Swiss army rejects collaboration with Palantir 5 times
Experts are worried about data sovereignty.
Image by Alexander Chaikin via Shutterstock/Illustration by Cybernews
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- The Swiss Armed Forces considered working with Palantir 5 times but never signed a contract.
- Three rejections involved concerns over data sovereignty and control of confidential information.
- Palantir disputed the investigation and said Switzerland did not formally evaluate its software.
- Switzerland is also testing open-source office software to reduce dependence on Microsoft.
Key Takeaways by nexos.ai, reviewed by Cybernews staff.
The Swiss Armed Forces considered collaboration with US firm Palantir Technologies 5 times in recent years, but stopped short of signing a contract each time.
An investigation by the online magazine Republik and the WAV investigative collective has revealed that the Swiss army’s procurement office had contacts with Palantir Technologies 5 times between 2020 and 2026.
In 3 of the 5 cases, the rejections stemmed from concerns over data sovereignty and control of confidential information.
“They obviously didn’t trust Palantir enough,” Balz Oertli, one of the investigators, told Radiotelevisione Svizzera.
In 2022, for example, the military canceled a planned software test after experts determined it couldn’t operate entirely on Swiss Army-owned infrastructure.
Palantir Technologies is an American data broker that provides data operations to law enforcement agencies, militaries, and businesses worldwide. Its AI-powered software enables rapid processing of large volumes of data and accelerates decision-making.
The company, however, earned a controversial reputation due to its involvement in ongoing conflicts and immigration enforcement in the US, with critics also accusing Palantir of enabling mass surveillance.
Palantir Technologies disputed Republik’s claims, stating that the Swiss Army didn’t conduct any formal evaluation of its software, and rejected data sovereignty concerns.
Switzerland says “no” to Microsoft, too
The army’s reluctance to collaborate with Palantir Technologies may reflect broader concerns in Switzerland and across Europe about dependence on American technologies, which has sparked the digital sovereignty push.
Data privacy is at the center of these concerns, as US laws such as the Cloud Act compel American companies to hand over data requested by its law enforcement agencies.
The Swiss federal government announced a pilot project in September 2026 to migrate from Microsoft 365 to openDesk, an open-source office suite developed by Germany’s Center for Digital Sovereignty in Public Administration (ZenDiS).
If the pilot, which covers 3,000 workstations, proves successful, openDesk use could extend to all 54,000 federal administration positions.
