Palantir CEO says the company 'eviscerated' sales so hard execs have stopped talking about how 'crazy' he is
FABRICE COFFRINI/AFP/Getty Images
- Palantir's third-quarter earnings beat Wall Street expectations.
- CEO Alex Karp said revenue growth was driven by AI demand in the US.
- Karp also called out critics who may have been skeptical of him.
Palantir CEO Alex Karp took a victory lap on Monday as the company reported big third-quarter earnings.
The secretive data analytics and software company beat Wall Street expectations on revenue and earnings per share, sending the stock up more than 13% in after-hours trading. US revenue grew 44% year over year.
"We absolutely eviscerated this quarter, driven by unrelenting AI demand that won't slow down," Karp, who co-founded Palantir in 2003, said in an earnings release. "This is a US-driven AI revolution that has taken full hold. The world will be divided between AI haves and have-nots. At Palantir, we plan to power the winners."
On an earnings call that followed the report, Karp said the company's growth was largely due to surging AI demand from their US government and commercial clients. The company provides AI tools to the US military and other allies of the US.
"Given how strong our results are, I almost feel like we should just go home," he said at the beginning of his remarks, adding that the company had previously been met with a lot of skepticism.
Karp also called out critics who were unsure about him specifically, saying on the call, "Instead of going into every meeting saying, 'Oh, yes, Palantir is great, but their fearless leader is bat shit crazy, and he might go off to his commune in New Hampshire,' whatever thing we're saying, it's now like, yes, the products are best, and we have great products."
Karp has served as CEO of Palantir since 2004. He has gained a reputation as an eccentric leader in Silicon Valley, and is known for being a wellness fanatic who works out of a barn in New Hampshire.
In a letter to shareholders that accompanied the earnings report, Karp said the US market was still the core of Palantir's business.
"It is where we have seen institutions respond most rapidly to the promise of artificial intelligence, as companies and government agencies race to implement the technical infrastructure that is necessary to unleash the power of language models across their proprietary and most valuable datasets," he said.
The CEO added that Europe was being "left behind" in AI innovation and needed to adapt or "risk ruin."