Palantir stock jumps 8% on strong FY26 revenue forecast, CEO Alex Karp praises ‘Stellar, unusual, sublime’ performance

Palantir Technologies' stock on Monday zoomed up 8% on the Nasdaq in after-hours trading following news that the company's revenue forecast for FY26 far exceeded Wall Street estimates. At the time of writing, it was up 6.97% to $158.06 per share.

The data analytics company said it expects FY26 revenues to jump to around $7.19 billion or gain 61%, per a Bloomberg report. Further, for the current quarter, Palantir reported a sales forecast of close to $1.53 billion, also exceeding Wall Street estimates.

Palantir stock performance — signs of better things to come?

Palantir, which is heavily reliant on contracts from the United States government for revenues, saw Q4 earnings grow 70% to $1.41 billion. Its earnings per share (EPS) were 25 cents, which beat the average estimate of 23 cents, the report said.

In its report on 2 February, Palantir also beat Q4 expectations for US government and US commercial revenue. It reported $570 million in US government revenue, against analysts’ expectations of $521.5 million, while commercial revenue was $507 million, against the average estimation of $478.7 million, the agency said.

Immediately after the news, Bloomberg reported the stock jumped 5%, closing at $147.77 each.

The upturn is significant, given last year's lacklustre performance. From its November peak, Palantir stock had slumped 29% just before the company reported results in December, and at the start of this year, it was down 17%.

The Bloomberg report noted that Palantir's shares still trade for about 141 times expected earnings, among the highest in the S&P 500.

Alex Karp sings praises of company: ‘Truly iconic performances in history’

In the investor call, Palantir's CEO, Alex Karp, praised the company's performance as “one of the truly iconic performances in the history of corporate performance or technology,” Fortune reported.

He said these results would be “stellar, unusual, and sublime” for an early-stage company, but are overwhelming for Palantir, which is over 20 years old: “You just cannot expect a company like ours to perform at anything like this level.”

Bloomberg reported that Chief Technology Officer Shyam Sankar said the use of Maven — an AI-enabled mission control system for the US military in which Palantir plays a significant role — is at “an all-time high.” The system, which can enable AI to help identify targets among other functions, will continue to be rolled out this year, he said.

In a shareholder letter that cites the legacies of former Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping and American historian Christopher Lasch, Karp described the company’s accelerating revenue as “a cosmic reward” for the company’s supporters, the BB reported.

Palantir's contracts for US govt, ICE gets criticism

The company’s role in assisting United States President Donald Trump’s mass deportation of immigrants has also made it a lightning rod for criticism, which has accelerated in recent weeks after federal agents fatally shot two protesters in Minneapolis.

Palantir has long supplied services to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), enabling officials to build dossiers on individuals. It also has defence tie-ups with governments around the world, has enjoyed strong enterprise business growth and has emerged as one of the biggest publicly traded beneficiaries of the AI boom. The company has seen its shares soar by nearly 800% over the past two years, adding almost $315 billion in market value.

Late last year, hedge fund manager Michael Burry, who became a household name after his bet against mortgages in the late 2000s was featured in The Big Short movie, disclosed bearish wagers on Palantir, sending the company’s shares sliding. Burry posted on X at the time, broadly warning about an AI bubble.

Karp cast Palantir’s software system, which is used by ICE and the Department of Defense among government users, as “capable of preventing an unconstitutional intrusion into the private lives of citizens by the state.” Karp didn’t specify how Palantir’s technology prevented such intrusions.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) purchased a Palantir app, ELITE, that provides actionable data, including AI-extracted addresses, to ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations officers.

(With inputs from Bloomberg)