Quasi-governmental financial firm Fannie Mae on Wednesday announced a partnership with defense tech player Palantir to detect mortgage fraud, deepening ties between the federal government and a company that has been a big winner in the second Trump administration.

Priscilla Almodovar, Fannie Mae CEO, said Wednesday at a press event that the goal is for the firm to “identify fraud more proactively” with the help of Palantir, starting with its multi-family housing business. An early test showed that Palantir’s technology, which includes elements of artificial intelligence, could identify fraud in seconds that took human investigators two months to find, she said.

Shares of Palantir have jumped more than 140% since President Donald Trump’s election win in November. The technology stock has roles in both modernizing the U.S. military and helping to cut costs in government, making it a seemingly strong fit for the administration’s stated priorities. CEO Alex Karp said Wednesday that the mortgage fraud detection can be done in a way that “protects the underlying data and protects the privacy of the people submitting their forms.”

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are government-sponsored enterprises that have been under the conservatorship of the Federal Housing Financing Agency since 2008. The official names of the two enterprises are the Federal National Mortgage Association and the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation, respectively.

FHFA director William Pulte said Wednesday the Palantir program could be expanded to Freddie Mac in the future and that the agency is also talking to Elon Musk’s xAI firm about a potential partnership.

“The sky’s the limit. We’re not just limited to fraud. If there are ways to pull cost out of the system, we want to do it,” Pulte said.

The press release did not include a dollar amount that Fannie Mae would pay to Palantir for this service.

The announcement comes as there is a push to potentially bring Fannie and Freddie out of conservatorship and re-establish them as something closer to independent companies.

“Our great Mortgage Agencies, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, provide a vital service to our Nation by helping hardworking Americans reach the American Dream — Home Ownership,” Trump said in a Truth Social post on Tuesday. “I am working on TAKING THESE AMAZING COMPANIES PUBLIC, but I want to be clear, the U.S. Government will keep its implicit GUARANTEES, and I will stay strong in my position on overseeing them as President. These Agencies are now doing very well, and will help us to, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”

The “implicit guarantee” mentioned by Trump refers to the idea among investors that the government won’t let Fannie and Freddie default on their mortgage-backed securities. That concept is not legally binding but does help that massive market function and, in theory, lead to lower mortgage rates by reducing the perceived risk to investors in the housing market.

Pulte, who is the grandson of the founder of homebuilding firm PulteGroup, said on CNBC’s “Money Movers” that an exact plan for bringing Fannie and Freddie public is still undetermined and could even involve the companies remaining in conservatorship.

“Whether the president decides to sell a small piece, or what have you, that’s entirely up to the president,” he said.

There are equity shares of the two firms that trade over the counter, and those shareholders could conceivably see a large profit if Fannie and Freddie are taken public. One such shareholder is Bill Ackman’s Pershing Square, and the hedge fund manager has publicly called for IPOs of the two firms.

Federal Reserve officials at their meeting earlier this month worried that tariffs could aggravate inflation and create a difficult quandary with interest rate policy, minutes released Wednesday show.

The summary of the May 6-7 meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee reflected ongoing misgivings about the direction of fiscal and trade policy, with officials ultimately deciding the best course was to keep rates steady.

“Participants agreed that uncertainty about the economic outlook had increased further, making it appropriate to take a cautious approach until the net economic effects of the array of changes to government policies become clearer,” the minutes stated. “Participants noted that the Committee might face difficult tradeoffs if inflation proves to be more persistent while the outlooks for growth and employment weaken.”

Though policymakers expressed concern about the direction of inflation and the vagaries of trade policy, they nevertheless that economic growth was “solid,” the labor market is “broadly in balance” though risks were growing that it could weaken, and consumers were continuing to spend.

As it has done since the last cut in December, the FOMC kept its benchmark federal funds rate in target between 4.25%-4.5%.

“In considering the outlook for monetary policy, participants agreed that with economic growth and the labor market still solid and current monetary policy moderately restrictive, the Committee was well positioned to wait for more clarity on the outlooks for inflation and economic activity,” the summary said.

The post-meeting statement noted that “uncertainty about the economic outlook has increased further. Also, the committee said that its ability to meet its dual goals of full employment and low inflation have increased due to policy uncertainty.

Since the meeting, officials have repeated that they will wait until there’s more clarity about fiscal and trade policy before they will consider lowering rates again. Market expectations have responded in kind, with futures traders now pricing in virtually no chance of a cut until the Fed’s September meeting.

Trade policy also has evolved since the Fed last gathered.

Tariffs and ongoing saber-rattling between the U.S. and China eased a few days after the central bank meeting, with both sides agreeing to drop the most onerous duties again each pending a 90-day negotiation period. That in turn helped kindle a rally on Wall Street, though bond yields continue to climb, something Trump has sought to contain.

Amid the trade war and signs that inflation is slowly coming in towards the Fed’s 2% target, Trump has hectored Fed officials to lower rates. Fed Chair Jerome Powell, though, has said the Fed won’t be swayed by political interference.

The meeting also featured discussion about the Fed’s five-year policy framework.

When officials last visited their long-range policy, they devised what became known as “flexible average inflation targeting,” which essentially asserted that officials could allow inflation to run above their 2% target for a while in the interest of promoting more inclusive labor market gains.

In their discussion, officials noted that the strategy “has diminished benefits in an environment with a substantial risk of large inflationary shocks” or rates aren’t near zero, where they had been in the years following the 2008 financial crisis. The Fed held interest rates near the lower boundary despite inflation surging following the Covid pandemic, forcing them into aggressive hikes later.

The minutes noted a desire for policy that is “robust to a wide variety of economic environments.” Officials also said they have no intention on altering the inflation goal.