Despite its public criticism of both Palantir and Mandelson, the UK government has entered into extensive contracts with the US tech giant, signing a defence contract worth 240 million pounds ($323m) in January. The contract was awarded to Palantir directly, while another, worth 330 million pounds ($444m) and involving the UK’s Ministry of Health, was awarded in November 2023 following a bidding process. Established in 2003 by a cohort of technology entrepreneurs, including Peter Thiel and current CEO Alex Karp, Palantir opened its first office in Israel in 2015. According to Open Intel, a platform tracking corporate involvement in the Gaza genocide, Palantir has actively recruited veteran members of Israel’s cyber intelligence wing, Unit 8200. In September 2022, reporters from Bloomberg claimed to have seen documents suggesting a “secret plan” from Palantir to further entrench itself within the NHS without public scrutiny, a tactic typically referred to as “vendor capture”. Nevertheless, Palantir has since continued to expand its footprint in the NHS, including sending delegates to a dinner hosted by Mandelson’s Global Counsel in February 2023, where the NHS’s chief data and analytics officer, Ming Tang, was listed as the “guest of honour”.