Moscow Brands Palantir 'One of the Greatest Threats to the Modern World'
Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova accuses the US data firm of profiting from war and attacks its CEO's views on Europe's postwar disarmament
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has described the US technology company Palantir Technologies as “one of the greatest threats to the modern world,” accusing the firm of profiting from armed conflict and of promoting what she called a dangerous ideology.
Writing on her Telegram channel on Saturday, Zakharova criticised the company for supplying artificial-intelligence software platforms to Western militaries, arguing that its technology had been used in multiple conflicts, including the war in Ukraine. The company, she said, had been directly involved in numerous armed conflicts abroad, and its principal source of profit was warfare — “the main thing Palantir profits from is killings in armed conflicts.”
Criticism of Alex Karp
Zakharova also took aim at Palantir’s chief executive, Alex Karp, citing statements from his book The Technological Republic and the company’s manifesto. According to her account, Karp had argued that “the postwar castration of Germany and Japan must be undone” and that Europe was “paying a high price” for disarming Nazi Germany after the Second World War.
The ideology promoted by the company’s leadership, she said, was as dangerous as the technologies it develops, describing Palantir as a vast military corporation with contracts and connections in the defence and health ministries of Western countries. She argued that the rapid “remilitarisation of fascism” reflected a broader Western mentality rooted in racism and colonialism, one that treated some nations as superior and others as expendable.
Zakharova further criticised the absence of condemnation from Western governments and from the descendants of Holocaust victims over Karp’s alleged remarks, contrasting it pointedly with the treatment of Russian cultural figures: “After all, this is not Tchaikovsky,” she wrote.
Billions in European investment
Zakharova’s remarks come as major European financial institutions have sharply increased their investments in Palantir over the past year, despite the company’s links to serious human-rights concerns, according to El País, citing an international investigation coordinated by Follow The Money.
More than 100 major European banks, asset managers, insurers, and pension funds increased their combined stake in the company by more than 60 percent over the last year, the report said, with the value of those holdings nearly quadrupling — driven by a steep rise in Palantir’s share price through 2024 — to reach some $27 billion by the end of 2025. In 2020, Amnesty International faulted the company for failing to meet international standards, while the consulting firm MSCI gave it a score of two out of ten for “civil liberties” and “human rights” in a recent benchmark.
Why Palantir draws scrutiny
Palantir is known for its ability to analyse vast volumes of data using tools built for armed forces and security services. Its Maven Smart System is regarded by the Pentagon as critical for gathering classified data and using it for target acquisition, strategic planning, and the guidance of drones and missiles, and several international outlets have reported that Palantir technology was used in the recent US-Israeli aggression against Iran.
The company has also provided services to the Israeli military in the occupied Palestinian territories, having signed a strategic alliance with it in 2024, and its software has been used by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to locate migrant families since at least 2020. Palantir’s founder and chairman, Peter Thiel, is a prominent critic of democracy and a major backer of US President Donald Trump.
Reference: Al-Mayadeen