Former Ukrainian Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov is launching a defense technology company with Palantir CEO Alex Karp, who will serve as the venture’s first investor, the pair announced Tuesday. The company will develop technology intended to strengthen Ukraine, support its allies and ultimately make the world safer, Defense News reported.
Fedorov left the Ukrainian government in July after President Volodymyr Zelenskyy dismissed him from his defense post. He later said he would not return to government and would instead pursue several projects, including building a major defense investment fund and advising the Italian Ministry of Defense.
In a press release announcing the venture, Fedorov said his team had gained experience working with defense technologies during Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine. He said the team had seen how technology was changing modern warfare and would use that experience to build technologies that strengthen Ukraine, help its allies and ultimately make the world safer.
Karp’s involvement makes him the venture’s first investor and links the new company to one of the largest defense technology firms in the United States. Palantir reported 93% year-over-year revenue growth in the most recent quarter cited by Defense News, while its valuation had risen above $440 billion. About half of Palantir’s total revenue comes from U.S. government contracts, the report said.
Fedorov built his reputation in government partly through his backing of Delta, a Ukrainian battlefield-management system that combines drone feeds, radar information and field data in a layered operational dashboard. The system can be used to oversee the front in real time and to study battlefield events afterward.
Delta has drawn attention from U.S. defense officials. Outgoing U.S. Army Secretary Dan Driscoll described it as an open-architecture command-and-control system in testimony cited by Defense News. He contrasted it with U.S. Army systems that he said remained compartmentalized and isolated against modern threats.
Palantir’s Maven Smart System is a comparable U.S. system. It combines operational data and intelligence analysis for battle planning and briefings. The company’s technology has also been used by more than six Ukrainian government agencies since Karp became one of the first Western technology executives to travel to Kyiv after Russia’s 2022 invasion.
The relationship includes Ukraine’s Brave1 Dataroom, a joint project between the Ukrainian Defense Ministry and Palantir launched earlier this year. The platform runs on Palantir’s infrastructure and allows Ukrainian companies to train artificial-intelligence models using real combat data. Those applications include target-detection systems designed to counter Shahed-type drones.
Karp said in a joint video with Fedorov announcing the partnership that the two had worked together for five years. He said he had been inspired by what Fedorov and other Ukrainians had achieved and was pleased that Palantir could play a role.
Karp reportedly contacted Fedorov soon after the former minister’s dismissal and proposed that they work together. Fedorov said at the time that he asked to revisit the conversation later.
Fedorov’s dismissal prompted protests calling for his reinstatement, while the former minister said he would not return to government. In announcing the new venture, he also said that Ukraine would remain his priority despite his other international projects.