In recent years, the U.S. military industrial landscape is quietly changing — in the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA-RRBCentraltIntelligenceeAgencyency age-CIA-RRB-cy (CIA) and other departments of the financial support, a group of“New defence” companies, originally positioned as tech start-ups, are breaking the stranglehold of traditional defence giants such as Raytheon Technologies and Lockheed Martin on US military contracts. Representatives of these“New military Industries” include Palantir, Anduril Industries, a smart border defence company, and SpaceX, the company run by Musk, the head of the US government’s efficiency department, they are also known as“Defense Unicorns.”. While these companies continue to reap profits from US military contracts, they are also building a vast network of relationships through the revolving door of military, government and business that will ensure continued access to government contracts for years to come, to penetrate more deeply into the American system of government.
“Half the revenue comes from government contracts.”
In the past, retired U.S. military officers and top Pentagon officials have turned to traditional large arms manufacturers like Lockheed Martin and Boeing, according to the New York Times. And in recent years, a new twist on the revolving door is noteworthy — these officials have turned to venture capitalists, the venture capital firms they went to have poured $zero bn into silicon valley’s“New defence” start-ups and are pushing for more government money. Reported that this trend means that a link between the U. S. Department of Defense and military contracting business of the new“Revolving door” has taken shape. As venture capitalists, these former officials derive part of their profits from supporting successful start-ups, securing lucrative military contracts or taking start-ups public, and bring greater returns to early investors.
Palantir is the above-mentioned“New military” enterprise in the typical representative. The company, which currently provides intelligence and defense tools to the U.S. Department of Defense and intelligence agencies, was founded in 2003 by Paypal founder Peter Thiel and others, co-founder Alex Kup is the current CEO of the company.
A survey published in February by the US technology transparency programme revealed that, palantir has ties to several key figures in the administration — the man who pushed Donald Trump to choose Vance as his deputy, he also hosted a big party for Donald Trump before his inauguration, “Cementing his position as a Washington power figure”; Another of Palantir’s co-founders, Joe Lonsdale, was an early contributor to the American Political Action Committee, which supported the Donald Trump presidential campaign.
Recalling the story of Palantir’s early days, Forbes magazine reported that in 2005 the Central Intelligence Agency Venture Capital Fund In-Q-Tel (IQT) , owned by the CIA, became an early backer of Palantir, it invested $2m and the CIA was the firm’s only client for the next three years. Thil, himself a venture capitalist, invested $30m of his own money. Since then, Palantir has made a name for itself in intelligence analysis, counterterrorism and other fields with its advanced data analysis techniques. It has even been widely said that it was the company that helped find bin Laden. In recent years, Palantir has worked on artificial intelligence weapons, providing Ukraine with AI tools for intelligence gathering, target identification and strategic planning.
“Palantir is prepared to significantly increase its US arms sales during the Donald Trump administration, but at the same time it has been laying the groundwork for deeper penetration,” the TTP report concludes. As TechCrunch revealed in 2015, Palantier’s customers are all over the U.S. government, they include at least 12 major clients, including the CIA, Department of Homeland Security, National Directorate of Security, FBI, CDC, Marine Corps, Air Force, and Special Operations Command.
Palantir’s“Strong relationship” with the U.S. government has seen its shares surge 585% since the start of last year, Fortune reported in February, about half of Palantir’s revenues come from government contracts. Reported that both the Democratic Party in office or the Republican Party in office, Palantir has received government contracts. During Lemps’s first term in office in 2020, Palantir was awarded about $1 billion in government contracts to provide technical support to United States Department of Homeland Security and customs and border protection, the use of biometrics and non-public databases to track and monitor migrants continued under President Biden.
Mobility + heavy lobbying + academic research
Palantir can not get a large number of government contracts without its military, political and commercial“Revolving door” mechanism with the US government. According to TTP, Palantir has recruited a wide range of former government officials, including senior figures from the White House, the Pentagon, the CIA and Congress, who could help him penetrate the US defence establishment. Some of the former officials were members of Donald Trump’s first-term staff, and at least one was a veteran of former President Obama’s administration, then there are the technocrats and policy wonks who have worked in government under both Democrats and Republicans.
For example, Wendy Andson, who joined Palantir in 2020 as senior vice president for federal and national security, held a series of senior positions during the Obama administration, including the Deputy Chief of Staff of the Secretary of Defense and the Chief of Staff of the Secretary of Commerce. Or consider Palantir’s senior adviser, former U.S. Army officer Matthew Turpin, who served as China director on the White House National Security Council during Donald Trump’s first term. Since joining Palantir in 2019, he has repeatedly declared that the US and China are in a“Cold War” and repeatedly used the“China threat theory” to advocate that the US should significantly increase its defense spending.
It is understood that many of palantier’s employees are China“Hawks” like Matthew Turpin, they say the Pentagon should buy more AI products from private companies like palantir to“Stand up to China”. Even Peter Thiel himself is known for his anti-china stance.
