Palantir's $330bn valuation faces mounting pressure after an AI-generated video posted by its head of strategic engagement — featuring grim reaper imagery and the slogan "Recon is watching you" — triggered an internal meltdown among staff already uneasy about the company's embrace of Trump administration policies. The episode crystallizes growing disquiet at a firm whose data platforms power immigration enforcement and defense contracts. Democratic candidates have shed stakes and returned donations, while European markets from London to Zürich have closed doors. With polls suggesting Democrats could retake the House in November, senior party members tell the FT they plan to subpoena executives and demand internal records; a 2028 White House win could put $10bn in Defense Department contracts at risk.

The stock has surrendered nearly a quarter of its value this year after surging 135% in 2025, as short sellers argue Palantir is overvalued and vulnerable to AI labs like OpenAI and Anthropic. A Harnham analysis of LinkedIn data shows more than five dozen experienced engineers have departed for those rivals over the past year. The company reported 4,429 employees in its December 2025 filing.

Yet the Trump era supercharged Palantir's financials: federal contract revenue jumped 65% to $2.2bn in the twelve months after his return, while commercial revenue more than doubled year-over-year. The firm posted its first annual profit in 2024. Alumni including Gregory Barbaccia, now federal CIO, and Doge staffers have deepened government ties.

CEO Alex Karp's rhetoric — calling the company "completely anti-woke," boasting its tools "kill US enemies," and publishing a manifesto urging technologists into urban crime fights — has erased guardrails that once kept Palantir out of ICE deportation work. Former privacy chief Courtney Bowman warned this politicization would complicate European expansion. The company's deliberate secrecy, once a selling point, now fuels surveillance fears. Palantir's fortunes are increasingly hitched to a single administration; when power shifts, the revenue foundation could fracture.