BRUSSELS — Palantir has moved to calm European allies worried about dependence on American technology, insisting that the AI system it supplies to NATO has no hidden off switch.
Louis Mosley, the company's executive vice president for the UK and Europe, told Reuters on Wednesday that neither Palantir nor the US government can remotely disable the Maven Smart System, which is used at NATO's military headquarters and by several European armed forces.
“What we have seen in the news over the past few days around Starlink is extremely concerning,” Mosley said in an interview in Brussels. “But as concerns Palantir, I can provide categorical reassurance that where customers have bought our software, they are in full operational control of that software.”
“There are no kill switches. There's no ability for Palantir or the US government to reach in and switch it off,” he added.
The comments come after disruptions to Ukraine's Starlink and Starshield services raised alarm across Europe about the continent's reliance on US tech firms. On 13 October, Kyiv accused Washington of deliberately slowing Starshield, the military-grade satellite communications system operated by SpaceX that Ukrainian forces depend on at the front line, as well as the civilian Starlink network.
Reports later emerged that the White House had ordered Elon Musk's SpaceX to limit Ukraine's access to Starshield. Musk defended himself on X, claiming that “Starshield systems are owned and controlled by the US government. Any limits on speed or usage are decided by the US military and ultimately POTUS.” President Donald Trump responded, saying, “it wasn't me, and I don't think it was Elon. I don't know if it was anybody. From what I understand, it's the same as it's always been.”
The lack of clarity over who made the decision is worrying in itself. But for European leaders, the prospect of the Trump administration using US technology as political leverage against allies is even more alarming. The episode has intensified debates about transatlantic trust and intelligence sharing, which were already strained by the administration's approach to the war in Ukraine.
Maven's role in NATO
NATO uses Palantir's Maven system to process vast amounts of battlefield data from satellites, radar, drones and other sensors, helping commanders make faster decisions. Palantir won a €480 million tender with NATO in 2025 to supply the system, which has since been deployed at Allied Command Operations at SHAPE and achieved “full technical operational capability” in June this year.
But not all European allies are comfortable with the arrangement. France and Germany have opted out of Maven, concerned about giving a private company so much control over battlefield operations. German Vice Admiral Thomas Daum said earlier this year: “Allowing industry personnel access to national German datasets is out of the question.”
Those concerns now look prescient. The Starshield episode has shown how quickly access to US-owned infrastructure can be curtailed, and European governments are increasingly asking what happens if a similar decision were made about Maven. Palantir's assurances may help, but they do not address the deeper issue of strategic autonomy.
European officials have long warned about the risks of relying on US tech for defence. The EU's struggle to fund Ukraine's needs and the broader debate over US pressure on Ukraine to negotiate have only sharpened the focus on reducing dependence. For now, Palantir's categorical denial of a kill switch may offer some reassurance, but the underlying anxiety about who controls Europe's digital backbone is unlikely to fade.
