Palantir tops $1 billion quarterly revenue for the first time, raises 2025 forecast amid AI boom

Palantir just crossed a milestone Wall Street didn’t expect until later this year. The AI software maker booked more than $1 billion in revenue for the first time in a single quarter, fueled by surging demand for its AI platforms and a wave of big-ticket contracts. Shares ticked up 3% in after-hours trading as the company boosted its full-year outlook and posted earnings that beat expectations.

“Palantir reports Q2 2025 U.S. comm revenue growth of 93% Y/Y and revenue growth of 48% Y/Y. We are now guiding to Q3 2025 revenue of $1.083-$1.087B, representing our highest ever sequential quarterly growth rate guide and 50% Y/Y,” Palantir shared in a post on X.

The company added, “And we are also raising our FY 2025 revenue guidance to 45% Y/Y growth and FY 2025 U.S. comm revenue guidance to 85% Y/Y growth, crushing consensus expectations.”

The Denver-based company reported $1 billion in Q2 revenue, a 48% jump from the same period last year, blowing past analyst forecasts of $940 million. Adjusted earnings came in at 16 cents a share, topping estimates of 14 cents, CNBC reported. Analysts had penciled in the $1 billion revenue mark for the fourth quarter — Palantir hit it two quarters early.

Credit: Palantir

CEO Alex Karp, speaking to CNBC, outlined a push for efficiency alongside growth. “We’re planning to grow our revenue … while decreasing our number of people,” he said. “This is a crazy, efficient revolution. The goal is to get 10x revenue and have 3,600 people. We have now 4,100.” He stopped short of saying whether layoffs would be part of that plan.

Palantir now expects 2025 revenue to land between $4.142 billion and $4.150 billion, up from previous guidance of $3.89 billion to $3.90 billion. For Q3, the company sees revenue between $1.083 billion and $1.087 billion, which would mark its highest sequential growth rate on record — and about $100 million above analyst estimates.

Growth in the U.S. market is a big part of the story. U.S. revenue climbed 68% year-over-year to $733 million, with U.S. commercial revenue nearly doubling to $306 million. Government work remains a huge driver: U.S. government revenue jumped 53% to $426 million, helped by President Donald Trump’s federal efficiency campaign, which included layoffs and contract cuts.

“It has been a steep and upward climb — an ascent that is a reflection of the remarkable confluence of the arrival of language models, the chips necessary to power them, and our software infrastructure,” Karp wrote in a letter to shareholders.

Palantir signed 66 deals worth at least $5 million each in the quarter, including 42 worth $10 million or more. The total value of contracts soared 140% from last year to $2.27 billion. Net income more than doubled to $326.7 million, or 13 cents a share, up from $134.1 million, or 6 cents a share, a year earlier.

Investors have rewarded the company’s momentum. Palantir’s market cap has jumped past $379 billion, putting it among the top 10 U.S. tech companies by value — ahead of Salesforce, IBM, and Cisco. Shares hit a new all-time high this week. The company made its Wall Street debut in 2021 at nearly $21 billion.

That momentum got another boost last week when Palantir won a $10 billion software and data contract with the U.S. Army. At its current valuation, the stock trades at a hefty 276 times forward earnings, with Tesla being the only other top 20 U.S. company in triple digits.

Founded 17 years ago by a group that included Peter Thiel and Alex Karp, Palantir builds software that helps organizations integrate and analyze massive data sets.  Its platforms, Gotham, Metropolis, and Foundry, are used by clients ranging from U.S. intelligence agencies to hedge funds. The company’s name comes from the “seeing stones” in J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, a nod to its mission of helping clients see what others can’t.