When we talk about Palantir ($PLTR (+3.08%) ), many people immediately think of "big data", AI-supported analysis platforms and, most recently, the hype surrounding artificial intelligence. However, one key sector in which Palantir is still almost unrivaled is often underestimated: the fight against crime and terrorism.
🧠 What is Palantir doing in this area?
Palantir was originally developed together with the CIA ("Gotham" project) - with the aim of evaluating complex amounts of data from intelligence sources, police files, social media, financial movements or even drone missions in real time.
Today, Gotham is used by police, the army, border guards, intelligence services and counter-terrorism units worldwide.
Examples:
- Police: LAPD, NYPD, Metropolitan Police (UK), Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA)
- Secret services: CIA, NSA, GCHQ, BND
- Military: US Army, NATO, British Ministry of Defense
- Border protection: Homeland Security (USA), Frontex, Europol
🔐 Why is Palantir almost unassailable here?
Feature
Significance
Data integration
Unstructured + structured data (camera, chat, audio, GPS, authority files) in one platform
Operational use
Can be used in ongoing operations - not just for reports afterwards
Security clearances
Approved for "Top Secret" deployments - hardly any other provider fulfills this requirement
🏁 Is there any competition at all?
In this sector? Hardly.
The usual tech giants such as Microsoft ($MSFT), AWS ($AMZN), Google ($GOOG), Snowflake ($SNOW) and Databricks provide excellent cloud and AI solutions - but not for operational use by the police or military.
🕒 Is Palantir even catchable?
In the civilian cloud business, yes - e.g. through Databricks or Snowflake.
But in the area of fighting crime, intelligence services, defense?
No - at least not in the next 5-10 years.
For political reasons alone (trust, confidentiality levels, security-critical infrastructure), governments rarely rely on "newcomers".
The only realistic challengers are:
- national in-house developments, e.g. France's ChapsVision
- or long-term funded European projects to decouple from US services
But that is what is needed:
- Time (at least 5-10 years)
- a budget in the billions
- and experienced staff - which is currently almost exclusively at Palantir
