US judge restricts ex-Palantir workers poaching staff for AI startup

A US judge ordered three former Palantir employees to stop trying to poach staff and using Palantir’s data for Percepta, an AI startup owned by the venture capital firm General Catalyst.

US District Judge J. Paul Oetken sealed a 41-page opinion, first releasing a one-page summary and later releasing redacted details showing Palantir would suffer irreparable harm if the conduct continued.

Oetken declined to bar the workers from staying at Percepta, ruling Palantir’s non-compete was too broad to enforce.

The judge found Hirsh Jain, chief executive officer, and Radha Jain, co-founder, likely solicited Palantir staff.

He found Joanna Cohen, a former junior software engineer, sent company documents to herself on Slack, downloaded them to her phone, and accessed names and contact information of Palantir’s healthcare customers, plus confidential marketing, workflow, and sales intelligence beyond her role.

Palantir sued after alleging an aggressive recruiting campaign, while Percepta and Hirsh Jain said the ruling vindicated the startup and argued large firms should not stifle competitors.

The case is Palantir v. Jain, 25-cv-08985, the US District Court for the Southern District of New York.

🔗 Source: Bloomberg

🧠 Food for thought

Implications, context, and why it matters.

Percepta runs like an operator with VC ownership

Percepta, the company named in the lawsuit, calls itself a “transformation company” and is fully owned by venture capital firm General Catalyst 1.
Percepta places its researchers, engineers, or product managers inside large companies in healthcare and finance, to help those firms adopt artificial intelligence 1.
The setup sits at the heart of the case. Palantir says Percepta is a “copycat” AI software firm, while Percepta says it works as a consulting and engineering firm that does not sell software or provide data analytics, which matters for the legal arguments 2.

Venture capital firms move closer to day to day operations

The lawsuit describes a hiring fight where venture firms compete with tech giants for engineers who can deploy complex systems. It also says nearly half of Percepta’s staff are former Palantir employees 2.
General Catalyst also uses a model it calls the “AI-enabled roll-up.” It backs teams that acquire and run traditional services businesses, then use AI to expand outcomes and improve growth plus margins 3.
General Catalyst’s Health Assurance Transformation Company (HATCo) finished its acquisition of the Ohio healthcare system Summa Health 4.
This approach adds pressure on consulting firms, since some venture capital groups now fund teams and also staff the work of technology change inside large enterprises.