Palantir chief says France's digital sovereignty push 'backfiring'

Palantir chief executive Alex Karp said Wednesday that French regulatory restrictions, including limiting government use of US-made software, were proving counterproductive.

Karp's argument follows France's recent decision to drop Palantir at its domestic intelligence agency, the DGSI, in favor of French provider ChapsVision, over data sovereignty concerns.

"These things are backfiring," he said, adding that "the regulatory environment is obviously not helping Europe or France."

Speaking to AFP on the sidelines of a G20 gathering in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, Karp said the problem was that sovereignty decisions were being made by people without the expertise to judge them.

"You need to have regulation that actually helps. And to do that, you need to be a technical expert," he said.

The eccentric executive cast his criticism as friendly, invoking the French proverb "qui aime bien chatie bien" -- spare the rod, spoil the child. "I care," he said.

Karp reserved his sharpest language for what he described as sovereignty in name only: contracting non-US firms to deploy American or Chinese closed models.

That, he said, was the technical equivalent of "un cinq a sept sans preservatif" -- an afternoon tryst without protection.

France, he added, was "culturally the most important country in Europe, and economically the second most important."

Asked about European anxiety over dependence on US technology under President Donald Trump, Karp said the moment for hesitation had passed.

"It's game time," he said. "You've got to deal with the technical issues. There are legitimate concerns, but it's game time."

He drew a distinction between substantive objections and what he called alarmism.

"You cannot just pretend the technical concerns that are true are the same thing as the fearmongering," he said, adding that he was not arguing American companies should control everything.

Karp said his warning was not commercially motivated.

"We have a very small presence (in France). We're not really trying to expand," he said.

ChapsVision, founded in 2019, reported 200 million euros ($232 million) in revenue last year, against Palantir's $4.5 billion.

Palantir has said its DGSI contract remains fully in force for now.

A French security source told AFP the agency would keep using the software in the meantime, since it cannot afford operational disruptions while ChapsVision's tool completes development.

Deployment is expected to take several months or more.

Palantir has become somewhat of a lightning rod in Europe.

Rights groups have long objected to Palantir's role in mass surveillance, its facial recognition tools, and its work for the US government.

Co-founded by Trump ally Peter Thiel in the wake of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, the company has been accused of enabling Israeli targeting in Gaza.