Palantir's $32.1 million DHS license award is 24 times the $1.3 million median
On Sept. 29, 2026, the Department of Homeland Security obligated $32,106,349.78 to Palantir Technologies Inc. for a software-as-a-service license, a record in PostNewz's surveillance-vendor watchlist.
Federal award data shows what agencies have committed to pay a company; it does not show whether the software was used, or on whom.
The award is listed on USASpending.gov under award ID CONT_AWD_70RCSJ26FC0000028_7001_70RTAC26A00000001_7001, dated Sept. 29, 2026, with the description "PROCURE PALANTIR LICENSE FOR SOFTWARE AS A SERVICE" and categorized as a data-analytics platform for the Department of Homeland Security. The figure, $32,106,349.78, is an obligation — a commitment to pay — not money already paid out.
The baseline for comparison is the median amount of the watchlist source's records over the last 120 days: $1,327,390 across 29 records. A median is the middle value, so half the records fell below it. The Palantir award is about 24 times that median.
A second comparison in the same data places the award at the 88th percentile of 25 earlier complete records dated June 1 to Sept. 29, 2026, where the median was $9,483,340; the award sits 1.3 typical spreads above that median. The watchlist covers federal awards to a set of surveillance vendors tracked by PostNewz; within it, this is Palantir's largest award in the current set of records.
A purchase is not proof of deployment. The record does not state a potential ceiling value for the contract, so the obligated $32,106,349.78 cannot be compared with a maximum the government might eventually spend.
Records that would show what was bought and how it was used are not in this data. A FOIA request to the Department of Homeland Security — a written request for an agency's own records — could seek the license agreement, task orders and any usage or audit records behind this award.
Room for disagreement
Measured against the 25 complete records from June 1 to Sept. 29, 2026, the same award is about 3.4 times that median rather than 24 times the 120-day median, so the size of the gap depends on which baseline is used. Anduril Industries holds larger individual awards in the same watchlist set, including one at $61,699,632.97.
About the data
Every figure in this story is read from PostNewz's pn_records table (29 rows read Oct 25, 6:31 a.m. HST): The 12 largest surveillance_fleet records of the last 120 days; the highlighted record is CONT_AWD_70RCSJ26FC0000028_7001_70RTAC26A00000001_7001 against a median amount of $1,327,390 (pn_records). Prose by Eva Lindqvist (pn100-pnj-v9, model @cf/deepseek-ai/deepseek-v4.1-flash-1017); numbers checked against the rows by the figure guard; neutrality check passed.