While Palantir is busy poking its nose in everyone’s business, it doesn’t want us looking into its own, having failed to lodge audited financial statements. Stephanie Tran reports.
Last week, data surveillance firm Palantir secured a $7.6m contract with the Department of Defence’s Cyber Warfare Division, according to reporting by Crikey, marking the largest contract ever awarded to the company by the Department.
The contract, described as for an “ICT System Platform”, follows a separate $7.1m contract awarded by the division in 2024 for “Data Services”, which runs until December 2027.
Palantir has steadily expanded its footprint within the Australian security apparatus. It has received contracts with the Australian Signals Directorate, the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission, and the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre.
In November 2025, the company received a high-level Australian government security assessment, stating that the classification “opens new opportunities to deliver our software to government and commercial organisations across the country, accelerating digital transformation and AI adoption”.
“We kill enemies”: Spy firm Palantir secures top Australian security clearance
The contracts come amid heightened scrutiny of Palantir’s global operations. The company has faced sustained criticism for its work with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Israeli government.
An investigation by 404 Media reported that Palantir was developing a tool capable of generating detailed dossiers on potential deportation targets, mapping their locations and assigning “confidence scores” to their likely whereabouts.
The UN special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, Francesca Albanese, has said there are “reasonable grounds” to believe Palantir has provided technology that facilitates “real-time battlefield data integration for automated decision-making” to the IDF during its genocide in Gaza.
Despite the controversy, Palantir’s business is booming. Palantir Technologies Inc reported fourth-quarter 2025 revenue of US$1.407B, a 70% year-on-year increase.
Failing to lodge, pretending to be small
Palantir Technologies Australia Pty Ltd does not lodge audited financial statements with ASIC despite requirements. In its 2024 financial report, Palantir Australia stated: “The Company does not have a statutory requirement to prepare financial statements in accordance with Australian Accounting Standards.”
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Open in new tab Under the Corporations Act, small proprietary companies controlled by foreign entities may be required to prepare and lodge audited financial statements unless relief applies. Relief is not available where the company forms part of a “large group” in Australia.
ASIC Regulatory Guide 58 states that the relief is unavailable where a foreign-controlled company is part of a group that meets certain size thresholds. The definition of “group” includes the entity in question and entities that control it or are controlled by the same foreign company where those entities are incorporated or carrying on business in Australia.
Palantir Technologies Inc, $US317B the US-listed parent company, controls the Australian subsidiary and has received approximately $10m in Australian government contracts (independent of the contracts received by Palantir Australia). In light of this, Palantir Australia is seemingly part of a “large group” and
would be required to lodge audited financial statements
In a statement to MWM, ASIC said that it “issued $2.2m in infringement notices over financial reporting failures in December” and that “targeting financial reporting misconduct, including by foreign-controlled entities, is a 2026 ASIC enforcement priority.” The regulator added it “will continue to monitor for and take action against non-compliance with financial reporting obligations.”
Palantir was contacted for comment.
Palantir in the Epstein files
Palantir cofounder Peter Thiel is mentioned extensively in the Epstein files, appearing 2,281 times according to reporting by Wired.
A leaked recording also revealed that Jeffrey Epstein advised former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak to “look at” Palantir during a 2013 conversation.
Stephanie is a journalist with a background in both law and journalism. She has worked at The Guardian and as a paralegal, where she assisted Crikey’s defence team in the high-profile defamation case brought by Lachlan Murdoch. Her reporting has been recognised nationally, earning her the 2021 Democracy’s Watchdogs Award for Student Investigative Reporting and a nomination for the 2021 Walkley Student Journalist of the Year Award.