Palantir (PLTR) CEO Alex Karp isn’t buying into the idea that Anthropic, OpenAI, or any other large language model company can simply move into Palantir’s world.
Though he sees the threat that Wall Street is worried about, he feels investors are asking the wrong question.
That jab lands as Anthropic is moving closer to going public.
The Claude maker filed for a U.S. IPO on June 1, and Reuters reported it had last raised $65 billion at a $965 billion post-money valuation, more than double its $380 billion valuation from February.
In a recent CNBC sit-down interview, Karp said that building a robust AI model is just one part of the puzzle.
However, making that model useful within complex enterprises is very different.
Karp pushed back hard on the idea that AI model companies like Anthropic can replicate what Palantir does as investors start to question the market’s most defining AI infrastructure names.
He argued that many AI companies are solving “the simplest, easiest problems that sell tokens”, while Palantir is working in environments where mistakes carry real-world consequences.
His point was that enterprise AI cannot operate like a chatbot demo. If a manufacturer needs the right part, a rocket has to launch, or a military system has to work, being directionally right is not good enough.
VINCENT FEURAY / Getty Images
Wall Street price targets for Palantir stock
- Wedbush maintained its Outperform rating and $230 price target on Palantir.
- Citi raised its Palantir price target to $225 from $210.
- Rosenblatt raised its Palantir price target to $225 from $200.
- BofA Securities maintained its Buy rating and $255 price target on Palantir.
- Loop Capital reiterated its Buy rating and $220 price target on Palantir.
Alex Karp says Palantir nails the hard part of enterprise AI
Palantir CEO Karp’s core argument is that Anthropic and other frontier AI companies are underestimating what it takes to make AI work inside serious enterprises.
More Palantir
- Morgan Stanley resets Palantir stock forecast
- Palantir CEO makes blunt AI claim and investors should care
- Veteran analyst drops bold take on Palantir Anthropic situation
Karp said investors are asking whether companies like Anthropic can “replicate” Palantir, but he dismissed the concern from the customer side.
“It’s a real question that no one in enterprise factually is worried about,” Karp said.
For him, enterprise AI is less about having better models or elite engineers.
It is about deployment in places where errors can have major consequences. Karp drew a line between probabilistic AI use cases and real-world operations.
“If you want to manufacture a car and you need a part or you want to send a rocket to the moon or you want to put a missile on your adversary’s head and bring home Americans safely, that stuff doesn’t ship,” he said.
That is where he believes Palantir has the advantage.
Karp also took a direct shot at the AI model-company culture, saying some players believe customer problems will simply disappear as models improve.
“Their basic vibe is we don’t have to solve your problem today because tomorrow you’re going to go away and all of your problems are going to be solved,” he said.
On Anthropic specifically, Karp was more nuanced but still pointed.
“Most of the things they talk about in public are running on Palantir,” he said.
The runway is enormous.
For perspective, Gartner forecasts worldwide AI spending to surge $2.59 trillion in 2026, including $453.2 billion in AI software and $585.5 billion in AI services.
Palantir, by comparison, expects 2026 revenue of $7.65 billion to $7.66 billion, after Q1 revenue jumped 85% to $1.63 billion, according to Reuters.
Using the midpoint of that forecast, Gartner’s total AI-spending figure is about 339 times that. Palantir’s expected 2026 revenue
Palantir stock has an obvious valuation problem
Palantir has been one of the market’s biggest AI winners, but lately investors have been scrutinizing it more closely.
The stock has fallen 14.43% over the past week and 5.51% over the past month, badly trailing the S&P 500’s declines of 4.51% and 1.78% over the same periods, according to Seeking Alpha.
The longer-term picture is also weak, with Palantir down 28.39% over six months and 26.75% year to date, while the S&P 500 remains positive over both periods.
The technical setup offers little comfort.
Palantir’s last price sits below its 10-day, 50-day, 100-day, and 200-day moving averages, including nearly 18% below its 200-day SMA, according to Seeking Alpha.
Moreover, the stock trades at 90.24 times forward non-GAAP earnings, about 260% above the sector median, while its trailing non-GAAP P/E of 139.02 is more than 426% above peers, leaving no room for disappointment.
Related: 5-star analyst revisits Nvidia stock on peculiar GPU demand situation