# Vendor Lock-In The condition where a customer depends on a single vendor's products or services to such a degree that switching to a competitor would be prohibitively expensive, technically complex, or operationally disruptive. Lock-in is the business model that turns a product into infrastructure. Vendor lock-in is the structural engine of every company the vault tracks as "superwatched." [[Palantir]]'s entire government strategy — from the [[Palantir ICE Systems]] to the [[Palantir NHS Federated Data Platform]] — is designed to make its data integration layer so deeply embedded in agency operations that removal becomes unthinkable. [[OpenAI]]'s $1/year GSA partnership and classified network clearance follow the same logic: once ChatGPT is the default AI tool across federal agencies, the switching cost is institutional, not just technical. The European sovereignty movement tracked in the [[EU Deeptech Ecosystem]] is partly a lock-in story: France's DGSI replacement of [[Palantir]] with ChapsVision is an explicit attempt to break vendor lock-in on sovereignty grounds. Lock-in mechanisms include: proprietary data formats, API dependencies, workflow integration, staff training, classified-environment certification, and the simple inertia of institutional familiarity. ## See Also - [[Palantir Contracts]] — the procurement-to-dependency pipeline - [[OpenAI Contracts]] — the GSA-to-Pentagon pipeline