By Nate Wolf
Investors will vote at Palantir Technologies' annual meeting Wednesday whether to demand a probe into the software company's human rights policies.
Two shareholder proposals call for independent reports on whether Palantir's software contributes to abuses by government clients, including the Israeli military, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and local police agencies. The Presbyterian Church of the U.S. and the Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace, a Catholic religious order, filed the respective proposals.
Norges Bank, Norway's $2.2 trillion sovereign-wealth fund, backed both efforts, saying Palantir's board "should account for material sustainability risks facing the company, and the broader environmental and social consequences of its operations and products."
Various New York City pension funds also disclosed their support for the Sisters of St. Joseph proposal, organizers say.
Palantir didn't respond to Barron's requests for comment.
The votes are almost certain to fail because of a share structure that gives insiders -- led by CEO Alex Karp, co-founder Stephen Cohen, and Chairman Peter Thiel -- 49.99% of voting power. Organizers, however, see the vote as a way to ratchet up the pressure on Palantir.
"We are interested in increased transparency and accountability and would like to see Palantir transparently acknowledge, mitigate, and otherwise address the human rights harms it is connected to," says Aaron Acosta of Investor Advocates for Social Justice, a group backing the Sisters of St. Joseph proposal.
The proxy statements warn that Palantir's software is linked to Israel's surveillance of Palestinians, ICE's deportation and surveillance practices, and the reported creation of a U.S. multiagency database merging Americans' data, among other projects.
The Palantir board recommended shareholders vote down the proposals, arguing they are "predicated on misunderstandings and inaccuracies about Palantir's work."
"We develop and license software platforms that enable our customers to integrate and analyze their own data to make better decisions," the board added. "Our customers are the legal owners of their data."
Palantir stock has tumbled 14% this year, stalling as part of a software swoon after surging triple digits each of the last three years.
The long-shot vote underlines the scrutiny facing Palantir's defense and law-enforcement work, particularly its contracts with the Trump administration. Palantir's government revenue is expected to grow to $3.8 billion in 2026 from $2.4 billion a year ago.
"They're so totally aligned with the U.S. government and U.S. government interests," says Michael H. Posner, who was Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor in the Obama administration.
President Donald Trump, who has purchased shares in Palantir according to government ethics disclosures, praised the company in a social media post in April.
"Palantir Technologies (PLTR) has proven to have great war fighting capabilities and equipment. Just ask our enemies!!! President DJT," he wrote.
Palantir has touted its support for Western democratic governments and their allies. That is why the company has avoided work in China, for instance, while retaining ties to autocratic Saudi Arabia. It hasn't felt the love from some other allies: ABP, the Netherlands' largest pension fund, divested from Palantir in April.
Closer to home, the company has become a cudgel in midterm primary races. Some Democratic candidates have ripped opponents for taking campaign donations from Palantir employees or for other connections to the company.
For its part, Palantir's board said the company has its own due diligence processes and evaluates the risks involved in customer engagements. An independent report, the board argued, wouldn't disclose any new information, in part because of Palantir's legal obligations regarding client confidentiality.
Megacap tech companies do sometimes commission such reports, notes Anita Ramasastry, a law professor at the University of Washington.
"The question is could you structure something that both protects privacy and confidentiality but also provides meaningful information," Ramasastry says. "I think we've seen companies who have tried to do so."
Meta Platforms worked with a firm in 2018 to examine how Myanmar's armed forces used Facebook amid a violent crackdown against the Muslim Rohingya minority. Many observers have called the military campaigns a genocide. Microsoft also submitted to a human rights review of its government and law-enforcement contracts after facing a similar shareholder proposal in 2021.
Even so, Posner is skeptical that an independent report will reveal much about the extent of Palantir's government work: "It is more often the case than not that companies are not eager to dig deep into how they're making money."
Write to Nate Wolf at nate.wolf@barrons.com
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June 03, 2026 06:00 ET (10:00 GMT)
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