Microsoft and Palantir to improve AI in defense and national security

Microsoft and Palantir on Thursday announced a partnership to enhance the national security capabilities of US defense and intelligence agencies with AI.

Palantir is a data analytics company known for providing software platforms that help integrate and analyze large and complex data sets. In this new collaboration, Palantir technologies will be integrated with Microsoft Azure cloud computing services, including advanced language models such as GPT-4 from OpenAI.

Cloud computing has become essential for powering advanced AI systems, which often require massive computing resources beyond the capabilities of local infrastructure. By tapping transformable resources into the cloud, AI applications can be hosted and run remotely, bypassing local hardware limitations.

However, for sensitive national security applications, using general public cloud environments poses significant security and compliance risks.

This is where the partnership between Microsoft and Palantir comes into play. By integrating Palantir's AI platforms and tools with Microsoft's government-approved cloud infrastructure – including the Azure Government Secret and Top Secret clouds – US agencies can now leverage deterministic AI capabilities in isolated and distributed computing environments.

Military, intelligence, and national security agencies can harness the power of cloud-based AI while maintaining the necessary levels of security and control for their critical missions.

“Bringing the capabilities of Palantir and Microsoft to our national security apparatus is a game-changer in how we support the defense and intelligence communities,” Palantir CTO Shyam Sankar said in an official announcement.[Palantir] He pioneered an approach to operationalize the value of AI – beyond chat – in the enterprise.

Sankar added, “We are excited to be the first industry partner to deploy Microsoft Azure OpenAI services in distributed environments.

According to Palantir, the suite of tools is deployed in Microsoft's government and distributed cloud environments and enables national security operators to build AI-based workflows from logistics and contracting to prioritization and action planning across a variety of applications.

This won't be the first time either of them has made a major deal with the military. In May, Microsoft deployed a GPT-4-based model on a government-only cloud, and Palantir signed a $480 million contract with the US military to develop and deploy its MAVEN program, which uses AI to detect and identify the enemy. Systems.

This latest agreement allows Palantir's other products — including the Foundry data integration platform and Gotham mission planning software — to be used in Microsoft's government-sanctioned cloud environments.

To support the implementation of these capabilities, Palantir and Microsoft are providing “boot camp experiences” for the defense and intelligence community to test the integrated technology, he said.

The announcement comes as Palantir reported strong second-quarter earnings, raising its annual revenue forecast above analysts' estimates. The company's 12-month revenue, which includes Intel and the defense agencies, topped $1 billion for the first time and accounted for 54 percent of its total revenue in the second quarter.

Shares of Palantir ( PLTR ) closed up more than 11% on Thursday following the deal with Microsoft, following the company's strong year-to-date performance that sent the stock up 80% since January.

Edited by Ryan Ozawa.