Palantir wins $100m US contract for AI targeting tech

Palantir Technologies Inc., founded in 2003 by Peter Thiel, Alex Karp, Joe Lonsdale, Stephen Cohen, and Nathan Gettings, has secured a $100 million contract to extend its artificial intelligence targeting platform, known as the Maven Smart System, to all branches of the U.S. military. This system enhances decision-making by integrating battlefield data and advanced AI algorithms to identify targets.

In May, Palantir secured a $480 million contract to extend the Maven Smart System to combatant commands overseeing military operations. Project Maven, started in 2017, is mostly managed by the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) and aims to streamline satellite data acquisition.

SpaceX, owned by Elon Musk, is developing satellite technologies under contracts with the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) which in 2023 the NRO, NGA, and U.S. Space Command agreed to enhance threat intelligence sharing with commercial satellite operators. In 2021, SpaceX signed a $1.8 billion contract with the NRO to build a network of spy satellites.