Scoop: Palantir fights Pentagon over key intelligence contract

Palantir is battling the Pentagon's Defense Intelligence Agency for the ability to bid for a contract to modernize its data analytics system, according to a filing obtained by Axios.

Why it matters: https://www.axios.com/2025/11/07/palantir-ceo-alex-karp-interview-axios" target="_blank">Palantir's already massive foothold at the Pentagon could eventually expand to an agency tasked with providing foreign military intelligence to prevent and win wars.

What's inside: Palantir argues in its protest that the DIA is wasting taxpayer money, and flouting the law, by refusing to consider a commercial solution for its data analytics modernization efforts.

• The agency launched MARS (Machine-assisted Analytic Rapid-repository System) eight years ago and has been developing it ever since to replace a Cold War-era system.
• Palantir claims the DIA is pouring money into trying to build the system from scratch, with unreliable results, rather than opting for a commercial solution.
• Palantir declined to comment.

  DIA didn't immediately respond.

The White House wants any company to be able to compete, a senior Trump national security official told Axios.

• "The president has issued several EOs pushing to field the best tech the private sector has to offer," the official said.
• "I wouldn't be surprised if there's swift action to remedy this and ensure any company that wants to compete is given a fair chance."

What's next: The General Services Administration, DIA or Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth himself could move to cancel MARS and "fundamentally reimagine the program," given the advances in https://www.axios.com/technology/automation-and-ai" target="_blank">AI since the program's creation nearly a decade ago, the official added.