Palantir Co-Founder Defends U.S. Minab School Strike While Ties to Defense Lobbying Grow

In February, a U.S. strike hit a girls’ school in Minab, Iran, killing more than 150 people, most of them children. Pentagon officials later told Bloomberg that reliance on Palantir technology contributed to the targeting error. A United Nations committee suggested the attack could be classified as a war crime. At a Reuters-hosted event late last week, Palantir co-founder Joe Lonsdale called the incident “terrible” but warned against external judgment, saying, “It’s very easy to judge things from the outside.”

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Lonsdale said the strike may have resulted from a single poor decision amid many correct ones: “It could be the case that somebody made 99 really good choices and then one bad choice and it led to a horrible thing.” He suggested Iran might have disguised the school to lure U.S. forces into using AI-guided Tomahawk missiles, a claim that mirrors tactics attributed to other regional groups. The Pentagon’s acknowledgment of Palantir’s involvement underscores the growing reliance on commercial AI tools for lethal targeting.

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When asked about regulation, Lonsdale replied, “Maybe there should be some laws about companies that operate here and, like, what you’re allowed to do with them.” He framed the debate as a moral dilemma, arguing that without such tools the U.S. would face greater security threats. His comments were made during a talk aimed at investors, highlighting tension between ethical concerns and profit motives.

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Lonsdale is managing partner of venture firm 8VC, which has $6 billion invested in high-tech defense firms, according to Forbes. His conservative think-tank, the Cicero Institute, and its lobbying arm Cicero Action have channeled “hundreds of thousands of dollars” into defense-lobby spending, as reported by Sludge. Sludge also noted that Palantir is seeing a surge in federal revenue, including an Army contract potentially worth up to $10 billion, while Anduril, another Lonsdale-backed company, secured an Army deal with a ceiling of $20 billion.

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• “It’s very easy to judge things from the outside.” — Iran

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• “It could be the case that somebody made 99 really good choices and then one bad choice and it led to a horrible thing,” — Joe Lonsdale

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• “Maybe there should be some laws about companies that operate here and, like, what you’re allowed to do with them,” — Joe Lonsdale

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• “Palantir is seeing a surge in federal revenue under the Trump administration,” — Sludge

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