On March 25, 2025, NATO’s Communications and Information Agency (NCIA) signed a contract with Palantir to acquire the Maven Smart System NATO for Allied Command Operations at SHAPE in Mons (Belgium). It was one of the fastest procurement processes in the Alliance’s history: just six months from requirement definition to contract award.

The same platform the Pentagon used in Operation Epic Fury against Iran –striking between 5,500 and 6,000 targets in just three weeks– is now operating at the very top of Europe’s military command structure.

From that point on, the pace accelerated. On September 17, 2025, the United Kingdom announced a strategic partnership with Palantir under which the company will invest up to £1.5 billion in the country and establish London as its European defense headquarters, creating 350 new jobs.

Three months later, on December 30, the UK Ministry of Defence directly awarded –without a competitive tender, under a national security exemption– a £240.6 million follow-on contract running until 2029 for “real-time strategic, tactical and operational decision support.” It is the largest contract Palantir has ever signed with the British MoD, tripling the previous one.

While London moves forward, Warsaw joins in. On October 27, 2025, Poland’s Minister of Defence, Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz, signed a letter of intent with Palantir co-founder and CEO Alex Karp to implement the company’s solutions within the Polish Armed Forces. The agreement covers data integration, artificial intelligence (AI) and cybersecurity, opening NATO’s eastern flank –where Poland already spends 4.7% of its GDP on defense– to U.S. algorithmic infrastructure.

Paris renews, Kyiv integrates

France, traditionally considered a stronghold of European digital sovereignty, has also deepened its relationship with the company. On December 15, 2025, the Directorate-General for Internal Security (DGSI) renewed for another three years the contract it has maintained with Palantir since 2016.

The DGSI had already used the software during the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games. The company itself frames this move as “part of a broader effort to support the transition toward French autonomy.”

Ukraine represents the most extreme case. On January 20, 2026, the Ministry of Digital Transformation launched Brave1 Dataroom, a platform built on Palantir infrastructure where Ukrainian defense companies train AI models using sensitive, real-world battlefield data – including thermal and visual imagery of Shahed drones, as well as sensor data collected over more than four years of war.

The aim is to support autonomous systems such as interceptor drones. Palantir already had an office in Kyiv and active agreements with four Ukrainian ministries.

The European knot: Spain, Italy, the Netherlands – and Germany’s stance

Spain awarded Palantir Technologies Spain a €16.5 million contract in October 2023 (€20 million including VAT) for “intelligence fusion and analysis” within the Armed Forces Intelligence System, also through a negotiated procedure without public tender.

In Italy, the company operates with private corporate clients –including Stellantis, UniCredit and Fedrigoni via its Foundry platform– rather than in military or government infrastructure.

The Netherlands appears among allies with indirect dependency through subcontracting, according to an April 2026 report by the Future of Technology Institute. Belgium, Denmark and the Baltic states fall into the high-risk category.

Against this backdrop, Germany has chosen a different path. On April 28, Vice Admiral Thomas Daum, head of the Bundeswehr Cyber and Information Domain Service, was blunt in remarks to Handelsblatt: “I do not see that happening at all at the moment.”

The Bundeswehr has shortlisted three European alternatives –Germany’s Almato and Orcrist, and France’s ChapsVision– which it plans to test this summer. The rationale is clear: no employee of a foreign industrial company should have access to national databases.

The decision came just ten days after Karp published a manifesto calling for global rearmament and a deeper integration between Silicon Valley and the Pentagon.

What it reveals

In just twelve months, Palantir has gone from being a U.S. supplier to becoming, de facto, part of the backbone of intelligence and command in Atlantic Europe. The European paradox is stark: the same NATO that calls for technological sovereignty is rapidly adopting a solution that concentrates it elsewhere.

The question Berlin has raised –and that the rest of the continent has yet to confront– is straightforward: what happens the day Washington and Brussels no longer want the same thing?

