ChapsVision Palantir DGSI switch puts French startup in Europe’s sovereignty push
France’s DGSI is replacing Palantir with ChapsVision in a reported €10m deal as governments reassess dependence on US tech.
By Marcus Adeyemi · Startups Editor
· 3 min read
France’s domestic intelligence service, the DGSI, has selected ChapsVision to replace Palantir on a data preparation and analytics contract reported at about €10m, putting the little-known French software company into a high-stakes government technology role. The ChapsVision Palantir DGSI switch matters because it has become a test case for Europe’s push to reduce reliance on US technology providers in sensitive state systems.
Silvano Sansoni, ChapsVision’s managing director, rejected the common shorthand that the company is a “European Palantir.” He said the comparison may help people understand the category, but argued that ChapsVision operates with a different philosophy and set of values.
Palantir had worked with the DGSI since 2016, after the 2015 Bataclan attacks, and its contract had been renewed several times, including as recently as six months before France announced the replacement in June. The DGSI contract covers data collection preparation and analytics used in counterterrorism work.
Why did France replace Palantir with ChapsVision?
French prime minister Sébastien Lecornu framed the decision as a response to “strategic dependency,” saying France should use its own AI models and avoid relying on tools built by foreign powers. That message fits a broader concern among European governments about dependence on non-European technology, especially from the US, for critical public-sector functions.
Sansoni said the DGSI win has raised ChapsVision’s profile after years of operating with little public attention. He said the company is now speaking with governments across Europe, naming Poland, Germany, Denmark, Switzerland and Luxembourg. He did not name newly signed contracts, although he said German intelligence services had recently picked ChapsVision ahead of US competitors.
The DGSI is the first visible customer for the contract, according to Sansoni, but he said the deal is structured to cover the wider French state, including government departments and agencies. A major operational question is migration: Sansoni said moving DGSI systems from Palantir to ChapsVision is complex and could take 12 to 18 months.
Can ChapsVision handle a Palantir replacement?
ChapsVision is much smaller than Palantir. Sansoni said the Paris-area company has about 1,100 employees and roughly €200m in annual revenue. Palantir’s revenue is about €3.9bn, and the US company has a long record selling into government agencies.
ChapsVision’s pitch is sovereignty rather than scale. Sansoni said customers can keep control of their technology and avoid long-term lock-in. He also said the company is not an AI model provider, but offers agentic applications such as translation and emphasizes security. Claims about security and sovereignty remain company assertions, and ChapsVision did not disclose technical performance metrics for the DGSI deployment.
The company’s revenue base is split across public and private customers. Sansoni said about 45% of revenue comes from governments, with the rest from corporate clients including Pfizer, Boeing and Exxon Mobil. By geography, he said roughly 65% of customers are in France, 20% are in the US and the remainder are across Europe, Japan and Singapore.
ChapsVision has been assembled through 29 acquisitions by founder Olivier Dellenbach, a serial entrepreneur. That acquisition history gives it breadth across areas including CRM, AI, phone tracing and security services, but it also creates integration risk. Sansoni said the company aims to fully integrate those businesses by 2027.
ChapsVision has raised about €275m, including backing from Jolt Capital and French public investment bank Bpifrance. Sansoni said the company wants to go public by 2030 at the latest and reach €1bn in revenue by then, implying an €800m increase from its current level. He said three-quarters of that additional revenue is expected to come from acquisitions, with the rest from organic growth, and that further funding rounds will be needed to finance deals.
The company’s next priority markets are the US and Germany, according to Sansoni. He described the goal as building a French company into a European champion with global reach.
This story draws on original reporting from Tech.eu.
