The UK government has six months to decide whether to terminate a contract worth more than $400M between the National Health Service and Palantir – and one part of England is making the case that the rest of the country could manage without it.
Greater Manchester’s health board has repeatedly declined to adopt the federated data platform Palantir built for the NHS, sticking with a system developed in-house over the best part of a decade. The board argues it does not need the American software giant’s technology, and politicians are asking why the same logic should not apply nationally.
Palantir and the NHS say the platform is already cutting wait times and hospital stays and making better use of operating theatres. But the company’s work in warfare and US immigration enforcement has turned the deal into a flashpoint in the UK, drawing protests, petitions, parliamentary inquiries, and a reported rebellion among NHS workers. Several European governments, wary of dependence on US technology, are also reviewing their own Palantir relationships.
The deadline puts a rare, concrete decision in front of ministers: keep the platform that parts of the health service praise, or follow the county that insists it can do better on its own. Either way, the outcome will shape how governments across Europe weigh the risks of contracting critical infrastructure to US AI firms.
