PLTR · Q3 2025 Earnings

Bullish

Palantir

Reported November 3, 2025

30-second summary

Revenue grew 63% YoY to $1.18B in Q3, blowing past the $1.083–$1.087B guide by ~$95M and accelerating 15 points from Q2's 48%. U.S. commercial revenue grew 121% to $397M; FY revenue guidance was raised to $4.396–$4.400B (+53% YoY, an eight-point lift) and U.S. commercial FY guide was pushed to >$1.433B at ≥104% YoY — a 19-point growth-rate raise mid-year. The "is growth still accelerating at this scale" question now has three consecutive quarters of yes, with management explicitly framing the print as the best in software history.

Headline numbers

EPS

Q3 FY2025

$0.21

Revenue

Q3 FY2025

$1.18B

+63.0% YoY

Gross margin

Q3 FY2025

82.4%

Free cash flow

Q3 FY2025

$0.54B

Operating margin

Q3 FY2025

33.3%

Key financials

Q3 FY2025

Metric	Q3 FY2025	YoY	Q2 FY2025	QoQ
Revenue	$1.18B	+63.0%	$1.00B	+17.6%
EPS	$0.21	—	$0.16	+31.2%
Gross margin	82.4%	—	80.8%	+160bps
Operating margin	33.3%	—	26.8%	+650bps
Free cash flow	$0.54B	—	$0.57B	-5.1%

Guidance

Guidance is issued for both next quarter and the full year. Both may appear below.

Actuals vs prior guidance

Metric	Period	Prior guide	Actual	Δ	Result
Revenue	Q3 FY2025	$1.083 - $1.087 billion	$1.181 billion	+$0.094-0.098 billion above guide	Beat
Adjusted income from operations	Q3 FY2025	$493 - $497 million	$492 million	at lower end of guide, immaterial miss	Beat

New guidance

Metric	Period	Guide	YoY
Revenue	Q4 FY2025	$1.327 - $1.331 billion	61% YoY
revenue YoY growth	Q4 FY2025	61%	61%
revenue QoQ growth	Q4 FY2025	13%	—

Changes to prior guidance

Metric	Period	Prior guide	New guide	Δ	Result
Revenue	FY2025	$4.142 - $4.150 billion	$4.396 - $4.400 billion	+$0.246-0.258 billion	Raised
revenue YoY growth	FY2025	45%	53%	+8 percentage points	Raised
U.S. commercial revenue	FY2025	in excess of $1.302 billion (at least 85% YoY)	in excess of $1.433 billion (at least 104% YoY)	+$0.131 billion; +19 percentage points YoY growth	Raised
Adjusted income from operations	FY2025	$1.912 - $1.920 billion	$2.151 - $2.155 billion	+$0.231-0.243 billion	Raised
Adjusted free cash flow	FY2025	$1.8 - $2.0 billion	$1.9 - $2.1 billion	+$0.1 billion (midpoint shift from $1.9B to $2.0B)	Raised
Rule of 40 score	FY2025	91%	102%	+11 percentage points	Raised

Segment performance

Q3 FY2025

Segment	Q3 FY2025	YoY
U.S. Commercial Revenue	$0.397B	+121.0%
U.S. Government Revenue	$0.486B	+52.0%

Platform metrics

Q3 FY2025

Segment	Q3 FY2025
Total Contract Value (TCV)	$2.76 billion
U.S. Commercial TCV	$1.31 billion
U.S. Commercial Remaining Deal Value (RDV)	$3.63 billion
Deals ≥ $1M Closed	204
Deals ≥ $5M Closed	91
Deals ≥ $10M Closed	53
Customer Count Growth YoY	45%

Profitability

Q3 FY2025

Segment	Q3 FY2025
Rule of 40 Score	114%

Other KPIs

Q3 FY2025

Segment	Q3 FY2025	YoY
U.S. Revenue	$0.883B	+77.0%

Management tone

Q1 2025 measured AIP momentum → Q2 combative-triumphalist → Q3 historical-superlatives → Q3 systemic-claim. The arc this quarter is that management has stopped arguing Palantir is winning and started arguing the category cannot exist without Palantir.

AIP framing escalated from "the leading platform" to "the only platform with a compounding plan." Two quarters ago AIP was positioned as Palantir's edge in a contested AI race. Last quarter Karp moved to "LLMs simply don't work in the real world without Palantir." This quarter he went further: "AIP is the only AI platform that has an actual plan for compounding your enterprise's AI leverage, not just the model maker's leverage over you." The shift is from product-level claim to architectural-level claim, and explicitly frames hyperscaler/foundation-model competitors as extractive rather than enabling.

U.S. commercial recast from "emerging" to "defining." A year ago U.S. commercial was the call-out segment in a government-dominated company. This quarter management noted it is the fourth consecutive quarter that commercial revenue exceeded U.S. government, and disclosed $1.3B in U.S. commercial TCV at 6x duration — the first billion-dollar quarter for the segment. The 121% growth rate vs. 93% last quarter and 85% guide entering the year shows the trajectory is still bending up, not asymptoting.

Business model reframed from "vendor" to "downstream of customer value." Last quarter Karp argued LLMs need Palantir; this quarter he gave the financial rationale: "we are downstream from the value creation… we are making our clients more money or we're making them more dominant on the battlefield, and they're paying us a subset of that." This is the first time management has explicitly explained the unit economics as a value-share rather than a software license — a framing that implies pricing power is anchored to customer ROI, not contract negotiation.

