Revolving Door Project | AI Villains and the Trump Administration: Shyam Sankar

Title: Chief Technology Officer of Palantir

Sankar is a long-time employee of defense contracting behemoth Palantir, serving as its Chief Technology Officer and Executive Vice President since 2023.
- As CTO, Sankar has led the integration of artificial intelligence into Palantir’s existing Gotham and Foundry platforms, as well as the development of its Artificial Intelligence Platform (AIP) that connects AI systems to their customers’ data.
  - Foundry and Gotham are Palantir’s primary platforms, the former used by commercial users and the latter by the government. Palantir uses the platform to create data organization models for their clients, which, in the government’s case, can involve centralizing and mapping everything a given agency knows about a person.

Under the second Trump administration, Palantir has been a prolific government contractor, raking in $716 million in obligations from the Department of Defense (DOD) in fiscal year 2025 and nearly $1 billion thus far in fiscal year 2026.
- Palantir has also benefitted from the Department of Homeland Security’s mass deportation agenda, securing over $300 million in obligations from the agency in fiscal years 2025 and 2026. One of the contracts, worth $30 million to build ImmigrationOS, an AI powered platform that assists Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in tracking, targeting, and deporting immigrants.

Several former Palantir officials have joined the Trump administration, most notably Gregory Barbaccia, the former head of intelligence at Palantir who now serves as the White House’s Chief Information Officer and Chief AI Officer. Barbaccia “lead[s] the government’s IT strategy,” according to his profile on LinkedIn.
- At least four other former Palantir employees joined Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, which used artificial intelligence to identify and axe government contracts and, in doing so, fed sensitive personal information into the AI systems.

Sankar has been an outspoken proponent of artificial intelligence. In February 2026, Sankar wrote an op-ed for Fox News, claiming that “the American people are being lied to about AI,” calling it “our birthright.” Sankar went on to outline six principles and themes about AI, including that AI will be a tool of, not a replacement for, American workers and that AI should be used to “slash bureaucracy and unleash human agency.”
- Sankar also claimed, without any supporting evidence, that the “benefits of AI belong to all Americans” and the “real promise of AI” is to “make the American worker 50x more productive.”
- In an interview with the Hudson Institute about his book Mobilize: How to Reboot the American Industrial Base and Stop World War III, Sankar claimed AI will give American workers “superpowers” and lead to more jobs. He also supported the White House’s proposed $1.5 trillion defense budget as “roughly right.”

In January 2025, Sankar testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee. In his testimony, Sankar argued that attempts to “put process” around innovation “destroys” the ability for companies like Palantir to innovate.

Through the first two quarters of 2026 Palantir spent over $2 million on lobbying efforts across thirteen outside lobbying firms, and an additional $4 million on in-house lobbyists. Lobbying issues included government programs relating to AI and DOD technology procurement, among other AI and defense issues.
- Palantir spent $300,000 with Ballard Partners, the lobbying firm that housed several Trump administration revolvers prior to his second administration. Ballard alumi include former Attorney General Pam Bondi, White House chief of Staff Susie Wiles, and former White House deputy director of personnel Trent Morse. Ballard lobbied on government software modernizations issues at the Department of Veterans Affairs.
- Palantir also spent $390,000 with Miller Strategies, a firm founded by Jeff Miller, the finance chair of Trump’s inaugural committee. Miller Strategies lobbied the Executive Office of the President, the DOD, and Congress on issues related to defense policy and appropriations.

In 2025, Palantir spent over $3.3 million on lobbying with outside firms and another $6 million on in-house lobbyists. Palantir lobbied agencies across the government—Congress, the State Department, the White House, the Treasury Department, the Secret Service, the DOD, and the Department of Veterans Affairs—on issues related to AI, use of Palantir systems by health systems, and defense appropriations, among others.

Palantir was among the corporate donors footing the $300 million project to build Trump’s White House ballroom, though it is unclear how much the company contributed.

AI Villains and the Trump Administration: Shyam Sankar