surveillance stack](/articles/surveillance/ice-surveillance-arsenal-complete-tech-stack), [Flock Safety's 20 billion monthly license plate scans](/articles/surveillance/flock-safety-20-billion-scans-ice-access), and countless other sources:

Immigration (ICE)

Entry/exit records
Visa status
Passport data
SSN, IRS records
License plates
Cell phone location
Facial recognition matches

Military (Pentagon)

Satellite imagery
Drone surveillance
Signals intelligence
Human intelligence
Targeting data
Troop movements
Weapons systems

Police (Local PDs)

Criminal records
Arrest histories
License plate readers
Surveillance cameras
Social media
Financial transactions
Predictive crime maps

Healthcare (NHS)

Medical records
Treatment histories
Prescriptions
Mental health data
Genetic information
Pseudonymized data (re-identifiable)

Intelligence (CIA/FBI)

Communications intercepts
Financial surveillance
Travel records
Terrorism watchlists
Foreign intelligence
Counterintelligence ops

Commercial (Foundry clients)

Banking transactions (Morgan Stanley)
Pharmaceutical data (Merck)
Automotive data (Fiat Chrysler)
Utility records (PG&E)
And more...

The integration: All these databases can be connected through Palantir platforms. That's the product.

🏴‍☠️ Peter Thiel: The Surveillance Billionaire

The Man Behind Palantir

Co-founder: Started Palantir in 2003 with CIA funding^[1]

Trump connection: Early Trump supporter, close ally, stock surged 200%+ since Trump elected^[6]

Stephen Miller connection: Trump's immigration policy architect holds "substantial financial stake" in Palantir^[6] - conflict of interest in ICE contracts

Political influence: Major Republican donor, tech advisor to Trump administration

Philosophy: Libertarian who built surveillance tools for authoritarian government use

The Resistance: Former Employees Speak Out

May 5, 2025: 13 former Palantir employees publish letter condemning company's Trump administration work^[13]

August 2025: Hundreds of Bay Area residents protest Palantir and Peter Thiel's "role in financing surveillance and militarization efforts under the Trump administration"^[6]

Employee concerns: Company crossed line from defense contractor to political surveillance tool

⚖️ The Legal and Ethical Problems

Privacy Violations

Fourth Amendment: Warrantless mass surveillance
UK Data Protection: NHS patient data concerns
Pseudonymization failure: Re-identification easy
No consent: People don't know they're in databases

Algorithmic Bias

Predictive policing: Reinforces racial profiling
Immigration targeting: Disproportionate impact on minorities
Historical data: Past discrimination becomes future policy
No accountability: AI decisions opaque

Conflicts of Interest

Stephen Miller stake: Makes immigration policy, profits from enforcement
Revolving door: Government officials to Palantir jobs
Trump connection: Thiel's political access = contracts
No oversight: Classified contracts hide details

🔮 What's Coming: Total Information Awareness 2.0

Government Integration

The trajectory:

Started: CIA, defense, intelligence
Expanded: ICE, local police
Now: HHS, other civilian agencies
Next: Every federal database connected
Goal: "Interagency database" NYT reported^[6]

Healthcare Surveillance

UK NHS is the test:

£330M contract proves concept
Medical data + law enforcement
Mental health flagging
Genetic profiling
Coming to US? HHS already uses Foundry^[1]

AI Autonomy

Maven's evolution:

2017: Detect and tag targets
2025: 20,000 users, autonomous tracking
Next: Autonomous targeting decisions?
Less human oversight
Faster kill chains

🛡️ What You Can Actually Do

If You're a US Citizen

Individual Actions (Limited Effect)

FOIA requests: Ask which agencies use Palantir in your state
Local oversight: Demand city council approval for police contracts
Opt-out attempts: Request data deletion (rarely honored for law enforcement)
Minimize digital footprint: Fewer databases = less for Palantir to integrate

Political Action

Support contract transparency: Demand public disclosure of Palantir deals
End predictive policing: Ban algorithmic discrimination in your city
Congressional oversight: Contact representatives about $10B Army contract
Antitrust action: One company shouldn't control all government surveillance

If You're in the UK (NHS Data)

Immediate Steps

Opt-out: NHS data sharing opt-out (type 1 objection)
GP records: Request your practice doesn't share beyond direct care
Support Good Law Project: They're suing over Palantir redactions^[12]

Political Pressure

Contact MP: Demand NHS contract transparency
Support campaigns: openDemocracy, Privacy International fighting NHS deal
Public awareness: Half of Brits would opt-out if they knew^[12]

For Everyone

Systemic Change Needed

Ban predictive policing: Algorithmic discrimination is still discrimination
Require transparency: Public contracts should be public
Mandate oversight: Independent review of AI systems
Limit integration: Databases shouldn't connect without strict controls
Data minimization: Collect less, delete more, retain shorter
Break up monopoly: One surveillance company = too much power

📊 The Numbers Don't Lie

Follow the Money

$2.9B total revenue (2024)
55% from government
$10B Army contract (largest ever)
$1.3B Maven AI warfare
200%+ stock surge under Trump

Follow the Reach

CIA (first customer)
Pentagon (20,000+ Maven users)
ICE (ImmigrationOS tracking)
300 Northern CA cities
UK NHS (42 regions)
And growing...

Follow the Resistance

13 former employees condemn Trump work
Bay Area protests (August 2025)
LAPD ended contract (2020)
New Orleans ended contract
UK legal challenges ongoing
Congressional Republicans concerned

🎯 The Bottom Line

Palantir made $2.9 billion in 2024 connecting surveillance databases. 55% from government. Stock up 200% under Trump.

July 31, 2025: Army awards $10 billion over 10 years - consolidating 75 contracts, giving Palantir access to every Army database and operation. Largest contract in company history.

May 2025: Pentagon boosts Maven AI warfare system to $1.3 billion (up $795M). Now 20,000+ military users. AI autonomously detects, tags, and tracks humans from surveillance feeds.

April 2025: ICE pays $30 million for ImmigrationOS - "near real-time visibility" tracking immigrants. Integrates passports, SSN, IRS, license plates, cell phones, facial recognition.

What Palantir does: Integrates surveillance data, financial transactions, communications intercepts, travel records, criminal databases into one unified platform. Used by CIA (first customer), Pentagon (Maven, TITAN), ICE (immigration tracking), local police (predictive policing), UK NHS (medical records).

The platforms: Gotham (defense/police), Foundry (commercial/government), Apollo (deployment to classified systems), AIP (AI automation). All designed to connect every database.

The controversies: May 2025 reports of "national database" merging government data on Americans (Palantir denies). 13 former employees condemn Trump administration work. UK NHS contract: £330M with 417 of 586 pages redacted, legal challenges ongoing. Stephen Miller (Trump immigration architect) holds financial stake - conflict of interest.

The resistance: LAPD and New Orleans ended contracts. Bay Area protests. Congressional Republicans concerned. Good Law Project suing NHS. Half of UK citizens would opt out if they knew.

Peter Thiel's company started with CIA funding to fight terrorism. Now it's $10 billion Army contracts, immigrant tracking, predictive policing, and your healthcare data. One company connecting every surveillance system.

When everything is in one database, everyone is a suspect.