Why Palantir is becoming a risky bet for Switzerland

Palantir's pop-up office ahead of the World Economic Forum 2019 in Davos. Jason Alden / Getty Images

Zurich serves as a hub for US tech company Palantir’s business relations. The Swiss foreign ministry now has the company in its sights, because of its controversial role in Gaza.

Palantir is arguably the most controversial tech company in the world today. It expects over $4 billion (CHF3.2 billion) in revenue this year. Many people, however, see it as a symbol of a tech dystopia. The company’s software products aggregate diverse data, using them to create situational pictures.

Its software provides armies with information that influences decisions to kill. The police use it as a surveillance tool. Large companies also use it to optimise processes and support decision-making.

Palantir has customers in the military and administrative sectors the world over. The Swiss government was also on the tech company’s wish list, but no deal ever came to be. The country’s federal agencies and army have so far shied away from cooperation. However, whatever is holding the authorities back appears not to be an obstacle for the organisations promoting Switzerland as a business location for global players.

A visit to Palantir’s offices in Zurich

As expected, the tech company declined our initial request for a meeting last July. Palantir has a reputation for being secretive. 

To get an idea of the company firsthand, we decided to pay a call to its address in Zurich. There we encountered a trust company, which turned us away. Shortly afterwards, we were contacted by a law firm, acting on behalf of Palantir, which asked about the purpose of our visit. We again requested a chance to talk.

Not long after, Palantir invited us for a meeting in their actual offices. On arrival, we were greeted by two casually dressed men in trainers who introduced themselves as Alec and Courtney. Alec McShane heads Palantir’s business operations in Europe and is mainly in charge of relations with private clients. Courtney Bowman acts as the the contact person for Swiss media requests. His official title is “global director of privacy and civil liberties engineering”.

Palantir has recently been receiving a particularly large number of enquiries regarding data protection and civil liberties.

During our meeting, the two executives acknowledge that the US company has a significant reputation problem in Europe. The company feels misunderstood and not rightly appreciated – for example by the German media.

Indeed, the use of Palantir software by police authorities has been the subject of debate in Germany for months. Critics fear that anyone who simply files charges or is the victim of a crime could come under scrutiny by the authorities because of Palantir. The software scours all data silos like a vacuum cleaner and creates profiles, patterns and analyses.

Activists from the organisation Campact stand in front of the German Chancellery with a “Trojan horse” bearing the inscription “Palantir” on October 8, 2025. They demonstrate against the introduction of the US software Palantir by the police. KEYSTONE/DPA/Michael Kappeler

“Yes, we are under pressure, and this is impacting business,” Bowman says. People have a false perception of the company, he laments, so it needs to readjust its communication strategy.

“This is the reason we invited you here today,” he adds.

The roughly hour-long meeting is surprisingly open, with the Palantir executives responding to all points of criticism. They are at pains to clear up some “misunderstandings” in this conversation.

One issue is that the Swiss authorities seem to have serious reservations about concluding any contracts with Palantir. This is a problem for the US company.

Private client manager McShane says: “We have offered our products to various agencies, but so far without success. We remain very open to cooperation.”

January 2018: Swiss president at the time Alain Berset, right, speaks to Alex Karp, CEO Palantir, after a panel session about “Digital Switzerland”, at the Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Keystone / Peter Klaunzer

The fears of the Swiss army (like those of German civil society activists), namely that sensitive data could be transferred to the US, are unfounded, Palantir emphasises. According to the company, customers always retain full control over their data and all subsequent analysis and decision-making processes.

However, even without government clients, Switzerland is still a strategically important market for Palantir, McShane explains. “We have long-standing partnerships here that have significantly shaped both our engagement with global markets and the ongoing development of our products.” The US company works with a “critical mass” of leading Swiss firms, which include publisher Ringier, insurance firm Swiss Re, the former Credit Suisse bank and pharma giant Novartis. McShane does not give a precise number of companies involved.

“Zurich is a key location for the continued growth of our European operations,” Bowman says. Palantir CEO Alex Karp is a fan of Switzerland and a frequent visitor to the Zurich office, he adds.

