The software and data analytics giant reported $1 billion in revenue for its most recent quarter, up 48% year-over-year, as it dramatically outpaced Wall Street estimates and posted surges in both commercial and government contracts. U.S. revenue alone jumped 68% to $733 million, with domestic commercial sales skyrocketing 93%. Profit, too, soared by 33% to $327 million, and Palantir raised its outlook for the year, projecting full-year revenues of $4.14 billion–$4.15 billion.
CEO Alex Karp was notably exuberant in both the earnings call and his shareholder letter. “This was a phenomenal quarter,” he wrote in the earnings release. “We continue to see the astonishing impact of AI leverage.”
In a statement provided to Fortune, Karp warned that “America is in the lead in government and commercial, but we could lose the lead. We must have an all-of country, all-in effort to keep America first or we will lose.” He urged the U.S. to double down on its current incumbent status as a beacon for the emerging technology. “It’s not a given that we win just because we’re ahead. In fact, being so far ahead is often a danger zone.”
Karp and other Palantir executives celebrated their astonishing quarter on the analyst call, saying that Palantir’s bespoke models are core to maximizing the impact large language models. “LLMs simply don’t work in the real world without Palantir,” Chief Revenue Officer Ryan Taylor said. “This is the reality fueling our growth.”
Chief Technology Officer Shyam Sankar said that “twenty years of grinding has built a unique moat and a massive lead.” He also claimed that “AI is giving the American worker superpowers,” citing advances seen at the AI race summit in DC from examples including an ICU nurse, a factory worker, a hospital administrator, and an electric vehicle battery maintenance technician.
Karp was so bullish on Palantir’s particular employment of AI technology that he issued a challenge to higher education and elite institutions like the Ivy League. All the previous credentials for success are worthless, he suggested. “If you did not go to school, or you went to a school that’s not that great, or you went to Harvard or Princeton or Yale, once you come to Palantir, you’re a Palantirian — no one cares about the other stuff,” Karp said. He added that the environment at Palantir is different from what most workers have experienced: “Most of them come from university, where they’ve just been engaged in platitudes.”
Karp told CNBC that he wants to engage with unions as reindustralization will require AI, arguing that blue-collar workers’ salaries should go up as a result. “This is an America story,” he said. Another statement from Karp: “Just tell the haters: read ’em and weep.”
[This article has been updated with a statement provided to Fortune by Palantir CEO Alex Karp.]
