Palantir’s military AI is seeing demand that even its CEO calls ‘unprecedented’

Palantir shares jumped as much as 21% early Tuesday after the company gave analysts a preview of its new AI platform. The stock move is the kind of thing that gets your attention, but what CEO Alex Karp said on the earnings call is what actually matters.

“Nothing I’ve ever seen in 20 years of being involved in Palantir,” Karp said about the demand for what they’re calling AIP (Artificial Intelligence Platform). He described the current boom in large language models as a revolution “that will raise ships and sink ships.”

AIP is essentially a military-grade wrapper around the kind of AI models that power ChatGPT. A demo video shows it analyzing enemy targets, flagging hostile situations, proposing battle plans, and sending those plans to commanding officers for approval. The company is careful to emphasize that clients control what data the models can see and what actions they’re allowed to take.

“If you wheel these technologies correctly, safely, and securely,” Karp told analysts, “you have a weapon that will allow you to win, that will scare your competitors and adversaries.”

That’s about as direct as a CEO gets about the military applications of AI. Palantir has always been comfortable with defense work, but AIP takes it to another level by putting generative AI directly into battlefield decision loops.

But it’s not just for the military. Another demo shows a manufacturing company using AIP to prepare for a hurricane — analyzing distribution center operations, deciding whether to accelerate or cancel orders, and forecasting revenue impact. An insurance client with early access built a “collaborative AI agent” to automate claims processing within days of getting the tool. Palantir says that client described AIP as “years ahead” of other solutions.

Karp mentioned conversations with “hundreds” of potential partners, but pricing and terms are still being worked out. The company has been refocusing engineering teams around AI and is “running hard” at the opportunity.

A few things worth noting here. First, Palantir has been talking about AI for years — they’ve always positioned themselves as an AI company. But AIP feels different because it’s explicitly built around the large language models that have captured everyone’s imagination since ChatGPT launched. Second, the “safe and secure” messaging is clearly designed to address the obvious concerns about handing battlefield decisions to AI. Whether that’s reassuring or alarming depends on your perspective.

Palantir plans to share more details at a June 1 event in Palo Alto. I’ll be curious to see what pricing looks like and whether they can sustain this momentum or if this is another hype cycle for a company that’s always been better at generating buzz than consistent profits.

[This article was updated with additional context from the earnings call.]