Donald Trump Jailtracker
Amy Hamilton
PALANTIR HAS BECOME ONE OF THE BIGGEST COMPANIES IN THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT'S DATA BUSINESS. IT HAS A $10 BILLION ARMY AGREEMENT, A $1 BILLION DHS AGREEMENT, A SOLE-SOURCE ICE RELATIONSHIP, A PROPOSED $244 MILLION PENTAGON SPENDING MEMO, $3.1 MILLION IN A QUARTER OF LOBBYING, AND A $10 MILLION GIFT TO THE WHITE HOUSE BALLROOM. HERE IS WHAT IS DOCUMENTED, WHAT IS ALLEGED, AND WHAT IS NOT SHOWN.
Palantir's government work is large and reported across many outlets. This post puts the main pieces in one place and separates the contracts, which are documented, from the allegations about how the tools are used, which are not.
The Army
- In August 2025 the Army announced an enterprise agreement with Palantir worth up to $10 billion over 10 years, per Washington Technology. That is a ceiling, not guaranteed spending.
- It consolidates 75 contracts, 15 prime and 60 related. The Army said the goals are faster delivery of commercial software and removal of pass-through fees. The Army will reassess it every 18 to 24 months. No dollar savings figure was given.
- Army CIO Leo Garciga called it a "pivotal step in the Army's commitment to modernizing our capabilities." The article describes it as part of a group of administration agreements with software companies for deep discounts, including GSA deals with Google, Microsoft, Uber and Adobe.
The Pentagon memo
- Federal News Network reported in August on a draft memo from Deputy Defense Secretary Steve Feinberg, dated Aug. 4, directing officials to spend up to $244 million on Palantir's services until the end of March 2027, and to find ways to fund work from April 2027 to December 2028.
- Feinberg wrote that "Palantir is providing valuable support to improve efficiencies with the defense industrial base," including understanding delays in producing critical munitions. A Defense Department official said it is "not exclusive to any single vendor."
- Greg Williams of the Project on Government Oversight called it "alarming in that it expresses the intention of entering into a sole-source contract without any reference" to competition requirements. The article says the memo does not mention competition and does not explicitly use the term "no-bid."
- Not disclosed: how the money will be used, which programs it supports and how many similar memos exist. Palantir did not respond.
Homeland Security
- A DHS blanket purchasing agreement worth up to $1 billion over five years was reported in February 2026. It lets DHS components buy Palantir's Gotham and Foundry platforms without separate competitive contracts, using pre-set pricing. Intended uses include case management, threat identification, logistics and emergency planning, with analytics drawing on enforcement, biometric, financial and travel data. The article does not name ICE as a user and quotes no critics.
- Government contracts make up roughly 55% of Palantir's revenue, per that report.
ICE
- Palantir has run ICE's Investigative Case Management platform since 2014, per the ACLU, an advocacy organization. The ACLU cites USAspending data showing the sole-source deal has grown past $145 million. ICE stated that "Palantir remains the sole provider capable of meeting the specific needs and requirements of ICE."
- In April 2025 ICE reportedly signed a $30 million contract for ImmigrationOS, running through September 2027, per the ACLU and Fortune. ICE contract documents describe selecting and apprehending people for deportation, tracking self-deportations and visa overstays, and logistics "from identification to removal."
- 404 Media reported in January 2026 that ICE uses a Palantir tool called ELITE that ingests Medicaid and other government data to generate leads and a "confidence score" for a person's address. This is reporting, not an official confirmation. Palantir and DHS did not respond to Fortune. ICE and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services signed a data-sharing agreement that would let ICE receive personal data on nearly 80 million Medicaid patients, per Fortune. The Electronic Frontier Foundation asked a federal judge to block it. The outcome is not reported.
- Palantir CEO Alex Karp has framed the work around serious crime and national security, per a December 2025 New York Times interview as Fortune describes it. Fortune also reports a public letter urging tech CEOs to cancel ICE contracts had 450 signatures, including from Palantir employees, and that 13 former Palantir employees criticized the company in a letter.
Money in politics
- The Washington Post reported on Oct. 15 that private donors have given about $333 million for the White House ballroom. Palantir, Lockheed Martin, Microsoft and RHI II LLC gave $10 million each, per Forbes' summary of the Post.
- Punchbowl News reported on Oct. 22 that Palantir disclosed $3.1 million in lobbying for the third quarter, up roughly $1.15 million from a year earlier. Punchbowl's related headlines say two Palantir executives gave $425,000 and $250,000 to a PAC tied to a California primary. Details behind those headlines are not public here.
What is not shown. None of this reporting alleges that the ballroom gift or lobbying produced a contract. Most of the big contracts began or were announced before the ballroom donation list became public, and a company this size would have federal business under any administration. The ELITE allegations rest on one outlet's reporting, and the Pentagon memo is a draft.
To be fair to Palantir and the administration: the Army says the deal saves money by consolidating dozens of contracts, the Pentagon says the memo is not exclusive to one vendor, and ICE has said no other firm meets its needs. Data tools help agencies connect databases and respond to threats, and lawful investigations of serious crimes use them. Lobbying and donations are legal and disclosed, and companies of all kinds do both.
To be fair to the critics: sole-source awards and enterprise deals reduce competition, the same company is at once a dominant supplier, a lobbyist and a donor to the president's building project, and the allegations about Medicaid data and deportation tools raise privacy questions that the public cannot check because the contracts and use are largely opaque. Neither a contract nor a donation proves wrongdoing, and the open question is oversight.
Draw your own conclusions.
What you can actually do: call, write, vote.
Call the Capitol Switchboard: 202-224-3121 and ask your senators and representative: Should big, sole-source data contracts get competitive review, and what limits should apply to sharing health and tax data with immigration enforcement?
Write the House Oversight Committee, the Senate Armed Services Committee, the DHS and Defense Inspectors General (
oig.dhs.gov, dodig.mil) and the General Services Administration asking for contract terms, justifications and audit results
Read the primary sources:
USAspending.gov for contract data,
lda.senate.gov for lobbying disclosures, and
FEC.gov for political giving, rather than relying on any summary, including this one
Vote. Election Day is November 3. Ask candidates in both parties where they stand on government data contracts, surveillance and corporate money