It appears that Zurich’s business location promoters have been striving to achieve this for years. As research by the Swiss online news magazine Republik and the WAV research collective reveals, two semi-public location organisations have been working to attract Palantir to Switzerland in recent years.

A success for Swiss business location promoters

An internal administrative document reveals that, back in 2016, a representative of the Aargau cantonal authorities wrote to the State Secretariat for Migration (SEM). He sensed a big opportunity for Switzerland: the well-known US company Palantir was planning to “onshore” its IT operations. This meant that its global business would no longer be managed from the US, but from a European location. The cantonal representative asked the SEM for a letter of reference to highlight the attractiveness of his canton.

Soon after, the federal government took matters into its own hands. In 2018, then-government minister Ueli Maurer, from the right-wing Swiss People’s Party, visited Palantir’s headquarters in Palo Alto, California. The trip was organised by the official Swiss organisation for export and investment promotion, Switzerland Global Enterprise, which had long expressed interest in attracting Palantir to Switzerland.

The organisation had already summarised Palantir’s demands for its future location in a written briefing in 2016: an attractive package of (unspecified) incentives and taxes, good availability of skilled workers, proximity to urban centres, a strong tech cluster, and streamlined work permit processes.

Palantir planned to create several hundred jobs, and Switzerland seemed to meet the company’s requirements.
 
The big news came in 2021. Palantir announced that it was establishing its European hub – not in Aargau, however, but in the small, low-tax municipality of Altendorf in canton Schwyz, which borders Lake Zurich. CEO Karp also announced his personal move to the canton. The canton was delighted. The company would bring “skilled jobs” to the emerging tech cluster on Lake Zurich, said Urs Durrer, head of Schwyz’s Office for Economic Affairs.

Altendorf on the shores of Lake Zurich. This is where Palantir wanted to base itself in Europe. KEYSTONE/Alessandro Della Bella

Shortly afterwards, the business region’s marketing association, known as Greater Zurich Area, published its own video seriesExternal link about Palantir’s arrival. Palantir manager Bowman reveals on the website that he found Greater Zurich Area and Schwyz’s director of economic affairs Durrer “extremely helpful” during the location process.

A few years after the media hype, however, it is clear that neither CEO Karp nor Palantir have settled permanently in canton Schwyz.

Zurich as a hub for Palantir

In June 2025, Palantir made headlines mainly because of footage of brutal US immigration enforcement (ICE) agents who had tracked down migrants using their softwareExternal link. At the same time, Greater Zurich Area published another promotional videoExternal link featuring Palantir. In it, Bowman talks about the expansion of Zurich as a business location and says that the city reminds him of the early days of Silicon Valley.

The company has been in Zurich for several years, he says in the video. The location offers many advantages: the mountains and lakes, a high standard of living, access to talent and world-renowned educational institutions. “Zurich is a place where people want to live,” he says.

Bowman also says that the city has become an important “hub” for Palantir’s growth: “Our presence in Zurich remains a key part of our international business.”

By now, Palantir has also established firm links with the Swiss establishment – especially the Ringier media group. Laura Rudas is not only executive vice-president of Palantir but also a former member of Ringier’s board of directorsExternal link. And Ringier board chair Marc Walder heads the association digitalswitzerlandExternal link, of which Palantir is also a member. Ringier is, moreover, a long-standing client of Palantir and extended its cooperation last year for another five years, including for the development of AI projects. Just recently, the media publisher even offered Palantir CEO Karp an advertising platform for his products in the form of an uncritical interviewExternal link (in German).

But how do the Zurich-based investment promotion agencies themselves view their role in attracting this controversial company? Greater Zurich Area is circumspect, saying that it did not actively seek to attract Palantir. The company set up shop here on its own initiative, they say.

But this answer is a huge understatement.

A whole ecosystem of big tech companies is emerging in Zurich, very much as a result of the city’s favourable conditions and an active policy for attracting foreign companies: low taxes, a well-educated workforce and a high degree of political stability. Research by Republik and WAV has shown, for instance, how Google Switzerland was wooed by the left-wing city government and former Social Democrat mayor Elmar Ledergerber. This had consequences, as one example shows: Zurich’s main energy provider EWZ allegedly dropped everything whenever a Google employee called.

