France just told Palantir to pack its bags. The country’s domestic intelligence agency, DGSI, awarded its critical data analytics contract to ChapsVision, a French software company that barely existed five years ago. The decision, announced on June 16, replaces Palantir’s Gotham platform with ChapsVision’s ArgonOS system.

A sovereignty play with real money behind it

ChapsVision, founded in 2019, has been on an aggressive growth tear. The company now employs around 1,000 people, operates across 40 countries, and pulled in roughly €200 million in revenue during its 2024/2025 fiscal year.

French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu framed the DGSI transition as essential to avoiding “strategic dependencies.” The French government is backing that rhetoric with cash: €655 million, approximately $760 million, earmarked for AI investments including shared state chatbots and sovereign data processing tools.

ChapsVision isn’t just winning in France. Germany’s domestic intelligence agency, the BfV, also chose ChapsVision over Palantir. That’s two of Europe’s largest intelligence services selecting the same French upstart over one of America’s most well-connected defense contractors.

Why Palantir should be nervous, but not panicking yet

The transition away from Gotham at DGSI is expected to take several years, partly because France actually renewed its contract with Palantir in 2025.

ChapsVision had previously secured a DGSI contract in 2024 for heterogeneous data processing, giving it a foothold before this larger win. The company has grown through multiple acquisitions backed by European investors, including Bpifrance, France’s public investment bank.