Rosenblatt says Middle East conflict boosts Palantir’s government pipeline, gives it an edge over rivals

Escalating tensions in the Middle East underscore Palantir’s advantage in government and defense AI applications, according to Rosenblatt. The investment firm stood by its buy rating on the software analytics company. Analyst John McPeake hiked his price target to $200 from $150, which signals a gain of 38%. McPeake wrote that Palantir was a beneficiary of the recent escalation of tensions in the Middle East. Over time, he expects the conflict to highlight Palantir’s unique strength and help leverage its situation over any other large language models, or LLMs. PLTR 1Y mountain PLTR 1Y chart “Conflict in the Middle East bodes well for government pipeline,” the analyst wrote. “War regrettably underscores the value of Palantir over just another LLM.” His comments come after Anthropic said their models should not be used in fully autonomous weapons, causing the Trump administration to order all U.S. agencies to stop using the company’s artificial intelligence technologies. “The U.S. government has ordered a six-month phase out period for Anthropic’s LLMs, which we think will leave ample time to switch over to one of the many other LLMs that are supported by Palantir. We think global instability and the need for comprehensive wartime solutions are likely to lead to deals like the U.S. army deal in July that rolled 75 contracts into just one with Palantir,” McPeake added. The analyst added that a premium valuation is more than warranted here. “If one looks at the companies that have created the most value in technology when they were a similar size to Palantir, none of them were able to grow as fast as Palantir is forecasted to grow in year 8 (equivalent to Palantir’s guidance in 2026),” he added. “In addition, at least two of those companies (then Facebook and Google) made transformative acquisitions halfway through the time period — Palantir’s growth has been entirely organic.” Shares of Palantir have sunk 18% this year but have rallied 74% over the past 12 months.