No formal decree. No press conference. No ministerial statement. Spain’s Moncloa — the prime minister’s office — has reportedly told state-linked companies to stop signing new contracts with Palantir, the Peter Thiel-co-founded AI and defence analytics giant, according to El Confidencial’s reporting relayed by Middle East Eye and Democrata. The instruction landed not as law but as quiet guidance, passed through boardroom channels to firms under SEPI, Spain’s sovereign industrial holding company. The stated reason: fears that sensitive national-security data could end up exposed to foreign access.
No Decree, Just a Quiet Word
Spain’s informal Palantir restriction targets defence, telecoms, and shipbuilding firms without a single published regulation.
The guidance reportedly affects major strategic companies including Telefónica (telecoms), Indra (defence IT), and Navantia (military shipbuilding). Board members have supposedly been told to avoid any deal that could compromise national sovereignty or strategic information — particularly in critical communications, defence, and public infrastructure.
The core concerns break down sharply:
- The US CLOUD Act lets American authorities compel US-headquartered firms to hand over data stored anywhere in the world — a risk echoed by the emergence of a surveillance app built by US operatives to target foreign dissidents
- Vendor lock-in creates what analysts describe as permanent dependency on external personnel and ongoing platform maintenance
- No formal decree exists — this is board-level guidance, not published law
- Existing contracts, including a €16.5 million defence intelligence deal, continue for now
- Spain joins Switzerland, which formally rejected Palantir after seven years of evaluation
Swiss military analysts concluded that using Palantir meant “permanent dependency on external US personnel” and genuine national sovereignty loss. Spain’s own Royal Decree-Law 6/2023 reflects a similar legislative direction, restricting where critical network elements can be located to keep regulatory control firmly domestic. Meanwhile, the UK has awarded Palantir more than £900 million across NHS records, defence operations, policing, and nuclear weapons support. The UK Commons Science, Innovation and Technology Committee called that an “unacceptable point of weakness” — a structural dependency, not a vendor relationship.
The Defence Ministry Didn’t Get the Memo
Even as Moncloa restricts new deals, Spain’s military is reportedly negotiating to renew its existing Palantir contract.
Here’s the contradiction nobody in Madrid seems eager to address publicly. Spain’s Ministry of Defence is reportedly still in active talks with Palantir about renewing and expanding a contract signed in 2023 by the Armed Forces Intelligence Centre — worth roughly €16.5 million and running until next year. The informal veto applies to new deals; existing arrangements carry on. Broader patterns of Tech Scandals show how structural dependency on vendors can expose institutions to serious long-term risk.
Palantir, for its part, is doubling down on Britain — announcing a planned £1.5 billion investment to establish the UK as its European defence headquarters, promising around 350 high-skilled jobs. That’s a bold bet on one country’s open door while others quietly close theirs.
Spain’s informal restriction may lack the force of legislation, but procurement guidance has a way of hardening into policy. If more EU states follow Madrid and Bern, Palantir’s European ambitions could shrink to a single island — one that hasn’t yet decided whether dependency is a bug or a feature.
