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By Arsheeya Bajwa
May 6 (Reuters) – Data analytics firm Palantir Technologies raised its annual revenue and profit forecast and beat first-quarter sales estimates on Monday, capitalizing on strong demand for its services that help companies deploy applications of artificial intelligence.
The company has emerged as a winner of the generative AI boom thanks to its artificial intelligence platform, which is used to test and debug code and help evaluate AI-related scenarios, among other uses.
“AIP is driving a large portion of our new customer and existing customer growth and is having a huge impact on our business,” Chief Revenue Officer Ryan Taylor told Reuters.
Taylor said companies were signing “seven-figure deals right away” after completing their AI bootcamps, which give potential customers access to their platform for up to five days and have been credited with driving rapid customer additions.
Palantir said it conducted 660 boot camps in the first quarter and closed 87 deals worth $1 million or more across the business, with its customer count increasing 42%. It did not specify how many customers were converted through the boot camp.
The company, co-founded by billionaire Peter Thiel, raised the midpoint of its 2024 revenue forecast to $2.68 billion, up from its previous midpoint of about $2.66 billion.
The company’s shares fell 6% in volatile extended trading after closing up 8% on Monday. Its shares are up about 36% so far this year.
Palantir works closely with governments, providing software to visualize army positions, among other things.
However, the company has tried to diversify its revenues to reduce dependence on government spending.
Government revenue increased 16% in the quarter ended March 31, while commercial revenue increased 27% as the segment’s U.S. commercial customer count increased 69%.
The company also raised its U.S. commercial revenue forecast for 2024 to more than $661 million from previous expectations of about $640 million.
Palantir reported first-quarter revenue of $634.3 million and its biggest quarterly profit, according to a letter from the CEO. Four analysts surveyed by LSEG expected revenue of US$625.4 million.
(Reporting by Arsheeya Bajwa in Bengaluru; Editing by Tasim Zahid)
