Palantir CEO says French restrictions on US software are backfiring
Palantir chief executive Alex Karp said France's regulatory limits on US software use by government bodies are counterproductive, after France dropped Palantir at its DGSI intelligence agency in favor of local firm ChapsVision.
Palantir CEO Alex Karp said Wednesday that French regulatory restrictions, including limits on government use of American-made software, are proving counterproductive. His remarks follow France's decision to replace Palantir with domestic provider ChapsVision at its intelligence agency, the DGSI, citing data sovereignty concerns.
Speaking to AFP on the sidelines of a G20 gathering in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, Karp argued that sovereignty decisions were being made by people lacking the technical expertise to judge them properly. He said effective regulation requires input from genuine technical experts.
Karp framed his criticism as well-intentioned, invoking a French proverb about tough love, and said he cared about the outcome. He described France as culturally the most important country in Europe and economically the second most important.
He reserved sharper criticism for what he called sovereignty in name only — countries contracting non-US firms that simply deploy American or Chinese closed AI models underneath. Asked about European anxiety over reliance on US technology under President Donald Trump, Karp said hesitation was no longer an option and that technical issues needed to be addressed directly, while acknowledging some concerns were legitimate rather than mere alarmism.
He stressed his warning was not commercially driven, noting Palantir's presence in France is small and the company isn't focused on expanding there. ChapsVision, founded in 2019, reported 200 million euros ($232 million) in revenue last year, compared with Palantir's $4.5 billion. Palantir's DGSI contract remains fully in force for now, as the agency cannot risk operational disruption while ChapsVision's replacement tool is still under development — a process expected to take several months or longer.
Palantir has long been controversial in Europe, facing criticism over mass surveillance work, facial recognition tools, its contracts with the US government, and accusations of enabling Israeli targeting operations in Gaza.
