On Monday, shares of U.S. defense and technology firm Palantir Technologies fell sharply in response to widespread market backlash, triggered by a 22-point far-right ideological manifesto the company published over the weekend that reignited long-simmering controversy over its business practices and geopolitical ties.
The controversial posting, released to X (formerly Twitter) on Saturday by Palantir’s official account, was framed as a distillation of core company beliefs that stakeholders often ask the firm to clarify. Adapted in large part from *The Technological Republic: Hard Power, Soft Belief, and the Future of the West* — a book co-written by Palantir CEO Alex Karp — the manifesto covers a wide range of social, technological and geopolitical issues.
Within the document, Palantir pushes back against mainstream narratives of cultural equality, arguing that some cultures and subcultures have produced extraordinary achievements while others are “regressive and harmful.” It also warns against what it calls the “shallow temptation of a vacant and hollow pluralism,” questions the framing of modern Western inclusivity, condemns what it describes as widespread intolerance of religious belief in progressive circles, and publicly calls for Germany and Japan to expand their military rearmament programs. Co-founded by billionaire conservative activist Peter Thiel, the manifesto additionally defends far-aligned tech billionaire Elon Musk’s promotion of a “grand narrative” and criticizes efforts to scrutinize and marginalize wealthy public figures for their personal conduct.
This is not the first time Palantir has drawn global condemnation. The company holds major military and intelligence contracts with the U.S., UK, Israel and other governments, and has faced years of criticism over its direct role in supporting Israel’s military campaign in Gaza. Rights groups and United Nations investigators have repeatedly linked Palantir’s technology to accelerated targeting operations in Gaza that have killed tens of thousands of civilians.
Responding to the manifesto, Lewis Bacchus, campaigns officer for the UK-based Palestine Solidarity Campaign, told Middle East Eye that the far-right rhetoric contained in the post was unsurprising given the company’s track record. “The software produced by Palantir has enabled state violence across the globe,” Bacchus said, noting that it has allowed the Israeli military to generate attack targets at unprecedented speed to advance its military campaign in Gaza. He added that the British government continues to award the company lucrative public contracts, including access to the UK’s National Health Service (NHS).
The manifesto sparked immediate outrage and mockery across social media platforms. Bellingcat founder Eliot Higgins sarcastically described the post as “extremely normal and fine” on the Bluesky social network, while Lebanese historian and journalist Elia Ayoub labeled it “cartoonishly evil.” Andrew Feinstein, a South African journalist and former African National Congress member of parliament, tied the manifesto’s racist framing to co-founder Peter Thiel’s upbringing in apartheid-era South Africa and what is now Namibia, arguing that this background shaped his white supremacist ideological views.
Market analysts attribute the drop in Palantir’s share price to growing investor concerns over potential reputational damage and increased political scrutiny stemming from the company’s explicit public alignment with far-right ideology. The broader controversy over Palantir’s role in the Israel-Gaza conflict has already drawn condemnation from global rights groups and UN officials. In a July 2024 report, UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese named Palantir among several technology firms accused of profiting from crimes including illegal occupation, apartheid and genocide in occupied Palestinian territory.
Albanese’s report documented that Palantir provides automatic predictive policing technology, core defense infrastructure for scaled-up military software deployment, and an artificial intelligence platform that enables real-time battlefield data integration for automated targeting decisions. Palantir CEO Alex Karp has publicly acknowledged that the company’s software was used by Israel in the 2024 pager attacks in Lebanon, which killed 42 people and wounded thousands more, many of whom suffered permanent, life-altering injuries. Since the start of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza in October 2023, Palantir has made no secret of its open partisan support for Israel, taking out a full-page advertisement in *The New York Times* to publicly reaffirm its stance, with senior executives framing Middle Eastern conflicts as a defense of Western civilization.
Beyond its military contracts, Palantir also faces growing scrutiny over its expanding role in public healthcare, most notably in the UK. NHS England issued guidance requiring all regional health trusts to adopt Palantir’s core data products starting in April 2025, after the company won a £1 billion ($1.35 billion) contract for a federated data platform (FDP) in November 2023. The contract has sparked widespread pushback from health workers, campaigners and parliamentarians, who warn that handing access to sensitive patient data to a foreign private tech firm poses major national security risks.
Last month, a group of health workers from the campaign organization Medact published a call in the *British Medical Journal* urging NHS trusts to disobey the guidance to adopt Palantir’s platform. Rhiannon Mihranian Osborne, a doctor and Medact campaigner, told Middle East Eye that UK health workers are “deeply disturbed” by the NHS’s ongoing partnership with Palantir. “Every day that the NHS continues this contract with Palantir makes our health system complicit in Palantir’s violent operations, from AI warfare to drone strikes to mass surveillance,” she said, adding that Health Secretary Wes Streeting’s decision to move forward with the contract undermines public trust in the NHS and the system’s core commitment to equality. The Palestine Solidarity Campaign has called on the UK government to immediately cancel all public contracts with Palantir. Middle East Eye contacted the UK Department of Health and Social Care for comment on the manifesto and the future of the NHS contract, but had not received a response as of publication.