CEO Alex Karp describes the forensics giant as “a backroom guard, against an onslaught of AI”.
Palantir Technologies reported a disappointing first quarter, saying revenue rose 85 percent year over year to $1.63 billion as its U.S. business more than doubled, driven by rapid growth in commercial and government customers.
The company said in its Q1 reportpublished Monday, that US revenue rose 104% to $1.28 billion, with commercial revenue up 133% to $595 million and government revenue up 84% to $687 million. The results beat Wall Street estimates, and the company also raised its full-year guidance, saying it now expects 2026 revenue of up to $7.66 billion, implying annual growth of nearly 71%.
CEO Alex Karp, who has increasingly developed Palantir’s AI tools as a foundation for Western military and industrial power, said. “The twin pistols of our American business are now firing.”
Palantir reports Q1 ’26 US revenue growth of 104% Y/Y and revenue growth of 85% Y/Y; will raise FY ’26 revenue guidance to 71% Y/Y growth and US comm revenue guidance to 120% Y/Y, dwarfing consensus expectations. Q1 US commercial revenue grew 133% year over year and adjusted for operating… pic.twitter.com/eSKl9BQ3HW
— Palantir (@PalantirTech) May 4, 2026
“We believe it is not hyperbolic to say that almost all AI streaming that creates value – especially on the battlefield – is built on top of Palantir,” Karp wrote in protest letter to the shareholders, saying that the company “it was established to strengthen the national security of the United States, to protect Americans and their liberties.”
Palantir – named after the obsidian seer stones from Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, where the dark lord Sauron watches over his underlings – is a software company serving the defense and intelligence sectors.
Palantir’s flagship product is a system called Gotham, which combines and analyzes satellite imagery, human intelligence from the CIA, flagging intelligence from the NSA, and other data that can take days to analyze. Gotham and MOSAIC – another Palantir target identification software that pulls digital data, including surveillance images and IP addresses, from a target’s location – use AI to assign more appropriate labels for military strikes.
The United States has admitted to using these programs to select targets during its ongoing war against Iran, but insists that humans make the final decision to fire. Abroad, Palantir technology is used by the British Ministry of Defence, the Israel Defense Forces, and the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
The company’s earnings update came weeks after Palantir was criticized for a 22-point summary notice from Karp’s book The Technological Republic. The manifesto said that Silicon Valley has “responsibility” participate in national defense “hard power” will be built into software, and that AI weapons are inevitable. Critics labeled it a manual “Technology.”
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