Software stocks have had a rough year. The fear driving them down is real: AI agents are getting good enough to automate tasks that enterprise software used to handle, and investors have been cutting valuations across the board.<\/p>\n
The debate has been running all year with no clear answer.<\/p>\n
On Aug. 3, one CEO stepped into that debate with 11 words. "Our entire business nearly doubled in the span of 12 months," Palantir Technologies CEO Alex Karp wrote in his investor letter, according to The Motley Fool.<\/p>\n
Palantir (PLTR) just reported results that ask a pointed question: Is AI killing enterprise software, or is it making the strongest players untouchable?<\/p>\n
Karp did not stop at the investor letter. On the earnings call, he told investors to "forget consensus" and said to his knowledge, as CNBC reports, "no businesses at our scale has even grown half this much."<\/p>\n
He called the quarter "otherworldly" and told analysts the current growth pace "looks like this is going to go on for at least another 18 months."<\/p>\n
Palantir CEO admits AI would make him 20 times richer<\/p>\n
Microsoft CEO adds fuel to Palantir CEO's AI warning<\/p>\n
Palantir CEO has a blunt verdict on OpenAI and Anthropic<\/p>\n
The market moved fast. Palantir shares jumped nearly 15% in after-hours trading on Aug. 3, rising from a regular-session close of $125.65 to around $144.45. The next day, Aug. 4, shares closed at $162.66, a gain of roughly 29.5% on the session, as TheStreet reported.<\/p>\n
Chief Revenue Officer Ryan Taylor called the results expected rather than surprising. "Our Q2 results are unprecedented but entirely unsurprising, as the abrupt market shift in LLMs that we've been warning you about for years is now here," Taylor said.<\/p>\n
The quarter was a clean beat across every major metric. Here is what Palantir reported.<\/p>\n
Total revenue: $1.935 billion, up 93% year over year, the highest growth rate in company history<\/p>\n
U.S. commercial revenue: $764 million, up 149% year over year<\/p>\n
U.S. government revenue: $809 million, up 90% year over year<\/p>\n