Germany’s spy agency picks French AI firm over Palantir

The move comes as German officials push for homegrown alternatives in sensitive security systems.

BERLIN — Germany’s domestic intelligence agency has picked a French AI firm over the U.S. security giant Palantir, in a push to make Europe less reliant on American tech, according to German media reports.

The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, known as the BfV, plans to use ChapsVision’s ArgonOS software to sift through structured and unstructured data and prepare it for human analysts, according to a report by the media outlets WDR, NDR, and SZ.

BfV President Sinan Selen said in December that his agency wanted to rely on European alternatives to Palantir. Several agencies in France are already using the software — including the domestic intelligence service DGSI.

“By choosing ArgonOS, the BfV is sending a clear signal for European digital sovereignty,” Marc Henrichmann, chair of the parliamentary oversight committee for the German intelligence services, told POLITICO. “Whether ArgonOS can keep up in the long run will have to be demonstrated by its operational use. Performance must remain the primary criterion, not just the origin.”

The decision comes amid a broader German debate over Palantir’s role in the country’s security infrastructure. Some German police forces already use the company’s software, and the German interior ministry is considering using it for federal forces. Critics have warned of risks to data protection, fundamental rights and dependence on a U.S. provider.

Palantir CEO Alex Karp recently pushed back against German skepticism, arguing in an interview with BILD — which, like POLITICO, is part of the Axel Springer Global Reporters Network — that his company’s software is already used on “every serious battlefield in the world.” He said he understood countries’ desire for independent systems, but questioned whether Germany could afford to reject Palantir’s technology.

ArgonOS cannot be fully rolled out until Germany passes a planned intelligence-law reform that would expand the BfV’s digital powers, ease data sharing with police and revise rules on how long personal data can be kept.