Palantir has secured a $300 million contract with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), granting the tech company exclusive access to modernize federal farming services through its proprietary software. The agreement, announced by Palantir and USDA Chief Information Officer Sam Berry, aims to streamline agricultural operations and enhance supply chain security for American farmers.

“Protecting America’s farmland is protecting America itself,” Berry stated in a press release. “This partnership gives USDA the visibility and speed needed to safeguard our food supply.” The deal supports USDA’s “One Farmer, One File” initiative, which reduces bureaucratic hurdles for farmers by enabling digital enrollment, faster payments, and accelerated post-disaster recovery.

The program builds on Palantir’s existing Landmark platform, which facilitated the rapid rollout of the $11 billion Farmer Bridge Assistance Program in February—registering over 4.4 billion dollars in farmer support within five days through online tools. Farmers can now report acreage via self-service digital options, eliminating trips to county offices and prioritizing time spent in fields.

Critics warn the agreement establishes unprecedented surveillance of American agriculture. Investigative journalist Whitney Webb labeled Palantir a “CIA front company” with growing influence across critical infrastructure, stating: “Palantir now has its tentacles in the food supply, our healthcare data, [and] the military.” The Beef Initiative added that USDA granted Palantir a “sole-source $300M contract to consolidate every farmer’s federal data into one profile”—a move critics argue enables centralized tracking of loans, conservation history, and land use without competitive bidding.

Farmers face mounting pressures from trade wars with China and volatile global markets, exacerbating supply chain risks. Recent U.S.-China tensions over soybean purchases have intensified scrutiny of agricultural foreign investments, prompting recommendations to reform reporting under the Agricultural Foreign Investment Disclosure Act (AFIDA) to counter potential adversarial exploitation.

Palantir, founded in 2003 to bolster U.S. defense capabilities post-9/11, has previously deployed its AI-driven Maven platform for military operations in Iran. The USDA’s partnership marks a significant expansion of the company’s role in federal agricultural systems, raising concerns about data consolidation and oversight in an era of economic volatility.