# Sole Source A government contract awarded to a single vendor without competitive bidding, justified by the agency's determination that only one source can meet the requirement. Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) permits sole-source procurement when: only one supplier exists, there's unusual or compelling urgency, the work involves unique expertise, or national security requires it. Sole-source procurement is the vault's single most important contracting concept because it's the mechanism through which defense-tech companies convert technical incumbency into permanent revenue streams. [[Palantir]]'s government business was built on sole-source awards: the NHS COVID-19 Data Store started as a "£1 deal" under emergency procurement, then converted to the £330M Federated Data Platform without competitive tender. The UK MoD's £240M Palantir data analytics contract was awarded with no competitive process. See [[Palantir Contracts]]. The pattern: emergency → sole-source → integration → dependency → renewal without competition. Each step makes the next more likely, because once a vendor's platform is integrated into classified or mission-critical workflows, the switching cost argument becomes the justification for the next sole-source award. ## See Also - [[DHS Daedalus Jet Purchases]] — 2026 example: "unusual and compelling urgency" cited for planes that then sat unused for months - [[IDIQ]] — the contracting vehicle that enables flexible sole-source-like awards - [[Vendor Lock-In]] — the dependency that justifies sole-source renewal - [[Palantir Contracts]] — the pattern in practice - [[OpenAI Contracts]] — the $1/year GSA entry strategy