France drops Palantir, shifts intelligence contract to ChapsVision

France is pulling its domestic intelligence service away from Palantir and toward ChapsVision, a move that turns a software contract into a test of digital sovereignty. Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu said the DGSI had decided to end its relationship with the U.S. group and switch to the French rival, framing the decision as a strategic choice for the state.

Lecornu tied the change to a broader warning about dependence on foreign technology in sensitive systems. “We must use our own AI models; we cannot accept new strategic dependencies in the digital sphere,” he said, adding that France could not rely on tools developed by foreign powers. The timing mattered too: the announcement came on the eve of VivaTech in Paris, as the government looked to present the move as part of a wider push for French tech capability.

The decision lands hard because the DGSI relationship with Palantir had only recently been extended. Palantir said on December 15, 2025, that it had renewed its DGSI contract for three years, extending a partnership that had been running for nearly a decade. The intelligence service had worked with Palantir since 2016, so the shift to ChapsVision marks a reversal of a long-running procurement choice in one of France’s most sensitive state systems.

It also reflects a broader European reassessment of U.S. tech dependence in intelligence and defense-adjacent infrastructure. Germany’s domestic intelligence service reportedly chose ChapsVision over Palantir in May 2026, suggesting that Paris is not acting alone. In Britain and London, officials have also questioned whether public agencies should continue relying on such contracts, as European governments weigh convenience and capability against control over sensitive data.

France is not simply swapping vendors. Lecornu said the government planned to invest €655 million in artificial intelligence, build a common chatbot for state services, create a public-health chatbot for Ameli, and launch a new platform to make access to public data easier. ChapsVision, created in 2019, says it has about 1,000 employees, more than 2,000 large-account customers and nearly €200 million in turnover in 2024. For Paris, the message is clear: intelligence software is now part of the struggle to keep strategic data, and the AI systems built on top of it, under domestic control.