Nuclear Agency Awards Palantir $90M Contract for Data Platform

The National Nuclear Security Administration, which secures and maintains the U.S. nuclear weapons arsenal, awarded Silicon Valley-based Palantir a $90 million contract to improve the way it uses its data, the company announced Monday.

Under the up to five-year contract, Palantir will provide NNSA with a software platform to underpin its new Safety Analytics, Forecasting and Evaluating Reporting, or SAFER, project. The platform will integrate various datasets across the NNSA to ascertain the health of nuclear safety programs, provide knowledge management and prioritize safety in how the agency allocates its human and financial resources. Altogether, NNSA maintains 400 nuclear and hazardous waste facilities and employs 39,000 laboratory and plant employees.

“Our work with NNSA illustrates Palantir’s mission to provide software to the world’s most important institutions in support of their most critical work,” Palantir USG President Akash Jain. “We are excited to expand our work within the U.S. government and provide the NNSA with a high-tech solution to make the best possible use of its resources in support of the Nation’s nuclear security missions.”

Founded in 2004, Palantir received $2 million in seed funding from the CIA’s venture capital arm, In-Q-Tel, and quickly snagged data-mining contracts across intelligence agencies and the Defense Department. According to the company, however, this contract is the company's first with NNSA.