Palantir has announced a $300 million deal with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to modernize services for American farmers using its software platform.
“Palantir is proud to partner with the US Department of Agriculture to modernize services for American farmers, giving them the time and resources they need to secure our nation’s breadbasket,” Palantir stated.
USDA Chief Information Officer Sam Berry added: “Protecting America’s farmland is protecting America itself, and this work gives USDA the visibility and speed needed to safeguard our food supply.”
Berry also said: “Our farmers sustain this nation, and modern tools help us support them with greater precision. I look forward to working with Palantir as we continue serving the American farming community, which serves all of us every single day.”
The agreement enhances USDA’s ability to secure American farmland, improve supply chain resilience, prevent fraud and abuse, and shield agricultural programs from foreign adversary influence. It also supports the USDA’s “One Farmer, One File” initiative, designed to reduce bureaucratic hurdles for farmers through digital-first tools.
This initiative builds upon existing collaboration with Palantir’s Landmark platform, which facilitated the rapid rollout of the $11 billion Farmer Bridge Assistance Program in February. Within 62 minutes of launch, over $4.4 billion was distributed directly to farmers without requiring them to visit county offices.
The Landmark platform enables farmers to report acreage using self-service digital tools and provides USDA field staff with mobile solutions for greater efficiency and faster payments.
Critics have raised alarms about Palantir’s expanding role in critical infrastructure. Investigative journalist Whitney Webb described the company as “a CIA front company” now extending its influence into food supply chains, healthcare data, autonomous weapons development, military operations, intelligence agencies, border patrol, and the Space Force.
The group Beef Initiative noted that USDA awarded Palantir a sole-source $300 million contract to consolidate every farmer’s federal data into one profile under “One Farmer, One File,” with no competitive bidding process. They stated: “The government knows your acreage, your loans, your conservation history — all in one Palantir database.”
U.S. farmers are currently facing rising supply costs amid trade tensions with major partners like China, a key soybean buyer that recently disrupted markets due to policy changes. Chinese purchases of U.S. farmland have also drawn scrutiny from Washington and international experts.
A recent report by the Foundation for Defense Democracies recommended reforms to USDA reporting requirements under the Agricultural Foreign Investment Disclosure Act (AFIDA) to prevent adversarial nations from gaining strategic advantages through land transactions.
USDA’s partnership with Palantir reflects an effort to address these concerns using the company’s digital capabilities. Palantir was founded in 2003 to scale U.S. defense operations following the 9/11 attacks, and its CEO Alex Karp has long emphasized the company’s commitment to supporting U.S. military forces. The firm’s AI-powered Maven Smart System platform has been deployed by the U.S. military in Iran.