On March 25, 2025, NATO’s Communications and Information Agency (NCIA) signed a contract with Palantir to acquire the Maven Smart System NATO for Allied Command Operations at SHAPE in Mons (Belgium). It was one of the fastest procurement processes in the Alliance’s history: just six months from requirement definition to contract award.

The same platform the Pentagon used in Operation Epic Fury against Iran –striking between 5,500 and 6,000 targets in just three weeks– is now operating at the very top of Europe’s military command structure.

From that point on, the pace accelerated. On September 17, 2025, the United Kingdom announced a strategic partnership with Palantir under which the company will invest up to £1.5 billion in the country and establish London as its European defense headquarters, creating 350 new jobs.

Three months later, on December 30, the UK Ministry of Defence directly awarded –without a competitive tender, under a national security exemption– a £240.6 million follow-on contract running until 2029 for “real-time strategic, tactical and operational decision support.” It is the largest contract Palantir has ever signed with the British MoD, tripling the previous one.

While London moves forward, Warsaw joins in. On October 27, 2025, Poland’s Minister of Defence, Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz, signed a letter of intent with Palantir co-founder and CEO Alex Karp to implement the company’s solutions within the Polish Armed Forces. The agreement covers data integration, artificial intelligence (AI) and cybersecurity, opening NATO’s eastern flank –where Poland already spends 4.7% of its GDP on defense– to U.S. algorithmic infrastructure.

Paris renews, Kyiv integrates

France, traditionally considered a stronghold of European digital sovereignty, has also deepened its relationship with the company. On December 15, 2025, the Directorate-General for Internal Security (DGSI) renewed for another three years the contract it has maintained with Palantir since 2016.

The DGSI had already used the software during the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games. The company itself frames this move as “part of a broader effort to support the transition toward French autonomy.”

Ukraine represents the most extreme case. On January 20, 2026, the Ministry of Digital Transformation launched Brave1 Dataroom, a platform built on Palantir infrastructure where Ukrainian defense companies train AI models using sensitive, real-world battlefield data – including thermal and visual imagery of Shahed drones, as well as sensor data collected over more than four years of war.

The aim is to support autonomous systems such as interceptor drones. Palantir already had an office in Kyiv and active agreements with four Ukrainian ministries.

The European knot: Spain, Italy, the Netherlands – and Germany’s stance

Spain awarded Palantir Technologies Spain a €16.5 million contract in October 2023 (€20 million including VAT) for “intelligence fusion and analysis” within the Armed Forces Intelligence System, also through a negotiated procedure without public tender.

In Italy, the company operates with private corporate clients –including Stellantis, UniCredit and Fedrigoni via its Foundry platform– rather than in military or government infrastructure.

The Netherlands appears among allies with indirect dependency through subcontracting, according to an April 2026 report by the Future of Technology Institute. Belgium, Denmark and the Baltic states fall into the high-risk category.

Against this backdrop, Germany has chosen a different path. On April 28, Vice Admiral Thomas Daum, head of the Bundeswehr Cyber and Information Domain Service, was blunt in remarks to Handelsblatt: “I do not see that happening at all at the moment.”

The Bundeswehr has shortlisted three European alternatives –Germany’s Almato and Orcrist, and France’s ChapsVision– which it plans to test this summer. The rationale is clear: no employee of a foreign industrial company should have access to national databases.

The decision came just ten days after Karp published a manifesto calling for global rearmament and a deeper integration between Silicon Valley and the Pentagon.

What it reveals

In just twelve months, Palantir has gone from being a U.S. supplier to becoming, de facto, part of the backbone of intelligence and command in Atlantic Europe. The European paradox is stark: the same NATO that calls for technological sovereignty is rapidly adopting a solution that concentrates it elsewhere.

The question Berlin has raised –and that the rest of the continent has yet to confront– is straightforward: what happens the day Washington and Brussels no longer want the same thing?

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