Alex Karp, chief executive officer of Palantir Technologies Inc., during a Bloomberg Technology television interview during the FoundryCon event in Palo Alto, California, US, on Thursday, March 7, 2024.
David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Palantir shares surged as much as 18% in extended trading on Monday after the software company reported fourth-quarter earnings and revenue that surpassed Wall Street’s estimates.
Here’s how Palantir did versus estimates from analysts polled by LSEG:
- Earnings per share: 14 cents, adjusted vs. 11 cents expected
- Revenue: $828 million vs. $776 million expected
Along with the fourth-quarter beat, Palantir offered better-than-expected guidance. The company said it expects revenue of between $858 million and $862 million, ahead of an LSEG estimate of $799 million. For the full year, Palantir forecast sales of $3.74 billion to $3.76 billion, topping the $3.52 billion average estimate.
Palantir is a major provider of software and technology services to defense agencies. CEO Alex Karp attributed much of the company’s growth to its use of artificial intelligence.
“Our business results continue to astound, demonstrating our deepening position at the center of the AI revolution,” Karp said in the earnings release. “Our early insights surrounding the commoditization of large language models have evolved from theory to fact.”
Revenue increased 36% in the quarter from $608.4 million a year earlier. For the full year, sales increased 29%. Karp said in a letter to shareholders that the momentum the company is experiencing across its commercial and government segments is “unlike anything that has come before”
Palantir said its U.S. commercial revenue grew 64% from a year ago to $214 million, while U.S. government revenues rose 45% year over year to $343 million.
“We are still in the earliest stages, the beginning of the first act, of a revolution that will play out over years and decades,” Karp said, adding that the company has “been preparing for this moment diligently for more than twenty years.”
The results follow a massive rally in Palantir’s stock, which soared 340% in 2024. The company joined both the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 last year.
Palantir has benefited from the boom in generative AI following the release of OpenAI’s ChatGPT in late 2022. In an interview with CNBC last week, Karp said that Palantir is poised to lead the transformation of American companies, and he asserted that bolstering the U.S. is its “primary objective.”
Karp also responded to recent worries surrounding the ascent of China’s DeepSeek, which pummeled financial markets early last week and spurred fears about the hefty spending megacaps have funneled into AI infrastructure and China’s tech advancements.
“Technology is not inherently good,” he told CNBC’s Sara Eisen in the interview. “We have to acknowledge that, but that also just means we have to run harder, run faster, have an all-country effort.”
