France abandons Palantir: intelligence shifts to domestic ChapsVision

French domestic intelligence service rejects AI tools from American Palantir and transitions to domestic provider ChapsVision. This was announced by Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu — and the decision immediately attracted widespread attention as a symbol of a new stage in European states' fight for technological sovereignty.

Breaking with Palantir

Palantir Technologies was founded in 2003 with financial support from the CIA through the venture fund In-Q-Tel. Since then, the company has become one of the key suppliers of analytical AI platforms for government structures worldwide. Its flagship products — Gotham and Foundry — allow processing large data sets, finding hidden connections between entities, and building predictive models for decision-making. The company works with intelligence services, armies, and police forces in dozens of countries. It was precisely such tools that French domestic intelligence used — and precisely from them it is now withdrawing. Lecornu explained the decision without diplomatic circumlocution:

"We must use our own AI models.

We cannot accept new strategic dependencies in the digital sphere. We cannot rely on tools developed by foreign powers. France must have its own tools."

Notably, the key word here is "strategic dependency," not quality or cost. No one publicly raised objections to Palantir's functionality. The problem is who owns the company and under what legislation it falls.

Who is ChapsVision

ChapsVision is a French technology provider specializing in AI solutions for government and corporate sectors. The company develops data analysis tools, information management platforms, and decision-support systems oriented toward the needs of law enforcement and civil ministries. The transition to ChapsVision fits into Paris's systemic strategy to reduce technological dependency, which has been forming over the past several years:

• Massive support for Mistral AI — Europe's champion in open language models, which attracted hundreds of millions of euros
• SecNumCloud program for certifying sovereign cloud infrastructure and restricting government data access
• Active promotion of EU AI Act as a tool for regulating foreign AI platforms on the European market
• State investments in national AI startups through Bpifrance and Agence de l'Innovation de Défense
• Initiatives on data localization and restricting cross-border transfers to the United States

Roots of Distrust

Behind France's decision lies a long history of systemic distrust of American technologies in sensitive government sectors. After Edward Snowden's revelations in 2013, it became irrefutable: American intelligence services had broad access to data stored on American company servers worldwide — including European governments. Since then, a chain of legal events followed that successively changed the European regulatory landscape: adoption of GDPR in 2018, recognition by the European Court of the Privacy Shield agreement as invalid, the years-long case of Max Schrems against Meta.

Palantir, despite having offices in London, Paris, and Munich, remains an American company falling under the CLOUD Act — laws allowing American authorities to request access to client data regardless of where it is stored. For intelligence working with classified information, this legal risk is fundamentally unacceptable.

What This Means

France is de facto sending a signal to the entire European government market: sovereign AI is no longer political rhetoric, but concrete procurement reality. Other EU countries, especially in the security and defense sectors, will likely follow suit. For American platforms like Palantir, this means growing systemic restrictions in the government segment, and for European providers like ChapsVision — a strategically opened window of opportunity.

*Meta is recognized as an extremist organization and is banned in Russia.