Palantir is one of those companies that splits opinion. Some see it as a pioneer in data integration, others as a black-box operator with too much power. What is clear is that the firm has shifted from its original roots in counterterrorism toward becoming a central player in enterprise and public-sector data strategy. That transition has produced a few real-world cases worth thinking about.
One of the most cited examples is Airbus. Since 2017, Airbus has been using Palantir’s technology to run its Skywise platform (Airbus, n.d.). By connecting everything from supply chains to maintenance records, Airbus reports a 33 percent increase in production for its A350 aircraft (Palantir, n.d.). That scale of improvement shows why companies turn to Palantir: the ability to combine messy, siloed data into a single operational backbone. The same logic applies in healthcare. During the pandemic, the UK’s National Health Service (NHS) worked with Palantir to create a COVID-19 Data Store, bringing together fragmented data to manage resources more effectively (NHS England, n.d.). More recently, Palantir secured a £330 million contract to run the NHS’s new Federated Data Platform, which aims to link patient and operational data across trusts (Booth, 2025).
These successes raise hard questions. Once a company builds its daily operations on Palantir’s systems, can it ever leave without serious disruption? The lock-in risk is real because you are not just outsourcing IT, you are outsourcing decision logic. Then there is the matter of transparency and trust. Palantir’s history with intelligence agencies and policing continues to shape public perception. Many see giving sensitive healthcare or industrial data to a company with this track record as a risk, despite the clear efficiency gains.
The open debate is whether Palantir becomes the Microsoft of enterprise data or whether concerns over lock-in, transparency, and ethics ultimately limit its reach. In my view, the technology demonstrates clear strategic value, but unless Palantir can build stronger trust, its long-term role will remain uncertain.
References:
Airbus. (n.d.). Skywise Core [ X ]. Airbus Aircraft. https://aircraft.airbus.com/en/services/enhance/skywise-data-platform/skywise-core-x
Booth, R. (2025, July 8). Palantir accuses UK doctors of choosing ‘ideology over patient interest’ in NHS data row. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/jul/08/palantir-technology-uk-doctors-patient-nhs-data
NHS England. (n.d.). NHS COVID-19 Data Store. https://www.england.nhs.uk/contact-us/privacy-notice/how-we-use-your-information/covid-19-response/nhs-covid-19-data-store/
Palantir. (n.d.). Impact | Airbus and Skywise. https://www.palantir.com/impact/airbus
