Palantir Technologies Inc
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Palantir lifts 2025 sales outlook after posting strong quarterly growth
Peter Thiel’s data intelligence group says US involvement in global conflicts will create ‘opportunities’
 Palantir’s net income reached $476mn, beating analysts’ expectations of $435mn © Reuters
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Rafe Rosner-Uddin in San Francisco
Published3 hours ago
|Updated00:27
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Palantir lifted its 2025 revenue guidance after Peter Thiel’s data intelligence company notched up rapid quarterly growth and said it spied “opportunities” from US involvement in conflicts across the world.
The group on Monday boosted its annual sales guidance to about $4.4bn from a previous estimate in August of $4.15bn. The figures exceeded Wall Street’s forecast of $4.17bn, according to a Bloomberg poll.
Palantir said its revenue in the third quarter soared 63 per cent from the same period in the previous year to $1.18bn, while net income climbed to $476mn, beating analysts’ expectations of $435mn.
Chief executive Alex Karp hailed Palantir’s growth, pushing back against analysts who warn a share price boom in recent years has left the group trading at a highly elevated valuation.
“Some of our detractors have been left in a kind of deranged and self-destructive befuddlement,” he said in a letter to shareholders.
“It has indeed been difficult for outsiders to appraise our business, either its significance in shaping our current geopolitics or its value in the vulgar, financial sense,” Karp added.
Palantir, which trades at roughly 255 times forward earnings, signed several notable deals in the quarter, including a long-term $10bn contract with the US government in July. US commercial revenues climbed 121 per cent to $397mn in the third quarter, while US government sales increased 52 per cent to $486mn.
Chief technology officer Shyam Sankar told investors on Monday evening that the company hoped to benefit from global strife and US military modernisation initiatives that focus on AI and data analytics.
“The number of opportunities are great,” Sankar said. “America is involved with three conflicts from Europe, the Middle East and our own hemisphere right now. Things are also getting spicy in Africa.”
The company’s shares have risen more than 170 per cent this year as of Monday’s closing price, on top of a blistering 340 per cent rally last year, bringing its market capitalisation close to $500bn.
Investors have bought up the stock as part of a broad rally in AI companies that has also benefited American tech titans such as Nvidia and Alphabet.
Palantir’s shares fell about 4 per cent in choppy after-hours trading on Monday in New York.
Palantir, which was founded in 2003 by Karp, Thiel and others, sells AI software to businesses and governments around the world. Its technology is used to collate and analyse data from supply chain analysis to surveillance of military targets and identification systems for undocumented migrants.
The company has built a strong following among retail investors, while Karp has developed a persona that includes extolling the view that the US should project strength overseas.
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Nato member Poland signed a deal with Palantir and Anduril, a US-based defence start-up also backed by Thiel, last month as the country has taken steps to upgrade its military capabilities.
Palantir also announced a partnership with the UK government in September that included it investing up to £1.5bn in the region, including creating 350 new roles, and making the country the base of its European headquarters. |
