Palantir CEO Alex Karp speaks at the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, Switzerland, January 20, 2026.
Fabrice Coffrini | AFP | Getty Images
Palantir reported first-quarter results Monday that beat analysts’ expectations and also issued better-than-expected guidance.
The following is a comparison of the company’s performance with analyst forecasts compiled by LSEG.
Earnings per share: 33 cents adjusted, 28 cents expected; Revenue: $1.63 billion, $1.54 billion expected.
Palantir’s revenue rose about 85% in the quarter, according to the statement, the fastest revenue increase since at least 2020, when the company went public through a direct listing.
Net income nearly quadrupled to $870.5 million, or 34 cents per share, from $214 million, or 8 cents per share, in the same period last year. Adjusted net income excludes the effects of stock-based compensation and income taxes.
Palantir, whose market value has soared over the past few years, also raised its full-year outlook. The company now expects adjusted free cash flow to be between $4.2 billion and $4.4 billion, beating the Street consensus of $4.05 billion. The company said in February that it expects adjusted free cash flow to be in the range of $3.925 billion to $4.125 billion.
“Our financial results demonstrate a level of strength that dwarfs the performance of nearly every software company of our size in history,” Palantir CEO Alex Karp said in a letter to shareholders. Revenue per employee reached $1.5 million on an annual basis, Karp wrote.
Management expects second-quarter revenue of $1.8 billion, above the $1.68 billion consensus of analysts surveyed by LSEG.
The company expects 2026 revenue to be between $7.65 billion and $7.66 billion, an annual increase of 71% and above the LSEG consensus of $7.27 billion. As of February, the company’s full-year sales were expected to be between $7.182 billion and $7.198 billion.
Karp told CNBC’s Seema Modi that he expects U.S. business, government and commercial combined, to double again in 2027.
Palantir is best known for providing software, services, and artificial intelligence tools to the U.S. government for military operations and defense.
Revenues to domestic government agencies rose 84% to $687 million in the first quarter, an acceleration from a 66% increase in the fourth quarter. Last year, Palantir announced a U.S. military contract worth up to $10 billion over 10 years.
In an interview with CNBC in March, Karp said his company’s AI is giving the United States and its allies an advantage in the escalating conflicts in Iran and across the Middle East.
“What makes America special today is our lethal capabilities, our ability to wage war,” Karp said at Palantir’s AIPCon 9 in Maryland. He added that another big advantage is that “the AI revolution is uniquely American.”
Karp said on a conference call with analysts Monday that the company is prioritizing U.S. warfighters above all else.
“If we believe or know because we’re in the vicinity that a U.S. fighter jet is in danger, we’ll fight it with all our might,” Karp said. “And that’s not always how one should do this, but that’s how we do it.”
Commercial revenue from U.S. customers totaled $595 million in the quarter, an increase of 133% year-over-year, but below the StreetAccount consensus of $605 million. During the quarter, Palantir announced transactions with: airbusBain, ge aerospace and Stellantis.
Palantir said it had 1,007 business customers in the 12 months to March 31, an increase of 31% year-on-year. At the end of March, remaining performance obligations, a measure of revenue, were recorded at $4.45 billion, up from $1.9 billion last year.
Palantir stock has risen about 23 times since the end of 2022, but has fallen 18% this year. The decline followed a broader selloff in software stocks over concerns that AI models could stifle growth and that models like Anthropic and OpenAI would disrupt older businesses.
Karp sought to distinguish Palantir from model developers.
“There appears to be a turnover among AI model companies, engaging in intense competitive competition, where we are witnessing token costs fall a thousand times in just a few years, with winners and losers changing hands every six months,” Karp said in a letter to Palantir shareholders. “Our path has been different, and today we are building a huge business that is delivering results for our partners around the world.”
Palantir uses models from different providers, but it still hasn’t been able to keep up with U.S. demand, Karp said Monday.
—CNBC’s Seema Mody contributed to this report.
WATCH: Palantir releases quarterly results, raises guidance
