France is turning its back on Palantir by removing it from the heart of its intelligence apparatus and accelerating its move towards digital sovereignty. On 16 June, Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu announced that the DGSI, the domestic intelligence service, will replace the American giant’s data analysis tools with those of the French firm ChapsVision: a decision that brings to an end nearly a decade of collaboration and marks the clearest sign yet of an acceleration towards digital sovereignty. For this split does not stand alone. It is the latest step in a rapid sequence of events which, in just a few months, has already led Paris to abandon Windows in the public sector and to entrust its defence sector to a national artificial intelligence firm. Three different moves, one single direction.

April: Goodbye to Windows, hello to Linux

The first clear sign came in April. DINUM, the Interministerial Directorate for Digital Affairs, officially announcedthe phasing out of Windows in favour of Linux distributions on public workstations. This is not a pilot scheme, but a structured initiative, coordinated in conjunction with the National Cybersecurity Agency (ANSSI), the Directorate-General for Enterprise (DGE) and the State Procurement Directorate.

The rationale is clear. “Digital sovereignty is not an option, it is a strategic necessity,” says Anne Le Hénanff, Minister of State for Artificial Intelligence and Digital Affairs, adding that France wants to lead by example by accelerating the transition towards sovereign, interoperable and sustainable solutions.

The plan goes far beyond the operating system. Ministries are being asked to map their technological dependencies across eight categories — from collaboration tools to antivirus software, from databases to cloud infrastructure — and to draw up a roadmap for replacing or reducing them. Sovereign tools are already in use, such as the encrypted messaging service Tchap, the open-source video-conferencing platform Visio and the FranceTransfert platform for secure file transfer, all designed to replace Microsoft and Google services. According to Paris, what is at stake are millions of public workstations and direct control over state data.

January: the Ministry of Defence opts for the Mistral

The groundwork, after all, had been laid months earlier. As early as January 2026, technological autonomy had made inroads into the most sensitive sector of all – the military: the Ministry of the Armed Forces signed a framework agreement with Mistral AI, the Paris-based start-up founded in 2023 by former researchers from Meta and Google DeepMind, which in just a few years had become the symbol of Europe’s ambition in generative AI.

The agreement grants the armed forces, research institutes and Ministry agencies access to the company’s solutions, with coordination entrusted to the Ministry’s Agency for Defence Artificial Intelligence (AMIAD). The guiding principle remains the same: to maintain control over data and critical technologies, whilst reducing dependence on non-European suppliers, in line with Emmanuel Macron’s policy guidelines. With a valuation exceeding 10 billion euros, Mistral positions itself as the credible European alternative to the major US and Chinese players.

May: Berlin also chooses ChapsVision

A few months after Paris’s move on defence, it is Germany that is signalling a turning point. In May, several German media outlets — WDR, NDR and the Süddeutsche Zeitung — reported that the Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz (BfV), the domestic intelligence agency, had chosen ArgonOS software from the French firm ChapsVision over technology from the American company Palantir. A decision described as a clear political and strategic signal.

Berlin’s objective is the same as that driving Paris: to reduce dependence on US platforms in the most sensitive sectors, starting with national security and cybersecurity. According to POLITICO, the French software will be used by the BfV to analyse large quantities of structured and unstructured data, preparing it for analysts’ work.

Marc Henrichmann, who heads the parliamentary committee overseeing Germany’s intelligence services, interpreted the decision as ‘a clear signal in favour of European digital sovereignty’. But he immediately set a caveat: the real test will be the system’s operational effectiveness, because performance must remain the primary criterion, not merely its European origin. It is the same caution that will accompany the French decision a few weeks later.

June: the split from Palantir

The most sensational move came on 16 June. On the eve of VivaTech, Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu announced that the DGSI would be dropping Palantir — the American company co-founded by Peter Thiel, a partner of the Directorate since 2016 — in favour of the French firm ChapsVision and its ArgonOS platform, designed for the large-scale analysis of heterogeneous data.

At the same time, the government is allocating hundreds of millions of euros in additional funding for sovereign AI and has announced that public sector staff will have access to a conversational assistant,‘the Assistant’, powered by Mistral itself. ChapsVision thus takes Palantir’s place when it comes to sensitive data, whilst Mistral covers the general AI sector: two domestic suppliers conveying a single political message.

The context makes the choice even clearer. Lecornu linked the decision to a US restriction on access to the most advanced AI models, citing the impossibility of relying on the ‘goodwill’ of partners capable of turning off the tap. It is the argument for sovereignty that prevails, not on principle, but on the basis of evidence.

A movement that extends beyond France’s borders

The pressure on Palantir is not limited to France.The German army has announced that it will no longer use the company’s products, whilst in the UK, the £330 million contract linking Palantir to the management of National Health Service data has come under scrutiny, following political and parliamentary pressure. In London, Mayor Sadiq Khan has blocked a proposed £50 million contract between Palantir and the Metropolitan Police, questioning its cost-benefit ratio and the tendering process: a decision to which the company has responded by threatening legal action.

However, the usual uncertainties remain. European solutions will have to prove that they can hold their own in practical terms against their overseas counterparts.

The fundamental question, then, is not whether Europe wants national alternatives — the answer is now clear — but whether it will be able to make them reliable. If ChapsVision and Mistral deliver on their promise, France will have set the benchmark for any European ministry wishing to reduce its dependence without sacrificing performance. If not, digital sovereignty risks remaining what it has been for far too long: nothing more than a buzzword on paper.