Palantir built its name on software for intelligence analysts and battlefield commanders. For most of its history, that government work was the bigger business. In the quarter ended September 30, 2026, sales to U.S. businesses jumped 148% year over year to $984 million, passing sales to U.S. government agencies for the first time, and total revenue reached $2.313 billion, the company's release showed. Its products run from the Foundry data platform to AIP, which uses fine-tuned open-weight models. Palantir pitches the pairing as a way to match each workflow with its best model.
The full-year revenue forecast rose for the third time this year. The full-year 2026 target for U.S. commercial sales rose to more than $3.559 billion, or growth of at least 143%, the release said. After the second quarter, Palantir had called for growth of at least 134% in that business, according to its earlier guidance. In the earnings release, Chief Executive Alex Karp described the sovereign AI moment as made for Palantir. In his telling, every institution, public or private, is being pushed into one of two camps, the haves or the have-nots.
Not everything accelerated. New U.S. commercial contract value rose only 11% to $1.463 billion, the release showed. Several eight-figure commercial deals signed in the quarter carried shorter terms than usual because customers moved quickly to adopt early sovereign AI capabilities, executives said on the call. They expect sovereign AI contracts to grow in length and size over time as customers see value. Shares fell the following day as analysts flagged the slowdown in contract value as a forward indicator, CNBC reported. The stock pared its early losses as the session went on.
Investors will look to the next report to see whether the shorter contracts renew and lengthen. Palantir also flagged the end of a quirk in its books: revenue from strategic commercial contracts, a category it has been winding down, should disappear after the fourth quarter, executives said. Usage of Maven has also passed 100,000 users, and the software is now available to all services beyond the combatant commands.