France, Germany vow to develop Palantir rival

France and Germany pledged Friday to explore developing a European alternative to military software from U.S. company Palantir, aiming to reduce reliance on American technology. The announcement follows decisions by both countries' spy agencies to drop Palantir in favor of European options, citing data sovereignty concerns.

BERLIN — France and Germany pledged Friday https://www.politico.eu/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/17/2026-07-17-dfvsr-data.pdf to look at developing an alternative to military software provided by U.S. company Palantir, as European countries seek to lessen reliance on America. France's domestic intelligence service announced in June https://www.politico.eu/article/french-spy-service-drops-palantir/ it was ending its contract with the U.S. surveillance giant while Germany’s spy agency https://www.politico.eu/article/germany-spy-agency-picks-france-ai-firm-over-palantir/ also picked French alternative ChapsVision over Palantir. “To foster data sovereignty, France and Germany will examine the development of a European sovereign digital backbone, taking into consideration data-centric security, artificial intelligence and cloud solutions from both countries,” the two countries said in a joint declaration https://www.politico.eu/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/17/2026-07-17-dfvsr-data.pdf Friday after talks between Friedrich Merz and Emmanuel Macron.