Palantir’s Move to Florida Is About Keeping Workers Trapped
Data analytics company Palantir’s abrupt announcement that it is moving to Florida comes just after the state’s lawmakers boosted corporations’ legal power to prevent workers from leaving for competitors.
In moving to Florida, Palantir may now have stronger legal tools at its disposal to keep employees trapped. (Michael M. Santiago / Getty Images)
Palantir, the tech giant that is building out Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) AI dragnet, announced last Tuesday that it is moving its headquarters from Denver to Florida. The company’s abrupt move comes just after Florida lawmakers boosted corporations’ legal power to prevent workers from leaving for competitors — and as Palantir fights in court to enforce noncompete clauses against its former employees.
Colorado strengthened its anti-noncompete laws in 2022 and 2025, while Palantir was headquartered in Denver. The move echoed federal efforts by the Biden administration to bar all such agreements, which prevent workers from jumping ship to a rival company, citing their restrictive impact on workers. But Florida last year did the opposite, passing what one expert told the Lever was “extraordinary” legislation to expand employers’ ability to enforce noncompete agreements.
In moving to Florida, Palantir may now have stronger legal tools at its disposal to keep employees trapped, such as the lawsuit it is currently pursuing against employees who left the company to form their own tech firm. In that case, Palantir alleges the workers violated their noncompete agreements by working at the other company and stole confidential documents.
The data analytics company, led by billionaire and Trump ally Alex Karp, has faced mounting pressure over its role in the Trump administration’s mass deportation efforts, both from the public and its own employees. Just this month, Palantir signed another $1 billion contract with the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees both ICE and Customs and Border Protection.
“It’s perhaps not surprising — but outrageous — that Palantir is trying to lock in noncompetes to prevent their employees from voting with their feet,” said Paul Sonn, the state policy program director at the National Employment Law Project, a workers’ rights organization.
Under the Biden administration, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the nation’s antitrust watchdog, issued a ban on noncompetes, though it was blocked initially in court. Labor advocates have long criticized the agreements — used across industries from Wall Street to fast-food chains — for suppressing wages, restricting worker mobility, and contributing to monopoly power.
Noncompetes are a “shining example of how runaway corporate power can trap people,” said Anna Aurilio, senior campaigns director at the Economic Security Project, an advocacy group.
“Noncompetes on Steroids”
The FTC’s ban on the agreements was quickly abandoned by the Trump administration last year, leaving regulation largely to the states. Colorado, where Palantir has been headquartered for the past six years, severely restricts such agreements, though they are not banned entirely. A 2022 state law delivered sweeping reforms to noncompetes, essentially barring them except under limited circumstances. Last year, those limits were expanded.
Florida has charted a different course. Last year, lawmakers approved the so-called Contracts Honoring Opportunity, Investment, Confidentiality, and Economic Growth (CHOICE) Act, which bolstered employers’ enforcement of noncompete agreements. Industry experts speculated the move was part of a billionaire-funded play to attract Big Tech and finance interests to the state.
The Florida law, which took effect in July 2025, was condemned by labor advocates, who called it “one of the most anti-innovation, anti-startup, and anti-worker policies” in the country. It allows noncompetes to last up to four years — among the longest durations permitted under state law.
Norman Bishara, a professor of business law at the University of Michigan, called Florida’s CHOICE Act “noncompetes on steroids.” The state, he said, was a significant outlier on state-level noncompete policy.
Palantir did not provide a public explanation for its move to Miami, and any connection to Florida’s new noncompete policies remains speculative. The company did not respond to the Lever’s request for comment.
Other factors may also be at play. Colorado has become a target of the Trump administration over state AI regulations, which Palantir cited as a potential risk to its business in filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Florida, meanwhile, offers significant tax advantages for businesses and CEOs.
“These are complex decisions,” Bishara emphasized. “The idea of choosing [to move] specifically for labor mobility rules — that’s an interesting question.” Regardless of Palantir’s rationale, he said, it’s an outcome that Florida lawmakers hoped for when they passed the CHOICE Act, which was billed as “encouraging businesses to relocate” to take advantage of state laws.
Hijackers and Plunder
While some parts of the tech industry have historically opposed noncompetes due to concerns about their impact on innovation, major firms such as Google and Amazon have deployed them aggressively. Palantir’s own use of the agreements to lock in its workers dates back years.
Last year, Palantir sued three former employees who left to join Percepta, an AI startup, alleging they violated their noncompete contracts and were attempting to “plunder” the company’s intellectual property. A judge this week ruled partially in favor of Palantir, but declined to block the employees from continuing their work at Percepta.
The lawsuit was brought in federal court in New York, where Palantir has offices and where the former employees are based. As a result, the agreements are being evaluated under New York law, which does not ban noncompetes outright but is significantly more restrictive than Florida. The former employees have argued that Palantir’s agreements are overly broad and violate state law.
Even if Palantir formally relocates its headquarters to Miami, the company still employs hundreds of workers in Colorado, where state noncompete restrictions will continue to apply, said David Seligman, executive director of Towards Justice, a legal nonprofit that advocated for Colorado’s 2022 reforms. Seligman is presently among those running to become Colorado’s next attorney general.
“Anyone working in Colorado is covered,” Seligman said.
It remains unclear how Palantir’s Florida expansion will affect its workforce. The company’s new headquarters are registered at a Miami coworking space, though it is reportedly searching for permanent offices. Palantir also posted at least one Miami-based job listing this month.
Seligman said Colorado’s law is particularly strong because it allows workers to sue employers who attempt to impose invalid noncompete agreements, creating a deterrent effect.
“Some states, completely hijacked by industry interests, have gone the other way,” Seligman noted. “It seems like Florida is one of them.”