Palantir Sues Ex-Engineers Over Plans to Launch 'Copycat' AI Startup

by Lester White

Palantir Applied sciences has filed a federal lawsuit in opposition to two oldschool senior engineers, alleging they oldschool stolen replace secrets to birth a “copycat” AI integration firm that straight competes with the info analytics wide’s core industry.

The lawsuit, filed Thursday in Manhattan federal court, seeks to block Radha Jain and Joanna Cohen from continuing a “months-lengthy charade of deception and unfair opponents,” as Palantir alleges they violated contractual tasks by building Percepta, an AI transformation startup owned by venture capital wide General Catalyst.

The complaint claims the engineers were entrusted with Palantir’s “crown jewels,” including offer code, internal healthcare demonstration workspaces, deployed buyer workflows, and proprietary buyer engagement strategies representing billions of greenbacks in funding.

Jain, who helped form Palantir’s flagship AIP Logic, resigned in November 2024, and Cohen, a Healthcare Lead who built AI solutions for valuable customers, left in February.

Both allegedly saved their fresh employer secret, refused to trace separation agreements, and left their LinkedIn profiles unchanged for months, per the lawsuit.

Palantir alleges that the day after giving look, Cohen sent herself extremely confidential Palantir documents by Slack, including a healthcare income cycle draw, an internal demo framework, and a draft assertion of labor, and later accessed them on her personal phone.

“They lied about their plans after they resigned, Cohen stole Palantir’s confidential documents and data on her system out the door, and they also each and every hid their competitive misconduct for months,” the filing notes.

Percepta emerged from stealth mode in October, with a industry mannequin mirroring Palantir’s and a gaggle silent of with regards to half of oldschool Palantir workers, including co-founder Hirsh Jain.

During a Forbes interview, General Catalyst CEO Hemant Taneja acknowledged Palantir’s value and said his firm used to be engaged on developing “a version” of Palantir’s industry.

The lawsuit warns that in the hands of a competitor, the stolen documents will be oldschool to “shortcut over a decade of Palantir’s overview” and “evade millions of greenbacks in funding charges.”

Palantir claims Percepta could perchance well maybe “replicate its finest demonstrations” and leverage stolen insights to get customers, “irreparably harming” its market situation.

The defendants were paid “millions of greenbacks of compensation” in alternate for non-opponents agreements barring them from competing for three hundred and sixty five days, non-solicitation clauses lasting 24 months, and confidentiality tasks, the firm claims.

Palantir now not too lengthy ago secured a contract with the U.S. Navy value up to $10 billion over the next decade and won a $30 million contract to invent ImmigrationOS for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

At The Files’s WTF Summit on Wednesday, Lisa Gordon, Palantir’s head of worldwide communications, said that the firm’s shift toward the Trump administration is “pertaining to.”

“I have faith it’d be anxious, as numerous the firm is transferring skilled-Trum-, , is transferring in a particular direction,” Gordon said, stopping herself mid-note, per a CNBC story.

Palantir, valued at $461.54 billion after a 374.87% market-cap surge, is trying for emergency injunctive relief, upright fee compensation, and an extension of non-compete sessions to quilt the alleged breach.

Hirsh Jain and General Catalyst did now not straight answer to Decrypt’s requests for observation.

Related Posts