Palantir, the UK Government, and Digital ID Who is Palantir? Palantir Technologies is a US data and intelligence company founded in 2003. Its early backers included InQTel, the CIA’s venture capital arm. That tells you immediately the environment it was designed for: intelligence, surveillance, and national security. The name “Palantir” itself comes from Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, where a palantír is a seeing stone that allows rulers to watch distant lands and people. The symbolism is no accident. Palantir builds systems that allow governments and corporations to see everything at once. Palantir has two main products: Foundry and Gotham. Gotham was developed for the intelligence and military community. It is used by the CIA, NSA, FBI, US Special Operations, European defence ministries, and more. Its core purpose is operational control: turning raw data into live surveillance, watchlists, and tasking systems for agents in the field. Foundry was later developed for commercial and governmental clients. It is sold into healthcare, finance, local authorities, logistics, and energy. Its purpose is data integration and modelling: pulling vast datasets together into one governed system so decision makers have a single pane of glass view. Today, Palantir runs billions of pounds worth of contracts with the UK government. It won a £330m NHS Federated Data Platform contract in 2023, but that is just the tip of the iceberg. When you factor in defence, Cabinet Office, policing, and financial applications, the value runs into the billions. This is not theory. Palantir is embedded in UK state systems right now.