As Greater Zurich Area vaunts on its websiteExternal link, the Zurich region now has a higher density of big tech companies than Silicon Valley. Google, Open AI, Microsoft, Meta and Apple are either setting up their European headquarters here or have already done so. Almost all of these companies have also become active in the military sector in recent years and supply products that, among other things, support Israel and its military operations in the Gaza Strip.

Palantir, in particular, plays a central role here. The company has moreover just signed a ten-year, $10 billion contract External linkwith the US military.

It is at this point, at the very latest, that regulatory questions arise for the new tech mecca of Zurich. Specifically, these centre on Palantir’s possible contribution to Israel’s military operations in Gaza. Can products that are developed and sold here be exported to countries at war without further ado?

What exactly is Palantir working on in Switzerland?

In the meeting with McShane and Bowman, it becomes clear what role Zurich plays in Palantir’s business today. Around 60 people work in the city on the development and distribution of various software products. This also means that engineers were directly involved in developing Palantir’s products on site. However, the executives emphasise that the controversial Gotham platform, which is primarily used in law enforcement and military operations, is not being worked on in Zurich. Instead, staff here are focusing on the further development of Foundry, which is mainly used in the civilian sector.

But an increasing number of government agencies are also using Foundry. And Bowman and McShane admit that the software can be used in a military context. It was originally developed for the US for “counter-insurgency operations” in Afghanistan and Iraq.

This raises the question: are the activities of the Zurich-based Palantir developers subject to Swiss export control regulations?

No, says the company. And no business directly related to Israel is conducted from Zurich.

The export supervisory authority of the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs seems to agree. Although Palantir’s products are classic dual-use items – meaning they can be used for both civilian and military purposes – and thus technically fall under the Goods Control Act, there is a regulatory gap here. There are currently no specific export controls for new technologies, particularly AI. Intense discussion is currently under way in national and international bodies about how to close this loophole.

In Switzerland, Social Democrat parliamentarian Farah Rumy has submitted a motion on the issue. She wants the federal government to ensure that products and IT services developed, operated or manufactured in Switzerland are not used in internal or international conflicts. This could well concern Palantir in the future.

Palantir’s role in Gaza has now also brought the Swiss foreign ministry onto the scene. The reason is that Switzerland has a mercenary law, which applies to companies that provide private security services abroad from Switzerland and is intended to prevent Swiss companies from contributing to human rights violations. Logistical support, such as the establishment and maintenance of IT infrastructure, also falls under this legislation.

Such companies are obliged to register with the federal government, and all planned activities outside of Switzerland must be declared to the foreign ministry.

The foreign ministry must investigate ex officio any credible allegations related to the mercenary law. Following an enquiry by Republik and the research collective WAV, as well as numerous media reports on Palantir’s activities, the ministry is now taking action. After all, Palantir’s CEO himself admits that its software solutions can also kill people.

When contacted, a Swiss foreign ministry spokesperson said that an examination was under way to establish whether such a declaration obligation exists for Palantir.

If so, Palantir would have to register its activities and obtain approval from a Swiss authority. The company would then also officially be considered a Swiss military technology company.

Zurich partly responsible

Although Palantir has so far run into a brick wall with the Swiss authorities, the intelligence service and the army, the company seems to be satisfied with its choice of Zurich.

Exactly what conditions Palantir’s Swiss business location promoters have fulfilled remains a secret. It is thus also still unclear whether Palantir has been granted the same “short lines of communication” – that is, quick, direct contact with the authorities – and attractive tax conditions as Google Switzerland.

The fact remains, however, that Zurich is partly responsible for the growth strategy of Palantir, a company whose software is increasingly being used as a deadly weapon of war against civilians – and which clearly has no problem with this.
 
Adapted from German by Julia Bassam/gw.

This investigation was supported by a grant from the JournaFONDS. It first appeared in Republik on December 9, 2025.  

Stefany Barker