NEW YORK, April 23, 2026, 10:31 EDT
- Palantir stock slid roughly 5.4% to $144.41 Thursday morning, despite the company just landing a new government contract.
- The USDA has entered into a $300 million blanket purchase agreement with Palantir, setting up a federal structure for ongoing orders as part of its push to update services for farmers.
- The retreat shifts attention to May 4 earnings. Investors are sizing up fresh government contracts as software stocks face a broader downturn.
Shares of Palantir Technologies dropped roughly 5.4% to $144.41 Thursday morning, with a new U.S. agriculture deal doing little to stem the slide during a broad selloff in software stocks. Investors retreated from the sector after IBM and ServiceNow earnings reignited jitters about disruption tied to artificial intelligence.
This is noteworthy: Palantir, at roughly $371 billion in market cap, continues to track software sentiment even after a recent government contract win. The company’s Q1 numbers land May 4, and the pressure is on. Investors want proof that new federal deals are strong enough to maintain its growth pace—and justify that lofty price tag.
The USDA on Wednesday announced a $300 million blanket purchase agreement with Palantir aimed at modernizing its support for farmers under the National Farm Security Action Plan. Blanket purchase agreements are federal tools for handling repeated purchases of goods or services.
The contract backs USDA’s “One Farmer, One File” initiative, designed to provide producers with one unified record across agencies and trim down redundant paperwork. Back in February, USDA said the larger modernization push kicked off in 2025 and should continue through 2028. Reuters
USDA Chief Information Officer Sam Berry framed the effort as both a technology push and a matter of food security, saying, “Protecting America’s farmland is protecting America itself.” On the company side, Palantir federal engineering lead Ali Monfre described USDA as “moving fast” to get improved tools to farmers. Reuters
Palantir says its Landmark platform is already used for self-service acreage reporting and digital sign-ups for aid programs. The company also noted that Landmark was part of the $11 billion Farmer Bridge Assistance program rollout earlier this year.
The farm contract is just the latest in a series of government successes. Back in March, Reuters said the Pentagon was moving to name Palantir’s Maven Smart System a formal program of record, a label that locks in potential funding and puts Palantir further into the core of U.S. defense software.
Palantir moved in line with other software names Thursday. Shares of IBM and ServiceNow dropped post-earnings, while Adobe slid too, with investors worried that fresh AI offerings might pressure legacy software players. UBS strategist Kiran Ganesh warned of “a lot bigger range of outcomes” now facing the tech sector. Reuters
Palantir heads into this environment after telling investors back in February its fourth-quarter revenue jumped 70% to $1.407 billion, with 2026 revenue guidance ranging from $7.182 billion to $7.198 billion—about 61% higher than before. Meeting those numbers won’t be easy.
The risks haven’t disappeared. Palantir’s trading at over 340 times its earnings from the past year, and filings reveal that a lot of its contracts are flexible or can be canceled outright. If the May 4 report falls short, or investors keep exiting software stocks, even another big contract announcement might not put a floor under the shares.
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