FDE moat reframed from "specialized role" to "industry trying and failing to copy us." Last quarter the FDE model was Palantir's competitive edge. This quarter Karp directly addressed mimicry: "It's become fashionable, actually, for lots of companies to start hiring FDEs… But what you see is that they don't really understand it. It's just mimetic." The shift signals management believes the moat survives imitation — a bold claim that will be tested as Accenture, McKinsey, and hyperscalers stand up similar deployment models.

Karp removed even the pretense of modesty. "By any normal or even reasonable standard, these are not normal results. These are arguably the best results that any software company has ever delivered." Last quarter's tone was combative; this quarter's is valedictory. It signals high conviction the print isn't a one-quarter spike — and raises the bar for Q4 even higher.

Recurring themes management leaned on this quarter:

Enterprise AI transformation at scale via AIPU.S. commercial acceleration and trillion-dollar opportunity realizationDirect customer alignment and value sharing modelAI leverage compounding through Ontology-native architectureAmerican worker empowerment and reindustrializationFDE orchestration as competitive moat and industry standard

Risks management surfaced:

Europe remains stagnant and is holding down overall U.S. growth ratesForward-looking statements subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause material differences from actual resultsStrategic commercial contracts declining from $9.6M Q4 2024 to $2-4M Q4 2025Regulatory and compliance risks inherent in government contractingCompetitive mimicry of FDE model without underlying capability

Q&A highlights

Dan Ives · Wedbush

Can you walk through the accelerated sales cycles from companies attending boot camps? What surprised management from first contact to deal launch?

Management highlighted that customers are now approaching Palantir seeking enterprise-wide transformation rather than single use cases. U.S. Commercial closed $1.3B TCV at 6x duration. Customers want to reorganize entire organizations around Palantir and AIP. Management characterized this as providing 'private equity-like transformation' to public companies, with customers expecting transformation in months, not years.

$1.3 billion in U.S. Commercial TCV closed6x dollar-weighted duration basis83 deals worth $1M+40 deals worth $5M+

Mariana · Bank of America

What changed from a customer behavioral perspective to accelerate appetite for Palantir adoption? How are AI FTEs being incorporated internally to meet demand? What are thoughts on U.S. government opportunities like Golden Dome?

Management attributed acceleration to network effects and demonstrated results. Customers realize alternatives haven't worked and see competitors' success with Palantir's ontology/foundry approach. Internally, Palantir has grown headcount 10% while revenue grew 63% by making FDEs more productive. Army Vantage consolidation creating 'army of green suiters' as new developers. U.S. government grew 50%+ driven by NGC2, MAVEN, and geopolitical conflicts.

Headcount growth ~10% vs. revenue growth 63%U.S. government growth 50%+Army Vantage creating new developer baseThree active U.S. conflicts mentioned (Europe, Middle East, own hemisphere)

Answers to last quarter's watch list

Whether Q3 revenue lands above the $1.087B high end. Decisively yes — $1.181B beat the high end by $94M and accelerated YoY growth 13 points above the guide-implied 50%.

Resolved positively

Whether U.S. commercial growth holds above 85% YoY. Yes, by a wide margin — Q3 came in at 121% and the FY guide was raised to ≥104%, with U.S. commercial TCV crossing $1B for the first time.

Resolved positively

Adjusted operating margin trajectory in 2H. Q3 adjusted operating margin hit a new company record of 51% on $601M of adjusted operating income — 500bps above the guide. GAAP operating margin came in at 33%, and the FY adjusted operating income guide was raised $237M at the midpoint. The expense ramp did not compress margins.

Resolved positively

International commercial revenue (-3% YoY in Q2). The company didn't disclose international commercial growth on the print this quarter; Karp noted on the call that "Europe remains stagnant and is holding down overall U.S. growth rates," implying continued weakness.

Continue monitoring

Maven Smart System disclosure. No discrete revenue or contract-value figure was disclosed for Maven; management referenced it qualitatively as a driver of 52% U.S. government growth alongside NGC2 and active conflicts.

Continue monitoring

What to watch into next quarter

Whether Q4 revenue lands above the $1.331B high end. Management has now beaten the high end of the revenue guide by $90M+ for two consecutive quarters; the guide implies 61% YoY, which would be a deceleration from Q3's 63%. Anything in line will be read as the acceleration topping.

Whether U.S. commercial sustains triple-digit YoY growth in Q4. The FY ≥104% guide on $1.433B+ implies Q4 commercial revenue of roughly $430M+ — watch for the segment crossing $450M and whether the 121% growth rate holds.

U.S. commercial RDV trajectory. RDV grew from $2.79B (Q2) to $3.63B (Q3) — a $840M sequential add against $397M of revenue. If RDV continues compounding at that pace, 2026 acceleration is already in the book; if it flattens, the bookings story has peaked.

Adjusted operating margin retention as headcount catches up. Management has so far translated 63% revenue growth into Rule of 40 of 114% on only 10% headcount growth. Q4 is the first quarter where the new-hire ramp Karp flagged in Q2 will fully hit OpEx.

Any explicit Maven or NGC2 contract-value disclosure. Government grew 52% with three large programs cited as drivers; quantifying any one of them would convert qualitative momentum into a multi-year defense-vertical anchor.

First read on FY26 framing. Management did not pre-announce 2026, but with FY25 closing near $4.4B at 53% growth, the Q4 call's commentary on 2026 setup will reset the multiple debate.

Sources

Palantir Q3 2025 press release, filed with SEC: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1321655/000132165525000130/a2025q3ex991earningsrelease.htm
Palantir Q3 2025 earnings call prepared remarks and Q&A (transcript referenced)

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