Palantir Technologies reported another quarter of record revenue on Monday, propelled by a surge in new customers flocking to buy artificial-intelligence technology from one of the hottest names on Wall Street.
The data-analytics company said it had $1.18 billion in sales for the third quarter, a year-over-year gain of 63%, and a net profit of $475.6 million. Both came in ahead of analyst expectations.
Palantir stock hit another record high Monday after notching successive new gains for about the past two weeks. Shares have more than doubled this year.
"It is worth remembering that the business is now producing more profit in a single quarter than it did in revenue not long ago," Chief Executive Alex Karp wrote in a letter accompanying the earnings release.
"This ascent has confounded most financial analysts and the chattering class, whose frames of reference did not quite anticipate a company of this size and scale growing at such a ferocious and unrelenting rate."
Revenue from U.S. government contracts was $486 million, popping 52% from the same quarter the prior year and beating analyst expectations. Sales to U.S. commercial customers were $397 million, more than double a year ago.
Palantir raised its revenue guidance to between $4.396 to $4.400 billion for the full year, up from $4.14 billion to $4.15 billion. The company provided guidance that its U.S. commercial business would more than double, to $1.433 billion.
The Denver-based firm, which sells software to centralize, manage and analyze large amounts of data, has been riding AI-driven momentum that has pushed its share price ever higher. The company's newfound cachet in Washington has helped it gain more government contracts, including in recent weeks a $100 million contract with the Internal Revenue Service and $400 million award from the State Department.
The company last week announced a partnership with Nvidia that would involve using state-of-the-art AI chips to enable Palantir's software to run faster. It is the latest in a string of corporate partnerships Palantir has announced as it aims to expand its commercial and defense offerings, and propel the growth needed to begin to justify its $491 billion market capitalization.
Palantir has doubled down on signing more commercial customers to provide growth and balance the lumpiness of government contracts. On Monday, the company said it had 530 U.S. commercial clients.
Although the U.S. provides the majority of its business, Palantir is also seeking growth overseas, with new business in the U.K., Poland, Saudi Arabia and Ecuador. Europe's push to rearm in the face of Russia's aggression has been a boon for Palantir's defense business in North Atlantic Treaty Organization countries.
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