Nurses held protests in Palo Alto, Los Angeles and six other cities, calling on hospitals and elected officials to cut ties with the AI software and data analytics company.
Aug 28, 2026
Updated 10:59 am PT
Nurses protest demanding hospitals and elected officials cut ties with the artificial intelligence giant Palantir in Palo Alto on On Thursday, Aug. 27, 2026. (Courtesy of National Nurses United)
More than a hundred registered nurses in red union T-shirts blocked traffic and chanted outside Palantir’s former headquarters in Palo Alto on Thursday, calling on hospital executives and elected officials to cut ties with the artificial intelligence software and data analytics giant.
National Nurses United, which held similar protests in Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington, D.C. and four other cities, said the demonstrations were the union’s largest to date against Palantir, now based in the Miami area.
Nurses are worried that the company, which has won lucrative but controversial contracts with federal defense and immigration enforcement agencies, is expanding into healthcare.
Hospital executives at HCA Healthcare, one of the largest for-profit hospital operators in the U.S., have introduced Palantir’s AI-powered tools for nurse staffing and scheduling. New York’s Mount Sinai Health System uses the company’s products to evaluate patient records and determine which ones are eligible for at-home care, according to Palantir’s website.
Craig Cedotal, a pediatric nurse at Kaiser Oakland who previously worked at an HCA hospital in New Orleans, said nurses want more transparency and a greater say in the use of AI in hospitals, including Palantir’s platforms.
“It’s affecting staffing decisions and care decisions in ways that are not in line with what healthcare should be,” said Cedotal, one of the protesters in Palo Alto. “A machine should not make decisions about how we take care of each other. That is not good healthcare.”
Palantir did not respond to a request for comment.
In a letter to shareholders this month, CEO Alex Karp said the company’s business has nearly doubled in a span of 12 months. Palantir earned nearly $2 billion in net income, after expenses, during the first half of this year.
“The core of our business, in the United States, continues to expand at an unrelenting and breakneck pace,” Karp said.
On Thursday, California lawmakers approved a bill sponsored by the California Nurses Association that would establish some guardrails in the deployment of AI in patient care.
The bill, by Assemblymember Mia Bonta, D-Oakland, would prohibit a health facility or doctor’s office from using an AI tool to perform any function that requires a professional license. Gov. Gavin Newsom is considering the proposed legislation.
Cedotal said that nurses at HCA hospitals have found the new automated staffing platform disruptive, with scheduling not always matching the needs of the day. The union contends the technology is exacerbating an understaffing crisis in the healthcare industry.
“The major concern is that humans are not involved in the equation,” said Cedotal, who has worked as a nurse for 32 years. The software “recommendations usually end up being something unfavorable for staffing or the nurses or patient care in general, or all three together.”
HCA Healthcare, which operates about 190 hospitals in the U.S. and the United Kingdom, did not respond to a request for comment. Good Samaritan Hospital in San José is affiliated with the company.
National Nurses United, which represents more than 225,000 members nationwide with affiliates like the California Nurses Association, is getting ready to begin contract negotiations with HCA, Kaiser Permanente and other major employers.
At the protest Thursday, the union joined community groups in criticizing Palantir for profiting from the Trump administration’s push to arrest and deport thousands of immigrants, and working with Israel’s Ministry of Defense to support its war in Gaza.
“Their technology has enabled the systematic destruction of hospitals, the killing of hundreds of healthcare workers, and the collapse of Gaza’s most vital infrastructure, how can we in good conscience place that same technology at the heart of U.S. healthcare facilities?” said Aisha Nizar with the Palestinian Youth Movement, in a statement. “Our message for the Bay Area is clear: Protect patients, stop fueling genocide, and cut ties with Palantir immediately.”
