Karp Says Palantir's Market Is 'Insatiable' As U.S. Commercial Revenue Hits $984 Million
Palantir's CEO said demand outruns what the company can serve, and cast Anthropic as a partner that is growing the market.
Palantir CEO Alex Karp told analysts on the company's third-quarter earnings call Monday that the U.S. market for its product is "insatiable," as U.S. commercial revenue reached $984 million, up 148% and ahead of U.S. government revenue for the first time. Palantir, which builds software that lets organizations pull together their data, decisions and operations, also drew a line between itself and the AI labs.
Commercial passes government
CFO Dave Glazer said the U.S. commercial business grew 29% from the prior quarter, and that it was the first quarter it eclipsed U.S. government revenue. A year earlier it was $397 million. Total third-quarter revenue rose 96% to $2.313 billion, according to the company's results.
Glazer said Palantir signed multiple eight-figure deals that ran shorter than usual as customers adopted early sovereign AI capabilities. Management expects both the length and size of those contracts to grow over time.
Among its top 20 customers, trailing 12-month revenue averaged $146 million each, up 76% from a year earlier. Fourth-quarter revenue is guided to between $2.649 billion and $2.653 billion.
Karp on Anthropic and Wall Street
Asked by Gil Luria, a managing director at D.A. Davidson, how Palantir wins over CEOs who haven't embraced sovereign AI, Karp said "we really cannot satiate demand" and that Palantir does not need the unconvinced.
He called Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei "one of the most important business people of my generation, if not multiple generations." The lab, Karp said, is "increasing the size of the market," while Palantir is "servicing the market that's gotten real." He described the two as in a symbiotic commercial relationship.
Palantir's only competitive activity, he said, is educating clients on "the risks of using closed models without an application layer." Of its stickiness, he said: "once you go Palantir, you don't go back."
On Wall Street, Karp said, "I don't mean you," but "everybody invested in these firms early." He added: "It's hard to see the reality when you're getting rich on something that's not actually working the way you think it is."
Workflow, not worker
CTO Shyam Sankar argued the labs are wrong to treat the individual knowledge worker as the enterprise's basic unit. The unit, he said, is the workflow, and that is what Palantir's AI platform, AIP, runs.
He said Palantir is "the diffusion layer, not just of choice but of necessity."
Palantir raised its full-year revenue guidance to between $8.530 billion and $8.534 billion, which Glazer put at 91% growth.
Sources
- Palantir (PLTR) earnings Q3 2026 — CNBC
- Palantir beats Q3 forecasts as US commercial revenue overtakes government for first time - SiliconANGLE — siliconangle.com
- Palantir Reports Q3 2026 U.S. Comm Revenue Growth of 148% Y/Y and Revenue Growth of 96% Y/Y; Raises FY 2026 Revenue Guidance to 91% Y/Y Growth and U.S. Comm Revenue Guidance to 143% Y/Y, Crushing Consensus Expectations — businesswire.com