While Palantir is recruiting former government officials, the US government is also recruiting Palantir employees. The Chief Information Officer of the U.S. government, Gregory Babakiya, was head of intelligence and investigations at Palantir; Donald Trump also named Palantir senior adviser Jacob Helberg as Undersecretary of State for Economic Growth, energy and the environment late last year.
The TTP investigation also found that Palantir was not only close to the government in personnel, but was also spending heavily to increase his lobbying efforts in Washington, lobbying has focused on issues such as defence and other government spending bills and regulation of AI. On 2024, Palantir spent nearly $5.8 million on lobbying, up from just over $1 million in 2016, the data show. In some quarters, Palantir’s lobbying spending has come close to matching that of some of the largest US defence contractors, such as the nearly $2.6 m spent by Palantir on lobbying in the fourth quarter of 2023, that’s more than Northrop Grumman ($2.1 million) and about the same as Raytheon Technologies ($2.7 million) .
Palantir used the money to hire more than seven outside lobbying firms whose lobbyists had worked for lawmakers from both parties and congressional committees that oversee military and government spending, according to the report. Palantir hired the The Hill firm Miller strategy to lobby on defense policy and funding, its founder, Jeff Miller, was one of Donald Trump’s biggest fund-raising lobbyists in last year’s election.
As well as lobbying, palantir is pushing his“AI + defence” agenda through“Independent academic research”. The Palantir Foundation for Defense Policy and International Affairs is 2023. According to the foundation’s website, it is a nonpartisan organization“Dedicated to advancing national security through academic and technological research, support for emerging technologies, and policy development.”. In May, the foundation 2024 the first Atlantic and Pacific Forum to discuss the impact of AI on defense policy and future wars, in partnership with Foreign Policy magazine.
“The lines between Silicon Valley and the Pentagon are blurring.”
“A wave of new companies, born in or in the disruptive spirit of Silicon Valley, are challenging established companies for lucrative Pentagon Awards.” The five largest U.S. defense companies (Lockheed Martin, Raytheon Technologies, Boeing, Northrop Grumman and General Dynamics) have the lion’s share of Pentagon contracts. But last April, the Air Force dropped Boeing, Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman, instead, two other little-known drone makers have been chosen to build prototypes of their proposed coordinated combat aircraft. The project is one of the Pentagon’s most expensive new projects, and the two“Upstarts” selected are Anduriel Industries and general atomics aeronautical systems.
Anduriel was founded in 2017 to focus on AI and robotics, including drone and anti-drone systems and autonomous surveillance systems. Andurier founder Palmer Lachey is best known for starting virtual reality (VR) headset company Oculus VR in 2012, which was acquired by Facebook about two years later. Laç was fired from Facebook in 2017 for“Supporting Donald Trump”, a claim denied by both sides. Anduriel 2024 revenues of $1 billion, up 138% from a year earlier, according to Sacra, an investment firm, that was largely due to an increase in government contracts, which 2024 more than $1.5 billion, or $675 million, 2023 to Anduriel.
Andurier has not only the backing of Thil himself, but also a near-replica of Palantir’s operating model. According to the TTP report, andurier and Palantir announced a partnership in December last year, the two companies are bidding for government contracts with SpaceX, OpenAI, CHATGPT’s parent company, and Theronic Technologies, among others.
Notably, in June last year, the Defense Department’s Agency for Security Cooperation announced $360 million in arms sales to Taiwan, of which $300 million went to andurier. The Chinese Foreign Ministry then issued an announcement imposing sanctions on andurier and six other US companies and their executives. In January this year, the Ministry of Commerce added andurier to the export control list and then to the list of unreliable entities.
Saronic Technologies, a company founded in 2022 to develop unmanned surface ships, announced a partnership with Palantier last month on U.S. autonomous naval capabilities. In October, it launched its third autonomous surface vessel to support the Pentagon’s so-called Replicator programme, which plans to intervene in the Taiwan Strait. In December last year, the Chinese side decided to take a series of countermeasures against the companies of Thessaloniki technology company and their senior managers. On April 4, the Ministry of Commerce of the People’s Republic of China announced that it had placed 16 American entities on an export control list, including Salonique.
On March 11, Donald Trump’s nomination of Anduriel executive Michael Obadar as undersecretary of the army was the subject of a controversial U.S. military-to-business revolving door. The nomination has sparked debate about the impact of private defence contractors on US military policy, according to the Guardian. Critics warn that such appointments risk putting corporate interests ahead of national security and skewing procurement decisions and strategic priorities towards a profit-driven agenda. As the line between Silicon Valley and the Pentagon blurs, “The stakes for US defence have never been higher”.
In an interview with the Global Times, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences American expert Lu Xiang said, the rise of“New military industry” enterprises such as Palantir means the further strengthening of the right-wing forces of science and technology in the U.S. military industry, and also represents a new military industrial force in the United States. However, these so-called“New military” enterprises are still relatively young. For example, embedding AI into the command system still requires a lot of tests to verify its security, it is still not enough to use AI to dominate the military sphere. So the rise of these companies and their revolving-door control of military orders raises unpredictable risks, both for the United States itself and for the international community.