France’s domestic intelligence agency will swap software from US defense technology giant Palantir for a French-made alternative, Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu has said. Palantir, however, said that change will not happen for years.
In a video statement released on Tuesday, Lecornu said that the Directorate General of Internal Security (DGSI) hired the French company ChapsVision “replace America’s Palantir.”
Lecornu did not say when the switch would take place. DGSI has used Palantir software since 2016, renewing its contract with the Silicon Valley defense firm last year. The current contract is set to expire in 2028, and Palantir insists it will remain in place “in full force” until then.
In a statement, Palantir said that its partnership with DGSI “continues under existing contractual commitments and in full compliance with the highest standards of security, data protection, regulatory compliance and transparency.”
Palantir’s flagship product, Gotham, is an operating system that integrates data — for example surveillance footage, archived case files, and reports from agents in the field — that would have taken an agency like the DGSI days to sort out. It then uses AI to analyze this data to recommend targets for surveillance, arrest, or other law enforcement action.
However, Palantir CEO Alex Karp’s close relationship with the administration of US President Donald Trump, and his recent ‘manifesto’ in support of US military supremacy, has alarmed some European leaders. Last month, Germany’s intelligence agency, the BfV, reportedly chose ChapsVision over Palantir to handle its data analysis.
Palantir’s antitrust comes amid a broader push by the European Union for what French President Emmanuel Macron is putting in place. “Digital freedom.” Macron has taken this step further than most European leaders, with the French government abandoning US video conferencing software – including Zoom and Microsoft Teams – earlier this year, replacing Microsoft Windows with Linux, and leading prosecution efforts against Elon Musk’s X platform.
Most of these efforts are aimed at finding domestic help. The French leftist has been a vocal critic of the US tech industry, and Macron faces a presidential challenge from centre-right MEP Raphael Glucksmann, who has made opposition to Silicon Valley tycoons central to his campaign.
“Our enemy has a face” he told the crowd on Saturday. “And he has a name. His name is Elon Musk, Sam Altman, and Zhang Yiming,” he said, referring to the CEOs of SpaceX, OpenAI and ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company.
