Shares in Palantir Technologies Inc. rose more than 12% in late trading today after the big-data analytics company reported stronger-than-expected earnings and revenue in its fiscal third quarter and raised its full-year outlook.

For the quarter that ended on Sept. 30, Palantir reported adjusted earnings per share of 10 cents, up from seven cents per share in the same quarter of last year, on revenue of $725.5 million, 30% year-over-year. Both were beats, as analysts had been expecting adjusted earnings per share of nine cents on revenue of $705 million.

Palantir’s strong numbers were driven by customer growth, as the company closed 104 deals in the quarter worth more than $1 million and its overall customer count grew 39% year-over-year and 6% quarter-over-quarter. A decent portion of the company’s growth was driven by the U.S. government. Palantir reported that U.S. government revenue rose 40% year-over-year and 15% quarter-over-quarter, to $320 million. U.S. commercial revenue also grew, up 54% year-over-year, to $179 million.

Cash from operations in the quarter came in at $420 million, representing a 58% margin, and Palantir ended the quarter with $4.6 billion on hand in cash, cash equivalents and short-term U.S. Treasury securities.

Notable business highlights in the quarter included Palantir partnering with the government of Ukraine to use its Artificial Intelligence Platform to enhance decision-making in humanitarian de-mining operations.

Palantir also signed a new, five-year $100 million contract to expand Maven Smart System artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities across the U.S. military services. The Maven Smart System, developed by Palantir, integrates advanced AI and machine learning to enhance military operations by providing real-time data analysis and decision-making support across various U.S. military branches.

Additionally, Palantir also introduced Visual Navigation, or VNav, a system designed to support autonomous drone missions in GPS-compromised areas by providing accurate navigation independent of GPS or radio control signals. The service uses onboard intelligence and software to ensure reliable operations even in challenging environments and, in doing so, enhances the effectiveness of autonomous systems in modern military scenarios.

“We absolutely eviscerated this quarter, driven by unrelenting AI demand that won’t slow down,” Alexander C. Karp, co-founder and chief executive officer of Palantir, said in the company’s earnings release. “This is a U.S.-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.”

For its fiscal fourth quarter, Palantir expects revenue of $767 million to $771 million. For the full year, revised upward, the company now expects to see revenue of $2.805 million to $2.809 billion.

“Palantir once again demonstrated its effective execution of capitalizing on AI excitement in the broader market,” Jordan Berger, an analyst at global research firm Third Bridge, told SiliconANGLE in an email. “Palantir’s U.S. commercial segment is a focal point for evaluating its execution of bringing AI solutions to market, and Q3 2024 performance remained consistently exceptional at 54% year-over-year growth, eliciting the company’s second guidance raise for that segment this year and contributing to raised expectations for full-year 2024 revenue.”

Berger also noted that revenue growth accelerated to 30%, “boosted by an outsized contribution from the company’s U.S. government segment as well, which markedly accelerated to 40% year-over-year growth.”

Image: Palantir