By Jaspreet Singh and Juby Babu
Aug 3 (Reuters) - Palantir Technologies on Monday raised its annual revenue forecast again, signaling strong government and commercial demand for its data analytics software, sending its shares up nearly 12% in extended trading.
Denver-based Palantir has increasingly been marketing military-grade AI tools to businesses through its artificial intelligence platform that helps companies integrate and develop the technology.
"Our business is compounding at a rate and scale
that we have never before witnessed," Palantir CEO Alex Karp said in a letter to shareholders.
The company, which enables government and enterprise clients to make decisions using their own data, forecast annual revenue between $8.150 billion and $8.158 billion, up from $7.650 billion to $7.662 billion earlier.
"Palantir has been the clearest counterexample to the claim that enterprise AI doesn't scale past pilots, and accelerating growth makes that harder to argue with," Emarketer analyst Jacob Bourne said.
Palantir's U.S. government revenue soared 90% to $809 million in the second quarter. Modern warfare and geopolitical uncertainty have prompted governments to invest in advanced defense technologies such as Palantir's AI-powered battlefield software and Anduril's autonomous drones.
Anduril and Palantir are working together to develop software for U.S. President Donald Trump's Golden Dome antimissile shield initiative, Reuters has reported.
It also raised its annual forecast for U.S. commercial revenue to more than $3.424 billion, up from its previous estimate of $3.224 billion.
"The core of our business, in the United States, continues to expand at an unrelenting and breakneck pace," Karp said.
The company's U.S. business has been particularly tracked as European governments have grown increasingly wary about dependency on American tech platforms, while competition intensifies from AI startups.
France's domestic intelligence agency DGSI will replace tools from Palantir in favor of French rival ChapsVision, Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu's office said in June. The company is also challenging a decision to block its two-year, £50 million ($67.15 million) contract with the London police.
Its "accelerated growth in the U.S. market is more important, more durable, and more likely to drive the name higher," said Ryan Lee, senior vice president of product and strategy at Direxion.
Palantir's shares have retreated sharply from their November record high, as investors have worried over the increasing scrutiny of the company's businesses and the still-high valuation.
The company's third-quarter revenue forecast of between $2.160 billion and $2.164 billion was above analysts' average estimate of $2 billion, according to data compiled by LSEG.
Second-quarter adjusted earnings were 41 cents per share, above estimates of 35 cents, while revenue rose 93% to $1.94 billion, beating expectations of $1.80 billion.
($1 = 0.7446 pounds)
(Reporting by Jaspreet Singh in Bengaluru and Juby Babu in Mexico City; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila)
