Microsoft, Palantir partner to expand AI offerings to defense and intelligence agencies
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The new suite of offerings will be available on Microsoft’s Azure Government and Azure Government Secret and Top Secret clouds.
Microsoft and Palantir are expanding their ongoing partnership to incorporate more cloud-enabled AI and data analytics capabilities to their clients in the U.S. defense and intelligence communities.
Manifesting as an integrated suite of Palantir and Microsoft systems, the partnership will marry large language models created by Microsoft via Azure OpenAI within Palantir’s Foundry, Gotham, Apollo and AI Platform products, available on government and classified cloud environments.
“Palantir and Microsoft have a long history operating in secure and accredited environments to deliver leading technology for the most critical U.S. Defense and Intelligence missions,” a press release announcing the partnership reads.
Unveiled Thursday, Palantir will also adopt Microsoft’s capabilities with OpenAI technology in its Secret and Top Secret environments. The key benefit will be allowing select federal customers to leverage AI and machine learning capabilities across their operations, including logistics, contracting and action planning, among other workflows.
“This expanded partnership between Microsoft and Palantir will help accelerate the safe, secure, and responsible deployment of advanced AI capabilities for the US government,” Deb Cupp, the president of Microsoft Americas, said in the news release. “Palantir, a leader in delivering actionable insights to government, will now leverage the power of Microsoft’s government and classified clouds and robust Azure OpenAI models to further develop AI innovations for national security missions.”
“Bringing Palantir and Microsoft capabilities to our national security apparatus is a step change in how we can support the defense and intelligence communities," said Shyam Sankar, Palantir’s chief technology officer, in the press release. "Palantir AIP has pioneered the approach to operationalizing AI value – beyond chat — across the enterprise. It's our mission to deliver this software advantage and we're thrilled to be the first industry partner to deploy Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service in classified environments.”
Microsoft and Palantir’s expanded contract offerings follow ongoing agency efforts to incorporate robust AI solutions into federal operations. Last week, officials at the National Security Agency confirmed that over 7,000 NSA analysts are utilizing generative AI tools in their work, noting that while some are pilot programs, the agency looks to focus on a select few for further development and deployment.