Silicon Valley firms, including Meta, have shifted toward MAGA politics, sometimes for self-serving motives, according to Nick Clegg. The former UK deputy prime minister, who served as Meta’s head of global affairs for nearly seven years, informed the The Rest is Money podcast that his departure from the company in March 2025—three months into the second Trump administration—felt like the appropriate time to move on.
Clegg noted that executives who once avoided politics have moved to the right. He observed that products have transitioned from being human-centric to focusing heavily on algorithmically recommended, often synthetic, content.
Clegg also criticized the UK government’s relationship with the US software firm Palantir, citing concerns over the spy-tech company's ideology and the risk of creating client dependency. Palantir’s UK contracts have faced increasing scrutiny. A recent report from parliament’s science, innovation and technology committee identified the firm as a primary example of the public sector's growing reliance on a few major technology providers. The committee recommended the government terminate its contract with Palantir in 2027 using an existing break clause.
Following the report, former health secretary Wes Streeting referred to Palantir executives as "Blofeld villains" during a London conference, though he defended their management of UK health data and declined to comment on whether the contract should be ended.
In response to criticisms, a Palantir spokesperson stated their software has contributed to 110,000 additional operations, a 15% drop in discharge delays, and a 7% improvement in the speed of cancer diagnoses. They echoed Streeting’s previous comments regarding the platform's importance to the NHS.
Clegg suggested that the advancement of artificial intelligence might allow rivals to disrupt or replace Palantir. While Palantir incorporates AI into its existing data integration platforms, it has not developed its own foundational AI models.
Addressing allegations of "vendor lock-in," Palantir UK chief executive Louis Mosley told the Today programme that the British state has successfully transitioned data and intellectual property from Palantir to other vendors in the past without issue, calling the notion of dependency false.
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