Restoration News has published a commentary analyzing the expanding role of Palantir Technologies in defense technology and government influence during President Trump's second term.
According to the report, the commentary situates Palantir within a broader post–Cold War consolidation of defense contractors and the rise of "defense-tech." It argues that bureaucratic and corporate actors can accumulate "unwarranted influence," echoing former President Eisenhower’s warning about the military-industrial complex. The piece links current cloud and artificial intelligence (AI) procurement shifts to concerns about accountability and civil liberties. It also notes that Trump-era priorities—such as competition with China, immigration enforcement, and "anti-woke" reforms—create opportunities for firms supplying data integration and analytics. These developments are framed as a test of constitutional checks on an increasingly powerful security-technology ecosystem.
Palantir's government business remains a significant portion of its revenue, highlighting its centrality to U.S. public-sector missions. According to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), in 2024, Palantir generated approximately $2.9 billion in revenue, with 55% from government customers and 45% from commercial clients, while 66% came from U.S. buyers overall. These figures provide a quantitative baseline for assessing claims of influence in federal programs and illustrate why procurement changes—such as future cloud awards that may broaden eligibility beyond today's hyperscalers—are important for suppliers whose growth is tied to national security demand.
Public records document Palantir's role in immigration enforcement analytics. Emails and agency materials have shown its FALCON platform supporting Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) workplace operations, including coordination around raids covering nearly 100 7-Eleven stores in 2018; subsequent coverage details continued reliance on Palantir investigative tools. These examples quantify the operational footprint often debated abstractly and help translate "defense-tech" growth into measurable field activity affecting civil-liberties debates and procurement oversight.
Palantir Technologies Inc., founded in 2003 and headquartered in Denver, Colorado, builds data platforms such as Gotham for government use, Foundry for enterprises, and Apollo for software deployment. These platforms are used across defense, intelligence, health, and industry sectors to integrate data and support decision-making. The firm emphasizes mission work with Western governments while expanding commercial AI offerings; critics focus on surveillance risks and civil-liberties implications, while supporters cite operational gains and wartime effectiveness. Its public materials describe a mission to help institutions "solve hard problems" with data.
