In the fields of defense, intelligence, and artificial intelligence, the world is increasingly moving away from globalization toward a model of technological sovereignty in IT.
The era of Palantir’s monopoly in Europe is beginning to come to an end.
France’s domestic intelligence service, the DGSI, is officially beginning a gradual transition away from software developed by the American giant Palantir in favor of the domestic ChapsVision platform.
The decision was made at the level of the Prime Minister. This represents a tectonic shift toward European digital sovereignty.
Why are France, Germany, and the United Kingdom planning to replace American software?
The fear of a “digital kill switch” controlled by the United States is alarming many European countries. Palantir’s close ties with the U.S. administration also raise legitimate questions among European intelligence services about where metadata may ultimately go.
After the United States restricted foreign access to certain advanced AI models, such as those developed by Anthropic, on national-security grounds, the EU realized that in the event of a political crisis, Washington could simply disconnect its allies from critical systems.
Today, alternatives are emerging. After the terrorist attacks in Paris in 2015, France had little choice because Palantir was the only company capable of processing enormous volumes of intelligence data. Today, European players such as ChapsVision, specializing in data analytics, and Mistral AI, specializing in language models, have matured.
How will the separation unfold: peacefully or loudly, with broken dishes?
The Americans will not simply let go. Switzerland’s attempt to terminate a contract with the United States for the supply of Patriot air-defense systems, citing excessive prices and failure to meet delivery schedules, illustrates this clearly.
Palantir cannot simply be switched off because doing so would create a dangerous “blind spot” for intelligence services facing terrorist threats. Therefore, France has extended its contract while launching a phased migration that will take several years.
At the same time, Paris is allocating €655 million to develop sovereign AI for the public sector.
This French move is highly significant for the rest of the world because it could trigger a domino effect, allowing all members of the defense alliance to have independent software. Such an approach would not limit the speed of intelligence sharing among allies, but would provide greater confidence in the resilience of national intelligence platforms.
In defense, intelligence, and artificial intelligence, the world is increasingly moving from globalization toward technological sovereignty in IT, beginning with intelligence services. The defense and intelligence sectors of leading states are becoming more self-contained within national AI ecosystems.
There will no longer be a Palantir monopoly in Europe because alternatives now exist.
The erosion of trust is also being reinforced by controversies surrounding alleged remote access to F-35 aircraft software and statements by some U.S. officials threatening to “switch off” the aircraft whenever they choose.
France is setting the trend toward diversification. Earlier, Germany’s Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) and the Bundeswehr had already moved away from Palantir in favor of German-French solutions. In the United Kingdom, Palantir’s contracts with the National Health Service (NHS) are also under increasing scrutiny.
Yes, this is a reputational blow to Palantir. Financially, the company is unlikely to suffer significantly, but the contract with French intelligence was its main “seal of quality” for expansion into the European market. The world is becoming less confident in the United States as a reliable partner and is spreading its risks across multiple baskets.
Unlike France, Ukraine’s choice remains obvious for now. Ukraine is only strengthening its partnership with Palantir. Cooperation that began in the summer of 2022 has now reached its peak.
The Ukrainian Armed Forces use Palantir’s AI solutions to analyze Russian air attacks, process enormous volumes of intelligence data, and plan the most complex Deep Strike operations against targets on Russian territory.
Within Ukraine’s defense-technology cluster, the company is training AI models using real-world combat experience.
Ukraine’s Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov openly describes Palantir software as “IT weaponry that the Russians do not have,” while Palantir CEO Alex Karp notes that Ukraine’s digital culture of warfare is currently among the best in the world.
Clearly, creating a Palantir equivalent from scratch would require billions of dollars in investment and many years of development. Europe is giving itself “several years” for the transition, while Ukraine needs solutions “here and now.”
For Ukraine, digital dependence on the United States is an acceptable risk because Washington remains one of the country’s principal strategic and military donors in resisting Russian aggression.
The War of Algorithms
The divergence between Europe and Ukraine illustrates two different approaches to technological sovereignty.
Europe is seeking to reduce strategic dependence on American digital infrastructure and build autonomous national and European AI ecosystems.
Ukraine, by contrast, is prioritizing immediate battlefield effectiveness and access to the world’s most advanced technologies.
For Kyiv, the value of Palantir is not theoretical. Its systems are being used in an ongoing war, where the ability to process intelligence rapidly, identify patterns, and make decisions can directly affect military operations.
The Ukrainian experience may therefore become an important test case for the future of AI-enabled warfare.
The war of algorithms is already underway. Europe is building technological autonomy, while Ukraine is using every available technological advantage to survive and prevail in a real war.