Palantir lobbied a UK minister to put GP records on its £330 million NHS data platform

Palantir▲+0.27% — Palantir, up 0.27 percent today lobbied a British health minister to bring GP records inside the NHS data platform it runs, according to WhatsApp logs the Guardian published on November 9↗ after the campaign group Foxglove obtained them under freedom of information law ¹. The messages span July 2025 to March 2026, and the February push targets data the £330 million Federated Data Platform contract expressly excludes ¹.

They appear to be between Palantir's UK chief Louis Mosley and Zubir Ahmed, then a health minister; Palantir did not deny the attribution ¹. Doctors' groups oppose the move on trust grounds, and the government that signed the deal in 2023 promised GP data would never join the platform ¹. For the stock, the logs are the record of how a renewal was sought: privately, and ahead of the decision.

The lobbying buys entrenchment

Palantir's briefing told the minister the platform would deliver its benefits "faster with the right ministerial sponsorship", and advised him to "get out ahead of" opposition from doctors and the company's critics ¹. In September the firm hired the Labour peer Tom Watson as a full-time lobbyist; he has since written to Health Secretary Yvette Cooper urging her to keep the contract ¹.

Marc Farr, chair of the NHS Chief Data and Analytical Officer Network, says the stretch would go beyond what ministers have stated and would require a change in the law ¹. The more of the NHS record that lives in Foundry, Palantir's core data-integration software, the harder any replacement becomes ¹².

The buyer has said it wants to own the layer

Cooper told parliament↗ there is "a huge long-term benefit to using the NHS to develop UK sovereign AI", read as pointing to a homegrown replacement at the contract's next end point in 2029 ¹². Two Commons committees wanted Palantir out by spring; reports now suggest Cooper will decline a break clause she can trigger in February 2027, and The Inference reported the coming extension on November 7 ².

What is new since that report: the logs themselves, Watson's letter, and Cooper's sovereign-AI line to parliament ¹. Foxglove notes Palantir must provide up to two years of bridging support if the contract is not renewed, so a successor builds against a cushion, not a wall ².

The growth story is political to its foundations

United States commercial revenue passed US government revenue for the first time last quarter↗, but government work still supplied 41 percent of revenue ³⁶. Sovereign AI, the business of building countries their own Palantir-style platforms, drove much of the quarter, and management said its early sovereign deals are being signed shorter than usual, which is why the value of contracts signed rose just 6 percent ⁴⁵.

The investment research firm Morningstar rates the stock's uncertainty "Very High"↗, naming "political and public scrutiny" and "abrupt termination" among the risks ⁵. The same week in Washington, Senator Ron Wyden's office put "compulsory processes" on the table and Palantir hired former senator Jon Tester as an adviser ⁶.

The capability is real, which is why states want it at home

Palantir's briefing told the minister that joining GP and hospital records would deliver faster GP access, better care for frail patients and more preventative medicine ¹. Those are claims made to a minister it was courting; the case is not empty, because the NHS's fragmented systems are what a joined record would fix ². A stock at about 110 times trailing earnings prices that work, government contracts included, as permanent ⁴.

Price the government contracts as if a minister could cancel them: the bridge in Britain runs to 2029, not forever ¹². Watch for the first allied democracy to insource this layer. Britain has already said it out loud ¹².