Palantir to access UK data after winning financial regulator contract

Palantir has been awarded a contract by the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to analyse internal intelligence data.

On Sunday, the FCA confirmed that the US software company will aim to use its analysis to help tackle financial crime and identify risks to consumers and markets.

A spokesperson said: “Effective use of technology is vital in the fight against financial crime and helps us identify risks to the consumers we serve and markets we oversee.

“We ran an open, competitive procurement process and have strict controls in place to ensure data is protected.”

The Guardian reported the company will charge more than £30,000 a week over three months to analyse the data.

Under the terms of the contract, Palantir can only act on instructions from the regulator, which retains control over encryption keys for the most sensitive data.

According to the newspaper, the company must also destroy the data after the contract ends, with intellectual property retained by the FCA.

The US company, founded by tech magnate Peter Thiel, a prominent donor to Donald Trump, already holds contracts with other UK public sector bodies, including the NHS.

Palantir signed a three-year £421 million deal with the Ministry of Defence (MoD) in December 2025 to continue providing services like data integration, analytics and AI platforms.

Amid strengthening ties with the UK, in September, Palantir announced a £1.5 billion investment to establish the UK as its European headquarters for defence, creating 350 “high-skilled” new jobs.

Defence Secretary John Healey said of the investment at the time: “This partnership is a major vote of confidence in UK leadership in defence, data and AI technology and as an ideal location for companies to invest and expand.”

It was announced in November 2023 that a group led by Palantir had secured a £330 million contract to provide the NHS Federated Data Platform.

The shared software system aimed to make it easier for health and care organisations to work together and provide better services to patients, but Palantir’s involvement sparked concerns about how patient data would be used.