The Palantir AI Partnership Propelling FTAI Aviation to 219% Growth: An Underappreciated Play in Data Center Energy

FTAI Aviation has emerged as one of the more intriguing indirect beneficiaries of the AI boom, despite flying largely under the investment radar. The stock’s 219% surge over the past year wasn’t driven by hype alone—it reflects a meaningful business evolution. At the center of this transformation lies a strategic partnership with Palantir, complemented by a solidified relationship with GE Aerospace, that’s repositioning the company far beyond its traditional aircraft engine servicing roots.

How FTAI Aviation Transitioned from Maintenance Provider to Growth Engine

Historically, FTAI Aviation’s bread and butter was straightforward: the company owns and maintains aircraft engines for airlines and leasing companies. Rather than forcing carriers to rely exclusively on engine manufacturers’ expensive service contracts, FTAI offered a more economical alternative for maintaining engines like the CFM56 and V2500 when original manufacturer agreements expire.

The CFM56, produced by CFM International—a joint venture between GE Aerospace and Safran—powers the legacy Airbus A320 and Boeing 737 fleets. This creates a natural moat for FTAI: as these aircraft age without being retired, their engines require increasingly frequent maintenance. Management’s recent disclosure that CFM56 “shop visits” (major overhauls) won’t decline until 2027, pushed back from an earlier 2025 estimate, underscores the durability of FTAI’s core business.

What’s clever about FTAI’s positioning is that it maintains both a competitive and complementary relationship with GE Aerospace—competing on servicing costs while simultaneously helping extend the operational life of CFM engines, which benefits GE’s installed base.

Strategic Catalysts: The Palantir AI Connection and GE Aerospace Formalization

The investment thesis for FTAI strengthened considerably with recent developments. In November, the company inked a multiyear strategic partnership with Palantir to deploy artificial intelligence technology aimed at achieving “faster production turnaround times and improved unit economics.” Translation: Palantir’s AI platform will help FTAI digitally optimize its maintenance operations and predict component failures before they occur—reducing downtime and costs simultaneously.

Concurrent with that deal, FTAI secured a multiyear agreement with CFM International formalizing access to OEM replacement parts, thrust performance upgrades, and specialized repair capabilities. This arrangement essentially locks in supply continuity and deepens FTAI’s competitive moat in the aftermarket engine space.

These aren’t peripheral deals; they represent structural enhancements to FTAI’s competitive positioning and operational efficiency.

The Real Growth Story: FTAI Power and the Data Center Inflection

Where FTAI’s narrative becomes genuinely compelling is with the launch of FTAI Power, a business line that converts CFM56 engines into power turbines for data centers. This is far from theoretical—management has guided toward delivering over 100 units annually by applying its modular maintenance expertise to power turbine production.

The underlying logic is elegant: Palantir’s AI platform will be instrumental in digitally modeling these power turbines and predicting maintenance cycles, allowing FTAI to bring predictive service models to the data center infrastructure space. As AI applications proliferate, data center energy demand is becoming a genuine bottleneck, and FTAI is positioning itself to capture a slice of that growth by repurposing its accumulated engine expertise.

The convergence of FTAI’s modular maintenance competency, Palantir’s AI capabilities, and surging data center power requirements creates a favorable backdrop for this new segment to become a material earnings contributor within several years.

Evaluating the Valuation and Risk-Reward Equation

At 43 times forward earnings, FTAI Aviation isn’t trading at a bargain-basement valuation. The stock has clearly appreciated substantially, and investors paying today’s prices are pricing in meaningful execution on the FTAI Power opportunity and successful scaling of the Palantir collaboration.

That said, the multiyear partnerships with both Palantir and GE Aerospace, paired with tangible business expansion into data center energy, provide visible catalysts for earning multiple expansion—or at minimum, earnings growth that could justify current valuations if management delivers on operational guidance.

The company warrants close monitoring for potential entry points during market-driven pullbacks, though existing shareholders benefit from multiple near-term inflection points that could trigger upside revisions to Wall Street estimates.