Palantir beats Wall Street expectations amid Trump immigration crackdown

A picture


Palantir celebrated its latest financial results on Monday, as the tech company blew past Wall Street expectations and continues to prop up the Trump administration’s push to deport immigrants.Palantir has secured millions of dollars in federal contracts amid Trump’s crackdown on immigrants.The multibillion-dollar Denver-based firm creates tech focused on surveillance and analytics, to be used by the government agencies and private companies.Palantir’s biggest US customer is the Department of Defense; it also works with the Department of Homeland Security, and the majority of its revenue comes from deals with the federal government.Palantir reported 66% year-over-year growth in revenue from government contracts, to $570m.

Palantir has drawn further criticism over its role in the government’s immigration agenda, since federal immigration officers killed two protesters in Minneapolis last month.Palantir chief executive Alex Karp told CNBC in an interview Monday that Palantir helps protect sensitive data.“If you are critical of ICE, you should be out there protesting for more Palantir,” he said.“Our product, actually, in its core, requires people to conform with fourth amendment data protection.”The company beat Wall Street expectations of $1.

33bn with $1.41bn in revenue for the fourth quarter of 2025.It reported earnings per share (EPS) of $0.25 – which also surpassed Wall Street expectations of $0.23 in EPS.

The company’s stocks jumped about 8% in after-hours trading after the release.Karp described the company’s growth on an earnings call as “one of the truly iconic performances in the history of corporate performance”.He wrote in a letter accompanying the earnings report that the $1.4bn in revenue generated in last year’s fourth quarter marks a new record – a 70% growth rate over the same period the year before.“We did this while supporting, in critical manner, some of the most interesting intricate, unusual, operations that the US government has been involved in – many of which we can’t comment on – but were the highlight of last year and highly motivating to all of us at Palantir,” Karp said.

Karp doubled down on his data protection claim on the call, arguing that Palantir’s work with the US government, including intelligence agencies, aligns with the fourth amendment and makes sure “every institution that uses (Palantir’s) products is doing it within conformity of the law and ethics of America”.Data privacy advocates are not convinced.“Palantir tools are ICE’s digital henchmen,” said Will Owen, communications director at the non-profit, Surveillance Technology Oversight Project, in a statement to the Guardian.“Their revenue may be up thanks to Trump, but no one is buying that they hold ICE accountable.”Last year, ICE awarded Palantir a nearly $30m contract to build ImmigrationOS, which makes it easier to pull information about immigrants from across government databases – regardless of the accuracy of those records.

404 Media recently reported on the existence of another tool created by Palantir for the federal government: Enhanced Leads Identification & Targeting for Enforcement (Elite).Elite “populates a map with potential deportation targets, brings up a dossier on each person, and provides a ‘confidence score’ on the person’s current address”, according to 404 Media.The program reportedly relies on address data from the Department of Health and Human Services, which includes Medicaid.Wired reported last week that the federal government has been using Palantir’s AI tools to process immigration enforcement tips.Wired also reported that the health department has been using other Palantir AI tools to screen grants and job descriptions for diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), and “gender ideology”.

Palantir has said there is no malicious intent in its work with the federal government.“To be absolutely clear, Palantir is not working on any master database project to unify databases across federal agencies,” read a company blogpost last week.“Palantir has not proposed the US government build a ‘master list’ for the surveillance of citizens, nor have we been asked to consider building such a system for any customer.”Palantir has described 404 Media’s claims about the Elite tool as misleading; the company says it is “used for prioritized enforcement to surface the likely addresses of specific individuals, such as those with final orders of removal or with high severity criminal charges”.Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” awarded DHS and ICE huge budgets to pursue the administration’s anti-immigrant policies, including $45bn for ICE to expand its detention capabilities.

