‘Potential security risk’: Unpacking the UK’s trust issues with Palantir
Key takeaways
- While an NHS contract prohibits the company from exploiting patient data, analysts say it is challenging to verify whether promises are being kept.
- This has been accelerated in part by Palantir’s own conduct.
- Among the points were calls for universal national military service and the advancement of “AI weapons”.
Why this matters: an international story with cross-border implications worth tracking.
While an NHS contract prohibits the company from exploiting patient data, analysts say it is challenging to verify whether promises are being kept.
xwhatsapp-strokecopylinkgoogle Add Al Jazeera on Googleinfo UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Palantir Technologies CEO Alex Karp tour Palantir headquarters in Washington, DC, the United States on February 27, 2025 [Carl Court/Pool via Reuters]By John Kjorstad Published On 12 May 202612 May 2026London, United Kingdom – Trust, once lost, is hard to claw back. For Palantir Technologies, a leading defence and intelligence software firm in the United States, the trust that the company established in the United Kingdom on a one-British-pound ($1.37) National Health Service (NHS) contract during the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020 – which translated into a six-year relationship worth nearly 400 million pounds ($546m) – has recently eroded.
This has been accelerated in part by Palantir’s own conduct.