Palantir, the software company cofounded by Peter Thiel, is part of an effort by Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to build a new “mega API” for accessing Internal Revenue Service records, IRS sources tell WIRED.
For the past three days, DOGE and a handful of Palantir representatives, along with dozens of career IRS engineers, have been collaborating to build a single API layer above all IRS databases at an event previously characterized to WIRED as a “hackathon,” sources tell WIRED. Palantir representatives have been onsite at the event this week, a source with direct knowledge tells WIRED.
APIs are application programming interfaces, which enable different applications to exchange data and could be used to move IRS data to the cloud and access it there. DOGE has expressed an interest in the API project possibly touching all IRS data, which includes taxpayer names, addresses, social security numbers, tax returns, and employment data. The IRS API layer could also allow someone to compare IRS data against interoperable datasets from other agencies.
Should this project move forward to completion, DOGE wants Palantir’s Foundry software to become the “read center of all IRS systems,” a source with direct knowledge tells WIRED, meaning anyone with access could view and have the ability to possibly alter all IRS data in one place. It’s not currently clear who would have access to this system.
Foundry is a Palantir platform that can organize, build apps, or run AI models on the underlying data. Once the data is organized and structured, Foundry’s “ontology” layer can generate APIs for faster connections and machine learning models. This would allow users to quickly query the software using artificial intelligence to sort through agency data, which would require the AI system to have access to this sensitive information.
Engineers tasked with finishing the API project are confident they can complete it in 30 days, a source with direct knowledge tells WIRED.
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Palantir has made billions in government contracts. The company develops and maintains a variety of software tools for enterprise businesses and government, including Foundry and Gotham, a data-analytics tool primarily used in defense and intelligence. Palantir CEO Alex Karp recently referenced the “disruption” of DOGE’s cost-cutting initiatives and said, “Whatever is good for America will be good for Americans and very good for Palantir.” Former Palantir workers have also taken over key government IT and DOGE roles in recent months.
WIRED was the first to report that the IRS’s DOGE team was staging a “hackathon” in Washington, DC, this week to kick off the API project. The event started Tuesday morning and ended Thursday afternoon. A source in the room this week explained that the event was “very unstructured.” On Tuesday, engineers wandered around the room discussing how to accomplish DOGE’s goal.
The Treasury Department did not respond to a request for comment confirming Palantir’s role in the project. Palantir and Corcos did not immediately respond to requests for comment
“Through this coalition, they will streamline IRS systems to create the most efficient service for the American taxpayer,” a Treasury spokesperson told WIRED on Saturday, referring to government engineers. “This week the team will be participating in the IRS Roadmapping Kickoff, a seminar of various strategy sessions, as they work diligently to create efficient systems. This new leadership and direction will maximize their capabilities and serve as the tech-enabled force multiplier that the IRS has needed for decades.”
The project is being led by Sam Corcos, a health-tech CEO and a former SpaceX engineer, with the goal of making IRS systems more “efficient,” IRS sources say. In meetings with IRS employees over the past few weeks, Corcos has discussed pausing all engineering work and canceling current contracts to modernize the agency’s computer systems, sources with direct knowledge tell WIRED. Corcos has also spoken about some aspects of these cuts publicly: “We’ve so far stopped work and cut about $1.5 billion from the modernization budget. Mostly projects that were going to continue to put us down the death spiral of complexity in our code base,” Corcos told Laura Ingraham on Fox News in March. Corcos is also a special adviser to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.
The consolidation effort aligns with a recent executive order from President Donald Trump directing government agencies to eliminate “information silos.” Purportedly, the order’s goal is to fight fraud and waste, but it could also put sensitive personal data at risk by centralizing it in one place. The Government Accountability Office is currently probing DOGE’s handling of sensitive data at the Treasury, as well as the Departments of Labor, Education, Homeland Security, and Health and Human Services, WIRED reported Wednesday.