In 2025, Palantir’s federal contracts almost doubled – and increased to more than $970m; this amount was distributed across the government, mostly to the defense department, but it also includes the DHS.
politicsSee all
A picture

Gordon Brown asks top civil servant to investigate Mandelson ‘leak to Epstein’

The former prime minister Gordon Brown has asked the cabinet secretary to investigate Peter Mandelson’s apparent disclosure of highly sensitive government information to Jeffrey Epstein.Mandelson was business secretary during Brown’s premiership, when he appears to have leaked an economic briefing to Epstein, who was serving a jail sentence at the time for soliciting prostitution from a minor.The email, which had the subject line “Business issues”, was sent by Brown’s special adviser Nick Butler on 13 June 2009 after the global financial crisis. It detailed potential policy measures and suggested the government had saleable assets.Mandelson forwarded the email to Epstein and said: “Interesting note that’s gone to the PM

A picture

Can Peter Mandelson be stripped of his peerage over Epstein links?

Keir Starmer has said he wants Peter Mandelson out of the House of Lords, after the peer was found to have deeper links with the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, including emails which suggested Epstein had sent thousands of pounds to Lord Mandelson’s husband.Others appeared to show confidential market-sensitive information from inside No 10 was shared with Epstein while Mandelson was business secretary.But removing Mandelson’s peerage is exceptionally complex – and there are many different routes it could take.No. He has said he “believes that Peter Mandelson should not be a member of the House of Lords or use the title”

A picture

Mandelson should no longer be a peer, says Starmer

Keir Starmer has demanded Peter Mandelson resign from the House of Lords and urged the upper chamber to modernise its disciplinary procedures to allow peers to be stripped of their titles.The cabinet secretary, the UK’s most senior civil servant, will also investigate Mandelson’s actions as business secretary when Labour was last in power, after emails to Jeffrey Epstein about highly sensitive government policy emerged.The documents released on Friday by the US Department of Justice also appear to show Mandelson, as business secretary in 2009, forwarded a confidential UK government document outlining £20bn in asset sales and outlining Labour’s tax policy plans. He also told the disgraced financier that he was “trying hard” to change government policy on bankers’ bonuses at his request.Downing Street said Mandelson should testify before the US Congress inquiry into the Epstein files if he was called, after a further huge tranche of documents was released over the weekend

A picture

How the depth of Peter Mandelson’s links to Jeffrey Epstein came to light

Peter Mandelson has resigned from the Labour party over his links to the convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Here’s how the depth of their relationship – both before and after Epstein’s conviction for sexual crimes – has come to light.The files show evidence Mandelson advised Epstein on how the investment bank JPMorgan might lobby the government – of which he was a part – on plans for a tax on bankers’ bonuses.Among the documents is a chain of emails between Epstein and Mandelson, in which the former asks if the new tax might only apply to the cash portion of bonuses. “Trying hard to amend,” Mandelson wrote back on 15 December 2009

A picture

Mandelson resigns from Labour to prevent ‘further embarrassment’ over Epstein links

Peter Mandelson has said he has resigned his membership of the Labour party to avoid causing it “further embarrassment” after more revelations about his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein.The peer, who was sacked as US ambassador last year because of his links to Epstein, featured in documents released by the US Department of Justice on Friday related to the convicted sex offender.Mandelson said he had written on Sunday evening to Hollie Ridley, the general secretary of the Labour party, to say he was resigning his party membership.His letter said: “I have been further linked this weekend to the understandable furore surrounding Jeffrey Epstein and I feel regretful and sorry about this.“Allegations which I believe to be false that he made financial payments to me 20 years ago, and of which I have no record or recollection, need investigating by me

A picture

UK should consider resuming talks on EU defence pact, Starmer says

The UK should consider re-entering talks for a defence pact with the EU, Keir Starmer has said, arguing that Europe needs to “step up and do more” to defend itself in uncertain times.The prime minister signalled that he wanted to work more collaboratively with other European countries to increase defence spending and build up military capability, and doing so through the EU’s scheme is one option available.Talks for the UK to join the EU’s €150bn (£130bn) security action for Europe (Safe) defence fund collapsed in November 2025 amid claims the bloc had set too high a price on entry, with France blamed for the breakdown.However, there is understood to be greater appetite on all sides for a deal on the UK to join a future round of Safe, especially since Donald Trump’s threats to take over Greenland and criticism of Nato.Asked on his trip to China whether there was a case for the UK going back into a second-round Safe defence pact if the price was right, Starmer said: “Europe, including the UK, needs to do more on security and defence … that’s an argument I’ve been making for many months now