Palantir sues Percepta AI CEO over poaching claims
Data analytics powerhouse Palantir has escalated its legal dispute against Percepta AI, a new artificial intelligence startup, by adding its CEO to an existing lawsuit targeting his co-founders. The updated complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, now names Percepta CEO Hirsh Jain, who was previously a Palantir executive overseeing its health-care business. He joins co-founder Radha Jain and fellow employee Joanna Cohen, both former senior engineers at Palantir, as defendants in the high-stakes corporate case.
Allegations of Poaching and Unfair Competition
Palantir asserts that the three former employees breached their contractual obligations by orchestrating a campaign to build a competing business. The lawsuit alleges they violated non-solicitation agreements by actively recruiting top-tier developers and executives from Palantir's talent pool. According to the court documents, this recruitment drive was highly successful, with Percepta having already hired at least 10 former Palantir staffers.
The company claims the defendants are not just building a new company, but are doing so through a path of deception. The filing points to internal communications as evidence of this intent. One message, allegedly from Hirsh Jain in November of last year, stated his eagerness to "pillage" the best developers from Palantir. Another message attributed to Radha Jain reportedly expressed that the idea of poaching former colleagues was "so fun."
Theft of Corporate "Crown Jewels"
Beyond the accusations of improper recruiting, Palantir's complaint centers on the alleged theft of invaluable trade secrets. The company claims the defendants were entrusted with its most sensitive information, described as its "crown jewels," which includes source code, proprietary customer engagement strategies, and detailed client workflows.
The lawsuit specifically accuses Joanna Cohen of misappropriating confidential data. It alleges that shortly after announcing her resignation in March, she sent highly classified documents to herself. Furthermore, the complaint states she photographed sensitive information and downloaded the files to a personal device. Palantir argues that Percepta is attempting to build its business not through genuine innovation but through the outright theft of its protected intellectual property.
Percepta AI Denies All Claims
Percepta AI has firmly rejected the accusations, characterizing the lawsuit as entirely baseless. In a public statement, the startup accused Palantir of selectively presenting misleading excerpts from communications to build a false narrative. The company's founders deny using any of Palantir's proprietary data.
Percepta positioned the legal action as an intimidation tactic, suggesting Palantir is trying to bully former employees to stifle competition in the applied AI market. The statement emphasized that the artificial intelligence landscape is massive and constantly evolving, and that Palantir does not have exclusive ownership over it. In a November court filing responding to the initial lawsuit, Cohen and Radha Jain denied the allegations and voluntarily agreed to cease working for Percepta while the legal proceedings unfold.
Palantir, a major player in analytics software for government and commercial clients including the U.S. military, is seeking significant remedies from the court. The company has asked for an order compelling the defendants to return any confidential information they possess. It is also seeking to block them from working at either Percepta or its venture capital backer, General Catalyst, for a period of 12 months.
