Why $370bn tech group Palantir pays 1.4 percent tax rate: Report Palantir Technologies, the United States data analytics and artificial intelligence company which has contracts with the country's military and intelligence apparatus, has "engineered its corporate structure" to pay no US federal corporate income tax, according to a new report. The study by the Centre for International Corporate Tax Accountability and Research (CICTAR) comes as Palantir reports soaring revenues, driven partly by government contracts, while it faces continued criticism for providing technology to the Israeli military amid the genocide in Gaza. What does the report show? Earlier this week, Palantir reported second-quarter revenue of $1.94bn, up 93 percent from a year earlier. But despite its rapid growth, CICTAR said its global effective tax rate was just 1.4 percent in 2025.

In today's episode, we discuss how the saga between Anthropic and the Department of Defense is far from over. This week on, our hosts look at what's at stake for Anthropic after the company sued the Department of Defense. They also take a look at the strategy behind the Trump administration sharing action-filled war memes on social media, and share a scoop about how a controversial company is taking in millions in government contracts by helping organize America250 celebrations. Plus: Could AI come for the jobs of venture capitalists? Can AI Kill the Venture Capitalist? Write to us at uncannyvalley@wired.com . You can always listen to this week's podcast through the audio player on this page, but if you want to subscribe for free to get every episode, here's how: If you're on an iPhone or iPad, open the app called Podcasts, or just tap this link . Zoë, Leah and I have really enjoyed being your new hosts these past few weeks, and we want to hear from you. If you like the show and have a minute, please leave us a review in the podcast or app of your choice. It really helps us reach more people, and for any questions and comments, you can always reach us at uncannyvalley@WIRED.com . This week, we're diving into Anthropic's lawsuit against the Department of Defense after the company was labeled as a supply chain risk. We're also discussing why on earth the Trump administration is sharing action film memes about the war in Iran and how a little known events company formed by some of the organizers of the January 6th rally is making bank in Trump's second term in office . Also, we'll talk about whether venture capitalists should be worried about AI taking their jobs .

Why was El Paso airspace shut down? US president's son Eric Trump invests in drone maker with gov't contracts United States President Donald Trump's son Eric is investing in an Israeli drone manufacturer, prompting renewed conflict-of-interest concerns as the Trump family expands its business holdings during its patriarch's second term as president. Eric Trump is investing in a $1.5bn merger between Israeli drone maker Xtend and Florida-based JFB Construction Holdings, a small construction company, in a deal aimed at taking Xtend public this year, JFB said in a news release on Tuesday. Drone maker Unusual Machines, which tapped Eric's brother Donald Trump Jr in November 2024 as an adviser, is also investing in the merger, JFB said. JFB builds commercial and residential properties, including multifamily communities and shopping centres.

The billionaire's involvement with the Trump administration and DOGE had deep impacts on Tesla's bottom line. But Elon Musk was still able to turn his attention to SpaceX. What a weird time to be Elon Musk. This year opened with the businessman turned political operator throwing what appeared, to Nazis at least, to be a . This spring, activists frequently congregated outside the showrooms of his automaker, Tesla, to protest his foray into the US federal government and cozy relationship with President Trump.

On November 2, 2022, I attended a Google AI event in New York City. One of the themes was responsible AI. As I listened to executives talk about how they aligned their technology with human values, I realized that the malleability of AI models was a double-edged sword. Models could be tweaked to, say, minimize biases, but also to enforce a specific point of view. Governments could demand manipulation to censor unwelcome facts and promote propaganda.

The world's richest man, Elon Musk, has vowed to oversee a radical hollowing out of government agencies, asserting this week that some should be "deleted entirely" as he defunds public programs and lays off federal workers. While the immense cuts are framed as a means of removing waste, they may also become a boon to private companies – including Musk's own businesses – that the government increasingly relies on for many of its key initiatives. Musk and his allies in the "department of government efficiency" (Doge), the unofficial committee acting as the operations arm of his cost-cutting efforts, have targeted a range of major government departments. They have moved to close the United States Agency for International Development, slashed the Department of Education and taken over the General Services Administration that controls federal IT structures. Doge staffers have also gained access to the treasury department, as well as set their sights on the Department of Defense, energy department, Environmental Protection Agency and at least a dozen others.

Despite years worth of efforts to eliminate the scourge of ransomware targeting schools, hospitals, and critical infrastructure worldwide, experts are warning that the crisis is only heating up, with criminal gangs growing ever more aggressive in their tactics. The threat of real-world violence now looms, some experts warn, as the data stolen grows increasingly sensitive and millions in potential profits hang in the balance. "We know where your CEO lives," read a message reportedly received by one victim. Attacks targeting the medical sector are blooming in response to the 44 million payout by Change Healthcare this March. United States lawmakers and intelligence officials are circling their wagons following the revelation of Israel's involvement in a malign influence campaign that targeted US voters--an attempt by America's Middle East ally to artificially boost support for an increasingly unpopular war that was kicked off by Hamas' unprecedented Oct. 7th attack.

Defense companies exploring artificial intelligence will help the U.S. military "keep up" with rivals like China, a former fighter pilot told Fox News. The Senate version of the National Defense Authorization Act could include a House-authored provision that prohibits the United States government and its contractors from buying equipment from "adversarial biotech companies" that work to "exploit" Americans' genetic information for "malign purposes," Fox News Digital has learned. Both the Senate and the House of Representatives are currently conferencing and negotiating on final NDAA text that can be passed by both chambers. The provision, which was passed in the original House bill, was introduced by House China Select Committee Chairman Mike Gallagher, R-Wis. The provision prohibits the purchase of biotechnology equipment or services from all United States adversaries, including North Korea, Russia, Iran and China.

Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) and Palantir (NYSE:PLTR) operate in different sectors, but both tech companies are profiting from the secular expansion of the artificial intelligence (AI) market. Nvidia's GPUs are often associated with video games, but a growing number of data centers are installing its high-end GPUs to process AI tasks. Palantir's data mining platforms accumulate and process data from disparate sources to help government agencies and big companies make AI-driven decisions. Both companies have generated impressive gains over the past 12 months. Nvidia's stock more than doubled as it continued to sell more gaming and data center GPUs. Palantir's stock soared about 160% as it dazzled investors with its robust revenue growth rates and optimistic long-term targets.

When considering transformational ways to use computer vision on the edge in devices like robots, drones, cameras, and other devices, Booz Allen Hamilton VP Josh Sullivan advises caution, urging people to take security seriously on what's become a whole new attack vector. "For me, deploying an AI model in your IT environment is an entirely new attack vector. I've seen a model working correctly that can identify tanks and other military equipment be fooled into seeing a school bus because someone sent poisoned data into the model," he said. Failure to keep models secure can lead to adversarial machine learning attacks to make malicious code appear as benign or a range of other bad outcomes. Sullivan was joined in conversation at VentureBeat's Transform 2020 conference by Nvidia VP of federal initiatives Anthony Robbins, Intel IoT VP Stacey Shulman, and Joint AI Center acting director Nand Mulchandani.