Palantir's U.S. commercial revenue has more than quintupled over the past two years, the company said in its third-quarter results released after the close on Monday. That is the number behind the milestone: a business long defined by government contracts now earns more from U.S. companies than from U.S. agencies.
The switch happened without the government side slowing down. U.S. government revenue still grew 96% from a year earlier. Commercial simply grew faster.
Key numbers
- $984 million U.S. commercial revenue in the third quarter, up 148% from a year earlier
- $953 million U.S. government revenue in the same quarter, up 96%
- $2.31 billion total revenue, above the $2.18 billion expected by analysts polled by LSEG, and the first quarter above $2 billion
- $1.13 billion net income, more than double the roughly $476 million a year earlier
Why the order of the two segments matters
Palantir sells software that organizes and analyzes large sets of data, and its reputation was built on defense and intelligence work. Government contracts are large, slow to win and slow to lose. Commercial contracts are smaller and renew on shorter cycles.
Until this quarter, the government segment was the larger of the two in the United States. In the third quarter, according to CNBC, commercial revenue passed it, which the company attributed to businesses adopting more of its artificial intelligence tools. MarketWatch described the same crossover as the turning point in the quarter.
In plain words: a company's revenue mix tells you where its growth comes from and how steady it is likely to be. When one segment overtakes another, the profile of the whole company changes, and that is why traders read the segment lines rather than only the headline revenue figure.
Profit grew faster than revenue
Revenue nearly doubled from a year ago. Net income more than doubled, to $1.13 billion from about $476 million, or 44 cents per share against 18 cents. Adjusted earnings came in at 44 cents per share, above the 41 cents analysts polled by LSEG expected.
Palantir also raised its own outlook. It now expects U.S. commercial revenue "in excess of" $3.56 billion for the full year, against the $3.42 billion it guided to last quarter. For the fourth quarter it projects about $2.65 billion in total revenue, and about $8.53 billion for full-year 2026.
I went through both reports, and neither gives a figure for how the shares traded after the release. The company's guidance is its own projection, not a result, and the quarterly figures above are the only confirmed numbers in the two accounts.