Public transcript

Alex Karp Leaves Audience Speechless on Palantir's Q3 Earnings Call

By: David Carbutt
Length: 22 min
Language: English
Text from: the video's captions
Transcribed: 12 October 2026

Read the full transcript Open on YouTube

Notes in English.

Summary

This is a recording of Palantir's Q3 earnings call, featuring CEO Alex Karp's opening remarks followed by analyst and shareholder questions. Karp presents the quarter's results—77% US growth, 121% US commercial growth, and a rule of 40 score of 114—as arguably the best results any software company has ever delivered. He and other executives attribute the performance to Palantir's ontology, Foundry, AIP, and forward-deployed engineer model, and discuss accelerating customer demand, internal AI adoption, and defense work.

Key points

Karp claims Palantir's Q3 results are arguably the best any software company has ever delivered, citing a rule of 40 of 114 and 77% US growth.
US commercial closed $1.3 billion in TCV, 6x on a dollar-weighted duration basis from a year ago, with 21 deals of $10 million or more.
Karp says growth is held down by a stagnant Europe, which remains a significant part of the business.
Palantir positions itself as downstream of value creation: clients make more money or become more dominant on the battlefield and pay Palantir a subset of that.
Executives say headcount grew roughly 10% while revenue grew 63%, driven by making forward-deployed engineers more productive with AI.
Karp argues the real AI misalignment is with elite generalist specialists, while vocationally trained workers with domain expertise become more valuable.
Customers are increasingly asking to reorganize their entire organizations around Palantir and AIP rather than pursuing single use cases.
Karp defends Palantir's work with ICE, defense of America, Ukraine, Israel, and border enforcement as proud and controversial.

Questions it answers

00:00Opening remarks on results

How good were Palantir's Q3 results according to Alex Karp?

Karp calls them arguably the best results any software company has ever delivered, citing 77% US growth, over 100% US commercial growth, and a rule of 40 of 114. He notes growth is held down by a stagnant Europe.

Rule of 40 of 114 with 77% US growth off a large base.
Karp dismisses analysts as wrong at every price.
Europe is stagnant but still a significant part of the business.

03:00Value creation model

Why does Karp say Palantir's numbers are so extraordinary?

Palantir is downstream of value creation: it makes clients more money or more dominant on the battlefield and is paid a subset of that. Growth is not proportional to headcount, and the salesforce is declining.

Customers' tribal knowledge is orchestrated in ontology and Foundry.
Palantir rejects commodity parasitic software sold via a large salesforce.
Workforce growth is not linearly proportional to revenue growth.

04:45AI and the American worker

How does Karp view AI's impact on workers?

He says vocationally trained Americans with domain expertise become more valuable with Palantir's products, while elite generalist specialists face pressure. He argues Palantir spreads AI-driven GDP growth to working-class people.

A large part of the AI market cares about value creation and Palantir owns it.
Ontology, Foundry, and FDE orchestration are cited as prerequisites.
Karp frames the results as good for America and the American economy.

07:20Unique differentiator

What is Palantir's differentiator that others may not understand?

Executives point to forward-deployed engineers and building software that works for the world as it exists. Ontology, built over a decade ago, is a fundamental prerequisite to getting value out of LLMs in the enterprise.

Success is measured by solving the problem, not selling software.
Other companies hiring FDEs are described as mimetic and not understanding it.
Palantir deliberately takes on the most complex, valuable parts of the stack.

09:40Sales cycles and deal sizes

What is happening with customer demand and deal sizes?

US commercial closed $1.3 billion in TCV, 6x a year ago on a dollar-weighted duration basis, with 83 deals of $1 million or more and 21 of $10 million or more. Customers now want to reorganize entire organizations around Palantir and AIP.

Customers want private-equity-like transformation in public markets.
Newer clients have much higher expectations and want transformations in months.
Karp says the same dynamic is happening in the US government.

13:00Customer behavior and internal AI

What changed in customer behavior and how is Palantir using AI internally?

Customers see competitors succeeding with ontology and Foundry while their own long migrations fail, shifting the conversation. Internally, AI has made forward-deployed engineers far more productive, with headcount up roughly 10% against 63% revenue growth.

Wasted spending creates an ecosystem of waste with vendors.
Palantir wants to stay tribal and unique rather than adopt artificial practices.
Army Vantage users' first interaction with the software will be with AIFD.

19:50US government and defense

How is the US government business performing?

US government grew 50% plus, with opportunities including NGC2 and continued Maven growth. Executives note America is involved in three conflicts and things are getting spicy in Africa.

Executives cannot comment on all mentioned opportunities like golden dome.
Karp defends Palantir's work with ICE, Ukraine, and Israel as proud despite controversy.
Karp ties the work to defending working-class Americans.

21:10Closing to investors

What did Karp say to individual investors at the end?

He told them to watch critics on television who didn't invest, thanked individual investors as sane people who put up their own money, and framed their support as fighting for meritocracy and lethal technology.

Karp declines to forecast next year but points to unit economics.
He rejects the term retail investors in favor of sane people who put up their own money.
He says the company is getting better every day for the nation and allies.

Notes

Q3 Results Framing

Alex Karp calls the results arguably the best any software company has ever delivered, saying it is not hyperbole.
Key figures cited: 77% US growth, 121% US commercial growth, 63% revenue growth, rule of 40 of 114, and $1.3 billion in US commercial TCV.
Karp notes growth is held down by a stagnant Europe, which remains a significant part of the business.
He criticizes analysts who have been wrong at every price and who are not investing their own money.

Business Model and Value Creation

Palantir describes itself as downstream of value creation: it makes clients more money or more dominant on the battlefield, and clients pay a subset of that value.
The company embeds customers' tribal, specific knowledge into ontology and Foundry rather than selling commodity software with a large salesforce.
Karp says the salesforce is declining while growth accelerates, and headcount grew roughly 10% against 63% revenue growth.

AI Positioning

Karp argues a large part of the AI market cares about value creation, and Palantir owns that part because of ontology, Foundry, AIP, and forward-deployed engineers (FDEs).
He claims the real AI misalignment hits elite generalist specialists, while vocationally trained workers with domain expertise become more valuable.
Internally, AI has made forward-deployed engineers wildly more productive, which is why Palantir started giving the tooling to customers.

Customer Momentum

US commercial TCV was 6x a year ago on a dollar-weighted duration basis; 83 deals were worth $1 million or more, 40 were $5 million or more, and 21 were $10 million or more.
Customers increasingly want to reorganize their entire organizations around Palantir and AIP, not just run a single use case.
Karp compares the effect to a private-equity-like transformation in public markets.
Competing approaches fail because LLMs are a commodity; ontology and Foundry are prerequisites for enterprise value.

Government and Defense

US government business grew 50% plus; executives cite NGC2, continued Maven growth, and the Army consolidating into the Army data platform with Army Vantage.
Karp defends Palantir's work with ICE, Ukraine, Israel, and border enforcement, framing the company as on the side of the average American worker.

Closing

Karp declines to forecast next year but points to unit economics and value creation as the basis for judgment.
He thanks individual investors, calling them sane people who put up their own money.

Text from the video's own captions. Summary and notes written by AI from the transcript, so check anything important against the recording.