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

In brief

• Palantir Technologies has sued two former senior AI engineers for allegedly stealing confidential documents.
• The defendants allegedly sent themselves highly confidential files, including healthcare revenue cycle diagrams and internal demonstration frameworks.
• General Catalyst CEO Hemant Taneja has publicly admitted earlier that the venture capital firm was creating “a version” of Palantir’s business.

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Palantir Technologies has filed a federal lawsuit against two former senior engineers, alleging they used stolen trade secrets to launch a “copycat” AI integration company that directly competes with the data analytics giant’s core business.

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

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

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

Both allegedly kept their new employer secret, refused to sign separation agreements, and left their LinkedIn profiles unchanged for months, according to the lawsuit.

Palantir alleges that the day after giving notice, Cohen sent herself highly confidential Palantir documents via Slack, including a healthcare revenue cycle diagram, an internal demo framework, and a draft statement of work, and later accessed them on her personal phone.

“They lied about their plans when they resigned, Cohen stole Palantir’s confidential documents and information on her way out the door, and they both hid their competitive misconduct for months,” the filing notes.

Percepta emerged from stealth mode in October, with a business model mirroring Palantir’s and a team composed of nearly half former Palantir employees, including co-founder Hirsh Jain.

During a Forbes interview, General Catalyst CEO Hemant Taneja acknowledged Palantir’s value and said his company was working on creating “a version” of Palantir’s business.

The lawsuit warns that in the hands of a competitor, the stolen documents could be used to “shortcut over a decade of Palantir’s research” and “evade millions of dollars in investment costs.”

Palantir claims Percepta could “replicate its most effective demonstrations” and leverage stolen insights to win clients, “irreparably harming” its market position.

The defendants were paid “millions of dollars of compensation” in exchange for non-competition agreements barring them from competing for 12 months, non-solicitation clauses lasting 24 months, and confidentiality obligations, the company claims.

Palantir recently secured a contract with the U.S. Army worth up to $10 billion over the next decade and won a $30 million contract to build ImmigrationOS for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

At The Information’s WTF Summit on Wednesday, Lisa Gordon, Palantir’s head of global communications, said that the company’s shift toward the Trump administration is “concerning.”

“I think it’s going to be challenging, as a lot of the company is moving pro-Trum-, you know, is moving in a certain direction,” Gordon said, stopping herself mid-word, according to a CNBC report

Palantir, valued at $461.54 billion after a 374.87% market-cap surge, is seeking emergency injunctive relief, legal fee reimbursement, and an extension of non-compete periods to cover the alleged breach.

Hirsh Jain and General Catalyst did not immediately respond to Decrypt’s requests for comment.