In a statement, Palantir denied the allegations and said that it was disappointed with the suit. “The Department of Labor relies on a narrow and flawed statistical analysis relating to three job descriptions from 2010 to 2011,” the company said.

The suit is a reminder of how diversity issues have dogged Silicon Valley tech companies. In a series of disclosures over the last two years, tech companies including Google and Facebook have revealed how their work forces have skewed toward white males. Last March, Facebook was sued and accused of racial and gender discrimination; the suit was later dropped. In July, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission said in a federal lawsuit that it was investigating accusations of age discrimination by Google.

The government’s suit against Palantir is unusual in that the claim focuses on discrimination exhibited against Asians, who have typically been better represented at many tech companies than African-Americans or Latinos.

The suit — and the proposed penalty — is a blow for Palantir, a company formed in 2004 and funded by well-known investors including Peter Thiel.

Since January 2010, Palantir has been a party to $340 million of federal government contracts, according to the Labor Department’s complaint. Palantir, which is privately valued at $20 billion, is on track to generate more than $1 billion in revenue this year; a large proportion of that sum comes from contracts with the Army, the C.I.A. and the F.B.I.