Palantir's Co-Founder Wants Us Less Judgmental About Deadly Iran School Strike

Joe Lonsdale, cofounder of Palantir and venture firm 8VC, defended aspects of a U.S. strike that destroyed a girls’ school in Minab, Iran, in February and killed more than 150 people, most of them children. Speaking at a Reuters investor event, he cautioned against judging the attack solely from the outside, argued that a string of good decisions can still end in one catastrophic mistake, and suggested Iran may have deliberately disguised targets to attract strikes. Pentagon officials later told Bloomberg that overreliance on Palantir technology was a factor in the targeting error, and a UN committee report has indicated the attack could amount to a war crime.

Lonsdale acknowledged that some regulation may be needed for companies that provide military targeting tools, but his stance sits alongside major financial and political incentives to resist strict oversight. As managing partner of 8VC he oversees about $6 billion invested in high-tech defense firms; his Cicero Institute and related lobbying activity have pushed industry-friendly policies. Public reporting notes substantial federal windfalls for companies in his orbit - Palantir and Thiel-backed Anduril have won multi-billion-dollar Army contract ceilings - and Lonsdale has publicly argued that weapons makers can be morally justified in doing “dirty” defense work, framing criticism of the industry as a default moral bias.