New York, May 17, 2026, 16:04 EDT
- Palantir ended Friday at $133.99, ticking up 0.19% for the day. The stock is still off about 2.8% since the May 8 close.
- Nasdaq fell this week, breaking a six-week run, as higher oil prices and bond yields weighed on AI stocks.
- Nvidia’s earnings set for this week are seen as the next big test for the AI trade.
Palantir Technologies stock is starting the week down from where it was before last week, after a strong sales outlook failed to resolve the bulls-versus-bears debate around one of Wall Street’s battleground AI names.
U.S. cash equities did not trade Sunday. Palantir (PLTR) ended Friday at $133.99, capping a volatile week that saw shares dip as low as $130.05 midweek. On Friday, Palantir moved between $132.29 and $135.64. Back on May 8, the stock closed higher at $137.80.
The timing is key here. U.S. stocks pulled back from their AI-driven highs on Friday as crude prices climbed and Treasury yields moved up. That can pressure growth shares—higher yields cheapen future earnings. “There’s a realization that the market had gotten way ahead of itself,” Kenny Polcari, chief market strategist at Slatestone Wealth, told Reuters. He said traders had been swept up in a “momentum AI trade.” Reuters
Palantir is facing the basic question now: can its fast revenue growth keep the stock ahead of worries about valuation? On May 4, the company said first-quarter revenue jumped 85% to $1.633 billion. U.S. revenue more than doubled to $1.282 billion, with U.S. commercial sales up 133%. Palantir bumped its 2026 revenue target to between $7.650 billion and $7.662 billion. CEO Alex Karp said, “momentum surged as we grew 85% last quarter,” and cited a Rule of 40 score of 145%. That’s a figure combining revenue growth and adjusted operating margin, which leaves out some items. SEC
Defense headlines kept moving. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy met with Karp last week as Kyiv widened AI use in its fight with Russia, working on a Palantir-linked project called Brave1 Dataroom that taps combat data to track and stop Russian drones. Ukraine Defence Minister Mykhailo Fedorov said “technology, AI, data analysis and the mathematics of warfare” are shaping the battlefield. Reuters also reported Palantir’s Maven AI battlefield software is poised to become a Pentagon program of record, locking in a formal long-term U.S. military deal. Reuters
Palantir shares have struggled in recent sessions, with trading turning cautious. Retail traders sold a net $82 million of Palantir stock in the week through May 13, Business Insider reported, citing JPMorgan analyst Arun Jain. They also unloaded $117 million of Microsoft and moved into semiconductor and memory names. That leaves Palantir and Microsoft grouped in the ongoing software rotation, while Nvidia is still the big AI reference point this week.
Wall Street has a divide. Bank of America stuck with its Buy and $255 target after the quarter, telling TheStreet the report was a “step-function” print. On the flip side, Jefferies analyst Brent Thill lowered his target to $70, saying the issue isn’t demand but whether growth speed can hold up. TheStreet
But risks for Palantir aren’t just about the stock. The company told investors that a lot of its customer deals run for years but can be ended with less than 12 months’ notice, and said shifts in U.S. government budgets, spending or contract timing could hit results. That’s key since government accounts for 53% of Palantir’s Q1 revenue.
Palantir’s upcoming week could depend more on outside events. Nvidia’s results come out Wednesday, with Fed minutes and new housing figures also on tap, Reuters reported. The 30-year Treasury yield is holding above 5%. If Nvidia reassures the market on AI, Palantir might see support. But if yields climb or AI stocks take another hit, recent gains after a solid quarter may not hold.
