New York, Jan 30, 2026, 10:37 EST — Regular session
- Palantir shares slipped roughly 2% in early trading, underperforming the wider market.
- A UK defence procurement notice reveals a £240.6 million follow-on contract awarded to Palantir for analytics support.
- With jitters running through the software sector, investors are gearing up for Palantir’s earnings and guidance due Feb. 2.
Shares of Palantir Technologies Inc (PLTR.O) dropped roughly 1.9% to $148.98 in early trading Friday, as investors pulled back from growth stocks amid broader risk-off sentiment.
Timing is key. Palantir is set to report earnings on Feb. 2, with investors increasingly skeptical about whether hefty AI-related investments are translating into profits quickly enough.
U.S. stocks slipped further after President Donald Trump nominated former Fed Governor Kevin Warsh to head the central bank—a pick some traders took as a hawkish signal, Reuters noted. “There is a general sense of hawkishness” following Warsh’s nomination, said Ipek Ozkardeskaya, senior analyst at Swissquote Bank. Reuters
The jitters over rates hit a market still reeling from Thursday’s tech sell-off, triggered by Microsoft’s steep drop that renewed concerns about AI-related costs. “The onus is going to be on them to deliver,” said Jim Baird, chief investment officer at Plante Moran Financial Advisors, as a packed earnings slate and the Feb. 6 U.S. jobs report loom. Reuters
On the company front, a UK government procurement notice revealed that the Ministry of Defence intends to follow on with Palantir Technologies UK on an enterprise agreement valued at £240.6 million. The deal covers licensing and support for data analytics tools meant to function across defence classifications and with NATO allies. The notice specified this as a direct award, with no open competition.
Palantir sells software that integrates data from multiple systems and enables users to conduct analysis, a combination that has kept government contracts at the forefront while the company also ramps up efforts with commercial clients.
On Thursday, Innodata highlighted its role in Palantir’s AI efforts. The data engineering firm said it was chosen to supply training data and handle data engineering tasks — including “annotation,” which means labeling data for AI model training — specifically for AI-driven rodeo event analysis and other projects. Dimitrios Lymperopoulos, Palantir’s head of machine learning, noted, “Innodata’s high-quality training data and data engineering expertise can help us to scale these capabilities.” Innodata Investor Relations
The Financial Times reported that Palantir has secured roughly $81 million in contracts connected to U.S. immigration enforcement tools, citing a broader spike in awards related to immigration crackdowns since early 2025.
Palantir has pushed back against criticism of its work. In a blog post responding to a Jan. 15 report from digital rights group the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the company said allegations about its collaboration with Immigration and Customs Enforcement were misleading. Palantir denied working on “any master database” intended to unify data across federal agencies. Palantir Blog
The risk lies in politics clashing with fundamentals. Government contracts can be sizable and enduring, yet they often invite scrutiny that weighs on sentiment. At the same time, a misstep in quarterly guidance could quickly punish a stock valued for robust growth.
Palantir is set to report its fourth-quarter and full-year results on Feb. 2, with a webcast scheduled for 5 p.m. ET after the closing bell. The focus will be on management’s guidance, especially around demand and spending linked to new AI offerings.
