Palantir, Peter Thiel and the Epstein files
The files have pushed a powerful surveillance contractor back under the spotlight
Welcome back to the Citizens Understand.
In our second edition, we trace how the Epstein files connect Peter Thiel, Palantir and Peter Mandelson - and how those links expose the tight weave between extreme wealth, political authority and foreign influence.
We’re a reader-supported publication explaining how power operates and organising to challenge it.
Note: Inclusion in the Epstein files does not in itself constitute evidence of criminal wrongdoing.
As fresh disclosures from the Epstein files ripple through British politics, media attention has focused on Peter Mandelson, now under investigation by the Metropolitan Police over alleged leaks of market-sensitive information.
The files shed light on a huge network of political, financial and corporate relationships, including - you guessed it - Peter Thiel, founder of Palantir, the firm that has its tentacles in practically every U.K. government department.
👀 At a glance
- Palantir is a US surveillance and defence analytics firm now holding UK government contracts worth hundreds of millions of pounds.
- Its co-founder and chair, Peter Thiel, appears repeatedly in the latest Epstein files and accepted tens of millions of dollars in Epstein-linked investments via a Thiel-controlled fund.
- Mandelson, through his lobbying firm Global Counsel, played a key role in Palantir’s UK positioning - including arranging Keir Starmer’s visit to Palantir’s Washington headquarters.
- The UK’s intelligence and parliamentary committees are now under pressure to examine conflicts of interest and national security risk.
⚙️ What is Palantir, again?
Palantir Technologies is one of the most powerful and controversial tech firms of the last two decades. Founded in 2003 and co-founded by billionaire investor Peter Thiel, it built its reputation supplying data-fusion software to US intelligence agencies and the military during the ‘war on terror’.
Palantir markets itself as an “operating system for government”. In practice, its tools have been used to enable drone warfare, embed policing systems later accused of fuelling institutional racism, and assist U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, actively generating leads to locate and deport migrant families.
👉Read our full explainer on Palantir.
Deadly deportations in the US. Surveillance in Gaza. Palantir now deeply embedded in UK national infrastructure. We have questions.
✍️ Please sign and share our petition calling for a full Parliamentary debate on Palantir.
🗂️ What do the Epstein files show about Peter Thiel?
The latest tranche of records released by the US Department of Justice places Peter Thiel within Jeffrey Epstein’s network of wealthy and influential contacts.
Thiel’s name appears at least 2,200 times across emails, calendars and documents, with material showing the two men meeting and corresponding repeatedly between 2014 and 2017 - long after Epstein’s 2008 conviction for soliciting a minor.
Records also detail significant financial dealings. Epstein invested millions of dollars into funds managed by Valar Ventures, a firm co-founded by Thiel, becoming a limited partner and receiving what records describe as “confidential” and “time-sensitive” investment opportunities. Those dealings continued until shortly before Epstein’s final arrest in 2019.
Thiel has denied wrongdoing. But the files show a long-running business relationship that has only now come into view as Palantir’s role inside the British state has expanded.
💼 Where does Peter Mandelson fit?
Between 2009 and 2010, while serving as business secretary, Peter Mandelson is alleged to have shared confidential government information with Jeffrey Epstein - disclosures now under investigation by the Metropolitan Police. What has drawn less attention is what followed in the years after.
In 2018, Palantir hired Global Counsel, the lobbying firm Mandelson co-founded and still part-owns, to help position the company as a credible partner to the British government. Though Mandelson had stepped back from day-to-day management, he remained Global Counsel’s president and chair of its international advisory board.
At the time Palantir engaged Global Counsel, both Mandelson and the company’s co-founder Peter Thiel had documented links to Epstein. How those relationships were assessed, or whether they were assessed at all, remains unclear.
In February 2025, shortly after taking up his post as ambassador to Washington, Mandelson was present when Keir Starmer visited Palantir’s headquarters and met chief executive Alex Karp.
At the time, Palantir was still a Global Counsel client. Seven months later, Palantir received a £240m Ministry of Defence contract without competitive tender, under a defence and security exemption.
The Foreign Office says it holds no correspondence relating to Mandelson’s role in arranging it.
🇷🇺 How does this link to Russian interference?
“His connections with Russia raises questions because he is the perfect agent of influence. He can compromise people, he can blackmail people, he knows everybody, and he can move their money around.” - Rory Stewart, The Rest is Politics: How Epstein Poisoned our Politics
A growing body of evidence shows Jeffrey Epstein acted as a bridge between wealth, politics and foreign power, with proximity to figures connected to the Kremlin.
The files and intelligence-linked assessments have come to suggest Epstein advised the Kremlin on sidestepping Western sanctions, used his network to open doors between Russian-linked individuals and Silicon Valley companies and relied on Russian networks - later tied to money-laundering investigations - to process payments to trafficked women.
Seen in that light, it becomes clearer why the revelations around Peter Mandelson are treated as national security matters. And it inevitably affects how we understand Epstein’s financial relationship with Peter Thiel. While Epstein was investing in funds linked to Thiel and receiving preferential, confidential opportunities, he appeared to represent a route through which foreign influence could travel.
For us, this is the crux. If the Mandelson-Epstein affair shows anything, it is how urgently Britain still needs a proper reckoning with Russian interference in its politics, as long-running questions remain unanswered and companies linked through these networks hold sensitive state contracts.
We think the public deserves clarity. As MPs prepare to debate Russian interference today, the government could choose transparency and call a full independent inquiry. Here, we set out why that step remains necessary.
Team Citizens
🤓 Further resources
What do Mandelson’s ties to Jefferey Epstein reveal about the influence of the rich and powerful in British politics? How do wealthy elites exploit political systems, and what structural reforms can protect democracies from corruption?
Join Rory and Alastair as they answer all these questions and more.
This is Jeff’s World. And we’re living in it.
For a raw and personal reflection on what the Epstein revelations say about power, impunity and the “paedophiliac culture” that enabled him, read this piece from our founder Carole Cadwalladr.
Carole Cadwalladr
✊ How to fight back
Peter Thiel’s Palantir is wiring itself into critical UK services - with over £630m in government contracts. If these tools are going to sit at the heart of the state, democratic oversight has to catch up.
👉 Join our call for a full Parliamentary debate on Palantir’s role.
Campaigners are also challenging Palantir’s position inside the NHS. The Good Law Project is organising to push back against the use of its technology in our public healthcare.
👉 Add your name and say no to Palantir in the NHS.
See you next time,
Team Citizens
About The Citizens Understand:
In an era where technology is reshaping democracy faster than laws can keep up and power is increasingly exercised through platforms, The Citizens Understand exists to cut through misinformation and make complex systems legible. If there’s something you’d like to understand, email lillian@the-citizens.com.
