Palantir shares reach new all-time high
Excitement over CEO Alex Karp’s proximity to President Trump and the flurry of deal announcements in the Middle East seem to be playing a role for one of the top Trump trades.
Palantir shares closed at a new record high of $128.10 on Tuesday and continued to gain altitude Wednesday as the data, surveillance, and AI software firm basks the reflected glory of a series of market-moving deal announcements accompanying President Trump’s trek to the Middle East.
Palantir CEO Alex Karp is among the coterie of American tech and finance executives trailing after the president on his travels to the wealthy authoritarian petro kingdoms that dominate the region.
According to Business Insider, Karp — known for his bombast — praised Saudi computer engineering talent and took a swipe at Europe, saying it has “given up” on AI in a speech Tuesday. (The European Union has taken a more stringent regulatory approach to the technology.)
Palantir hasn’t yet been mentioned publicly in deals that are being announced as part of the trip, such as the $20 billion deal Super Micro Computer signed with Data Volt, a Saudi data center operator; Nvidia’s AI partnership with the Kingdom; or Qatar’s giant purchase of jets from Boeing. But it seems that just being in orbit of the billions of dollars being doled out is having a favorable impact on the stock.
“The tone in Riyadh has been about the bright green light on the massive AI buildout in Saudi and this could open up a huge opportunity and [total addressable market] for Nvidia, Palantir, Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet, Tesla and many other well positioned chip/software names over the coming years,” Wedbush Securities analyst and well-established tech bull Dan Ives wrote in a note Wednesday.
Palantir’s proximity to Trump’s trip, which blends corporate business with diplomatic relations to an usual degree, seems to shed some light on why Palantir soared in the aftermath of the election, becoming one of the cornerstones of the so-called Trump trades.
The rationale for the run-up was always somewhat murky, but political, and potentially lucrative political connections to the administration — such as those on display as part of Trump’s Middle East trip — were clearly part of what the market was pricing in. That’s especially important for Palantir, as its largest customer remains the US government.
