US technology firm Palantir, known for providing surveillance systems to government agencies, may be developing a data center in Texas at the planned Fermi campus outside Amarillo.

As noted by opposition group Purge Palantir, representatives from Fermi told the public at a recent community meeting that the company has met with Palantir representatives to discuss building a data center.

“You’re blessed to sit on the best place to build AI in the country; I just met with Palantir, [who are the] tip of the sphere in the AI war, they’re coming Thursday," the representative said during an October 28 Amarillo city council meeting.

In response to being asked whether Palantir would build an office in Amarillo, Fermi CEO Toby Neugebauer said: “They’ve been watching it on satellite… they probably know more about our site than we do.”

Palantir was launched in 2003 by Peter Thiel and builds software to help organizations create and run artificial intelligence across private and public networks. An early investor of the company was the CIA through its venture capital branch, In-Q-Tel.

Documents provided by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden suggested that Palantir played a role in creating the US government's international spy program, PRISM.

The company is known to serve police forces, immigration departments, and various militaries. Its work with the likes of ICE in the US and the Israel Defense Ministry has drawn criticism, as has its collaborations with police forces in on surveillance programs.

Palantir has traditionally relied on cloud providers including Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, and Oracle. It’s unclear if the company has any major leased or self-built data center footprint.

Palantir is primarily a software firm, but does offer some hardware-based solutions for the Edge. Its Skykit offering puts satellite-connected compute into a ruggedized case or backpack for soldiers on the move: the case also contains a drone for local information collection. The firm has also developed mobile ground stations for the US Army.

Purge Palantir is a nationwide campaign to ‘defend privacy and stop Palantir’ and its enablement of mass surveillance and militarization.

Fermi, a company co-founded by former Texas governor and energy secretary Rick Perry, is planning to develop a massive 11GW data center and energy campus near Amarillo in Texas on land owned by the Texas Tech University system. If realized, Project Matador will span 18 million sq ft (1.67 million sqm) and would utilize a combination of on-site energy sources, including natural gas, solar, wind energy, and nuclear energy.

“Project Matador will strain the region’s Ogallala Aquifer water resources, the main groundwater supply for our region’s households, farms, and ranches. We demand the city not sell anymore water to Fermi,” said Kendra Seawright, organizer with 806 Data Center Resistance, an opposition group against Fermi’s planned development.

“Our local government has a duty to protect our water and communities by opposing any agreement with Fermi America or any other corporation that wants to extract from our communities at any cost. It is critical for our people to succeed over exploitative corporations.”

Danny Cendejas, campaign specialist at MediaJustice, a non-profit campaigning for digital rights, added: “While millions of people in Amarillo and across the country struggle with a skyrocketing cost of living, underfunded education systems, and lack of access to healthcare, federal, state, and local officials are choosing to invest public funds into dangerous projects like Fermi America and its partnerships with Palantir.

“Project Matador must be stopped to protect the Ogallala aquifer, to protect our air, and to protect our collective wellbeing. Halting Project Matador chips away at the Trump regime’s hopes of an authoritarian, fascist surveillance state, fueled by big tech.”