As progressive activists blockade Palantir offices and protest the company’s AI tools used in ICE deportation and surveillance operations, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has continued taking millions from the company’s lobbyists, according to new Federal Election Commission filings.
In January alone, more than a dozen lobbyists with firms representing Palantir bundled a combined $2.9 million for the DCCC, according to a newly filed FEC disclosure. The January haul from Palantir’s lobbying firms represents 38% of the DCCC’s total contributions for the month.
The bipartisan lobbying firm Invariant was paid $560,000 last year by Palantir, making the Peter Thiel-co-founded data analytics and artificial intelligence company its third-largest client. Its lobbyists steered more than $1.8 million to the DCCC in January, a sum that adds to the at least $3.8 million it gave to House Democrats’ campaign arm last year, making it one of the committee’s most significant known fundraising forces this election cycle.
The other Palantir lobbying firm that gave big money to the DCCC last month is Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, whose leaders, top lobbyists, and company PAC bundled a combined $1.1 million.
Bundling is a fundraising tactic where lobbyists gather contributions from their clients and others in their professional network and deliver them en masse to politicians and party committees, a practice that allows them to bypass individual contribution limits and often helps them gain access to leadership and senior staff.
According to federal lobbying disclosures, Invariant has lobbied for the company on issues including funding for Defense Department technology procurement, AI policy, and border surveillance technology, areas of great import to Palantir’s government contracts. Invariant also lobbies for Elon Musk’s SpaceX and several crypto companies aligned with the Trump family, like Kraken and Ondo Finance.
