Palantir surges as earnings blast past forecasts

Data-analytics and defense and intelligence contractor Palantir Technologies posted a record profit, driven in part by a surge in government revenues.

It was a smash bang quarter across the board as the company notched a record profit of $144 million on record revenue of $726 million, besting Wall Street forecasts on both fronts. Contract revenues from the US government rose 40% over the prior year to $320 million. Revenues to nongovernmental US buyers rose 54% to $179 million.

CEO Alex Karp spotlighted the company’s AI efforts — the company released its Artificial Intelligence Platform in 2023 — as a key accelerant to the company’s business.

"We are happy to see... the very, very strong results in US commercial; also, allied countries that have begun to realize that AI is the way in which to make their defenses superior in the face of brutal, heinous, immoral, and often terroristic enemies," Karp told analysts on a post-earnings conference call.

The stock surged in the after-hours trading session, putting it on pace to be up 170% so far in 2024. It is the third-best-performing stock in the S&P 500 on the year — trailing merchant power provider Vistra in the top spot, and Nvidia — after being added to the index in September.