Palantir Reports Huge 63% Growth: What This Means for Salesforce
Palantir revenue grew by an enormous 63% year-over-year (YoY) and 18% quarter-over-quarter (QoQ) to $1.181B, the company has revealed in its Q3 financial results.Ā
The Salesforce rival announced the figures for the third quarter of the fiscal year, ending September 30, 2025. For the US specifically, revenue grew 77% YoY and 20% QoQ to $883M; commercial revenue grew 121% YoY and 29% QoQ to $397M; and government revenue grew 52% YoY and 14% QoQ to $486M.Ā
The news comes just two months after Salesforce launched its new business unit āMissionforceā, with the focus of incorporating AI into defense workflows and teams. CEO Marc Benioff also went on CNBCās Mad Money to discuss how his company had scored a top US Army contract over competing data company Palantir.Ā
Palantir and Salesforce are jostling for space in the same arena, with Salesforce holding contracts with the US Government and Palantir scoring deals with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).Ā
Letās take a look at what Palantirās growth means for this fresh rivalry.
Palantir Q3 Results in Full
Alex Karp, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Palantir Technologies, said: ā114% ā our Rule of 40 score! These results make the transformational impact of using AIP to compound AI leverage undeniable.Ā
āYear-over-year growth in our U.S. business surged to 77%, and year-over-year growth in U.S. commercial climbed to 121%. We are yet again announcing the highest sequential quarterly revenue growth guide in our companyās history, representing 61% year-over-year growth.āĀ
Other Palantir Q3 highlights include:Ā
- Customer count growing 45% YoY and 7% QoQ.
- 204 deals of at least $1M closed, along with 91 deals of at least $5M, and 53 deals of at least $10M.Ā
- Closing $2.76B total contract value (āTCVā), up 151% YoY.
- Closing $1.31B of U.S. commercial TCV, up 342% YoY.
- U.S. commercial remaining deal value (āRDVā) of $3.63B, up 199% YoY and 30% QoQ.
- GAAP income from operations of $393M ā representing a 33% margin.
- Adjusted income from operations of $601M ā representing a 51% margin.
- Rule of 40 score of 114%.
- GAAP net income of $476M ā representing a 40% margin.
- Cash from operations of $508M ā representing a 43% margin.
- Adjusted free cash flow of $540M, representing a 46% margin.
- GAAP earnings per share (āEPSā) of $0.18.
- Adjusted EPS of $0.21.
- Cash, cash equivalents, and short-term U.S. Treasury securities of $6.4B.
Palantir vs. Salesforce
Palantir, which was co-founded by billionaire Peter Thiel in 2003, has something of a controversial reputation, having worked with the US Department of Defense, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and the Israeli military.Ā
Its CEO, Alex Karp, once told a call with investors that Palantir is āhere to disrupt and make the institutions we partner with the very best in the world and, when itās necessary, to scare enemies and on occasion kill themā.Ā
Itās perhaps something of a clichĆ© for business leaders to use the language of warfare ā think ācrushing the oppositionā or being āin the trenchesā ā but when Amnesty International issues a report questioning the companyās respect for human rights, it should perhaps be taken more seriously.Ā Ā Ā
Controversy aside, the companyās AI, āPalantir Artificial Intelligence Platformā (AIP), is a competitor product to Salesforceās Agentforce.Ā
Amid talk of Salesforce and Palantir competing in the same space, Salesforce announced Missionforce ā focused on supporting the needs of defense, intelligence, and aerospace agencies, with efforts centered around building upon the foundational aspects of Government Cloud as well as Agentforce for Public Sector.Ā
Competing in this way appears to line up Palantir as yet another titan in Salesforceās sights ā along with tech rivals ServiceNow and Oracle. But is there more to the story than just impressive revenue figures from Palantir?
According to well-known investor Michael Burry ā who famously bet against the housing market in 2008 and walked away with millions ā Palantir is currently fueling an overheated AI sector that could lead to an AI bubble forming and bursting, much like the dot-com crash of the early 2000s.
Burry has claimed that investor optimism around companies like Palantir has far outpaced the real-world returns and adoption of AI, with massive valuations being justified more by hype than by fundamentals. Through his hedge fund, Scion Asset Management, Burry has placed substantial put options against Palantir, essentially betting that the companyās stock price will fall as the hype cools.
Palantirās CEO, Alex Karp, hasnāt taken kindly to this. In response to short-sellers like Burry, Karp fired back publicly, calling the bets āegregiousā and even saying heāll be ādancing around when itās proven wrong.āĀ
Karpās fiery defense suggests deep confidence in Palantirās AI capabilities and its growing role in both government and commercial sectors, but itās also drawn attention to the companyās sky-high valuation and the intense pressure to deliver on its promises.
Final Thoughts
As the field of AI becomes more crowded, we will likely see tech giants like Salesforce, ServiceNow, Palantir, and Oracle not just competing in the artificial intelligence space, but other spaces too. Weāve seen this with Salesforce entering ITSM and ServiceNow entering CRM. Now, with Salesforce launching āMissionforceā, there is yet another front in the battle for tech supremacy.Ā
Palantirās results are certainly something to behold. When government contracts are concerned, there is something of a āwinner take allā approach, so this is understandable. Whether they will remain the winner in the future remains to be seen.Ā
