Palantir in Ukraine

A present story of real effects in a real world

We all have been hearing about Gotham being used in the war in Ukraine for months now, even before the (attempted) invasion started. MetaConstellation was being used to detect moving convoys and the software helped the US Government predict the conflict was about to begin. And so it did.

A couple of weeks later, in March, we found out the Polish and Lithuanian government were using Foundry to help in managing refugees coming from Ukraine, under the codenames Stipruskartu and Pomocdlaukrainy; meaning “Strong Together” and “Help for Ukraine” in their respective languages. Through these Foundry access they could manage aid for Ukraine and organize the refugees coming their way, helping them find jobs, and more… A real solution for a real problem.

A while later, during the Q1 presentation, our findings were confirmed by the company.

During this period of war, the links haven’t stopped coming in, and new aid efforts like Projekt Piecza, also by the Polish government, point to a continuing reliance on Palantir’s solutions (I must say, I still don’t know if this Foundry access is related to the efforts in Ukraine). But a rather interesting one came in just recently. The codename is Pomocdlaukrainy2 and it’s a safe assumption to connect it to the war, obviously.

What is it? My guess is a need for other products than those used in the first Pomocdlaukrainy, so they can manage new issues within the platform. It also could mean Palantir has been able to better capitalize on their solutions and are billing the Polish government for 2 Foundry access pages, rather than integrating everything into one login (maybe it isn’t as beneficial, who knows!).

We also have yet to know what the new Gotham offering is, and I think regardless of what it is, it’s being deployed right now, as I type and you read this, in Ukraine. The main reason for the [Redacted] label being the war itself and confidential necessities of Western allies against the Russians.

Also, just when I was writing this article, I looked at Government Foundry links and their codenames, and using DataBase I was able to construct a map of Government Foundry entities and their relation to countries. Even if some links are based in Ireland, I do believe it’s because of IP centralization reasons. Nothing dramatic about that, if we can decipher the codenames. Turns out it’s a pretty interesting map.

The regions highlighted are Ireland (to centralize other countries accesses, at least that’s my thinking), Poland (DataBase smoothes the color the more entities a country has), Lithuania and Romania. It turns out Voronet, a codename with the link based in Ireland, is also a town in the north of Romania, not far from the Ukrainian border.

I’d say it’s a pretty good situation for Palantir, where bordering countries are using Foundry to manage refugees and helping those affected by the war in Ukraine. It’s also great because they can demonstrate they can help in a real way, paving way for a new wave of trust between European institutions and Palantir, ensuring a partnership with the company is the best way to guarantee positive outcomes in times of instability or, in this case, even war.

As I said a couple of times before, I don’t think saying the West relies on Palantir is an exaggeration. And we are lucky to have them.