Palantir Technologies has filed a federal lawsuit against two former senior engineers, accusing them of using stolen trade secrets to launch a “copycat” AI integration company that directly competes with the data analytics giant’s core business.
of lawsuitThe lawsuit, filed Thursday in Manhattan federal court, seeks to stop Radha Jain and Joanna Cohen from continuing “months of deception and a show of unfair competition,” alleging that Palantir breached its contractual obligations by forming Percepta, an AI transformation startup owned by venture capital giant General Catalyst.
The complaint alleges that the engineers were entrusted with Palantir’s “crown jewels,” including source code, internal healthcare demonstration workspaces, deployed customer workflows, and unique customer engagement strategies representing billions of dollars of investment.
Jain, who helped design Palantir’s flagship AIP Logic, resigned in November 2024, and Cohen, a healthcare leader who built AI solutions for large customers, left in February.
The lawsuit alleges that both men kept their new employers secret, refused to sign separation agreements and left their LinkedIn profiles unchanged for months.
Palantir alleges that the day after giving his notice, Cohen sent confidential documents to him via Slack, including a healthcare revenue cycle diagram, an internal demo framework, and a draft statement of work, which he then accessed on his personal phone.
“They lied about their plans when they resigned, Cohen stole Palantir’s confidential documents and information while she was on the road, and both concealed their competitive misconduct for months,” the filing states.
Percepta came out of stealth mode in October, adopting a business model that mirrors Palantir’s and a team made up of nearly half former Palantir employees, including co-founder Hirsh Jain.
inside Forbes interviewGeneral Catalyst CEO Hemant Taneja acknowledged the value of Palantir and said the company is working on building a “version” of Palantir’s business.
The lawsuit warns that if the stolen documents fall into the hands of a competitor, they could be used to “shorten more than a decade of Palantir research” and “avoid millions of dollars in investment costs.”
Palantir claims that Percepta could “recreate the most effective demonstrations” and leverage stolen insights to gain customers and “irreparably undermine” its market position.
The company alleges that the defendants were paid “millions of dollars in damages” in exchange for a 12-month non-compete agreement, a 24-month non-solicitation clause and confidentiality obligations.
Palantir recently secured a contract with the U.S. military We won a $30 million contract to build ImmigrationOS for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, worth up to $10 billion over the next 10 years.
At The Information’s WTF Summit on Wednesday, Palantir’s head of global communications Lisa Gordon said the company’s transition to the Trump administration is “concerning.”
“I think it’s going to be difficult because so much of the company is moving towards Trump, but you know, it’s moving in a certain direction,” Gordon said, pausing mid-sentence, according to CNBC. report.
Palantir, Valued at $461.54 billion After its market capitalization soared 374.87%, the company is seeking emergency injunctive relief to cover the alleged violations, reimbursement of its legal costs and an extension of the non-compete period.
Harsh Jain and General Catalyst did not immediately respond. decryption Request for comments.
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