May 11, 2026
Ethics sold separately
European Money Pours into Palantir
Europe cashes in on Palantir while commenters call out the hypocrisy
TLDR: European financial giants boosted their Palantir holdings to roughly $27 billion even as the company faces serious human-rights criticism. In the comments, readers were split between disgust and resignation, with many arguing that index funds make ordinary investors quietly complicit too.
Europe’s money giants just piled even harder into Palantir, and the comment section is basically one long “well, that got ugly fast”. The company — already slammed by rights groups over work with U.S. immigration enforcement and the Israeli military — saw stakes from more than 100 European banks, insurers, pension funds, and asset managers jump by over 60% in a year, with the total value swelling to about $27 billion. That eye-popping number sent readers straight into moral-whiplash mode: institutions say they support human-rights investing rules, but commenters were not exactly buying the halo.
The strongest reaction was pure cynicism. One person shrugged that this is what happens when people pour retirement money into giant stock-tracking funds: if those funds own everything, then everyone is complicit, not just Palantir fans. Another brought the doom: investing in any artificial intelligence company is “1 step above junk bonds,” turning the thread from ethics fight into market-panic comedy. And then there was the shortest, sharpest dagger of all: “So disappointing.” Ouch.
The thread even took a detour into detective drama, with one commenter riffing on “follow the money” as a slogan tied to Watergate and anti-Mafia investigations — which honestly only made the whole story feel more like a political thriller. The vibe? A mix of resignation, disgust, and dark humor: Europe talks values, but the comments are screaming that when the stock price goes wild, morality suddenly looks very negotiable.
Key Points
- •An investigation cited by EL PAÍS says more than 100 European financial institutions increased their combined stake in Palantir by over 60% in the last year.
- •The estimated value of the analyzed European holdings in Palantir reached $27 billion by the end of 2025, based on entities reporting to the SEC.
- •The article links Palantir to human rights criticism over its services to ICE and the Israeli army, and cites criticism from Amnesty International and a low MSCI score.
- •Some investors’ exposure to Palantir is attributed to index-tracking funds that automatically include large U.S. listed companies in portfolios.
- •Norges Bank was identified as the largest European investor in Palantir at $5.1 billion, followed by Amundi, Legal & General, Barclays, Deutsche Bank and others.