Meta description: Palantir stock (PLTR) is in focus on Dec. 12, 2025 as a major U.S. Navy contract, a new lawsuit escalation, and lofty valuation debates collide with 2026 forecasts.
Palantir Technologies Inc. (PLTR) is back at the center of the AI-and-defense investing narrative on Friday, December 12, 2025—and not just because of price action. A fresh wave of headlines is landing at the same time: a high-profile legal escalation involving AI startup Percepta, the U.S. Navy’s “ShipOS” program tied to a contract value of up to $448 million, and a broader market debate about whether the AI trade is overheating after Oracle’s latest stumble.
Shares have been trading in the mid-$180s today, with session levels cited between $180.21 and $188.50. [1] Palantir’s market capitalization is sitting around $447 billion. [2]
Below is what’s driving Palantir stock right now, how Wall Street is framing 2026 expectations, and what investors will be watching next.
Palantir stock price today: where PLTR stands on Dec. 12, 2025
Palantir shares have been volatile but elevated, reflecting how investors continue to treat the company as a bellwether for applied AI in government and industry. According to Robinhood’s market snapshot, PLTR traded between $180.21 and $188.50 today. [3] MarketWatch lists Palantir’s market cap near $446.99B. [4]
Palantir is also closing out an explosive year: multiple market outlets now peg the stock’s 2025 gain at roughly ~140%. [5] That kind of run matters because, at these levels, even “good news” can be priced in—and any disappointment can hit harder.
The headlines moving Palantir stock today
Here are the major threads shaping PLTR coverage as of Dec. 12:
1) Palantir escalates its Percepta lawsuit: why this matters to investors
Palantir has expanded its legal campaign against the AI startup Percepta, alleging an organized effort to poach employees and customers and to misuse confidential information. The expanded case names Percepta CEO Hirsh Jain, co-founder Radha Jain, and employee Joanna Cohen—all former Palantir employees—while Percepta has pushed back publicly, calling the claims baseless and denying use of Palantir’s confidential information. [6]
Why markets care: even if this doesn’t change next quarter’s numbers, it can matter for:
- Talent retention and recruiting optics (especially in hot AI labor markets)
- Customer trust and competitive positioning (who owns the “operating system” layer for enterprise decisioning)
- Potential discovery risk (internal communications can surface in litigation)
This follows earlier reporting that Palantir sued former senior engineers in October over alleged “copycat” activity related to Percepta. [7]
2) The U.S. Navy’s “ShipOS” program: a $448M headline with operational receipts
The Navy’s partnership is one of the most concrete “applied AI” stories Palantir has put on the board recently.
In a Business Wire release, the U.S. Navy described ShipOS as authorizing up to $448 million to deploy Palantir’s Foundry and Artificial Intelligence Platform (AIP) across the Maritime Industrial Base—with the goal of modernizing the shipbuilding supply chain. [8]
What stands out is that the announcement also included specific pilot outcomes, including:
- At General Dynamics Electric Boat, schedule planning time reduced from 160 manual hours to under 10 minutes
- At Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, material review times cut from weeks to under one hour [9]
Barron’s framed the deal as a reinforcement of Palantir’s growing military footprint, while also noting the company continues to push its commercial narrative alongside government wins. [10]
Why this contract is a stock catalyst:
Defense-related AI contracts tend to be “sticky,” multi-year, and expandable once embedded. ShipOS is also a supply-chain / readiness use case—less speculative than some AI initiatives—because it targets measurable bottlenecks (parts, scheduling, throughput).
3) The macro backdrop: AI valuation scrutiny returns after Oracle’s stumble
Palantir isn’t trading in isolation. Today’s market context matters.
Reuters reports that Oracle’s disappointing update has bruised sentiment around the “AI trade,” reigniting bubble talk and pushing investors to be more selective about which AI narratives are backed by durable cash flow. [11] The same Reuters report notes that investor Michael Burry has publicly criticized parts of the AI boom and has a short position on Palantir. [12]
Translation for PLTR: when markets get nervous about AI capex payoffs, richly valued AI-linked names can see sharper swings—regardless of whether their own quarter was strong.
4) Options activity signals heavy near-term positioning
One more “today” data point: options traders have been active.
Nasdaq reported that PLTR options volume reached about 457,929 contracts in Thursday activity, with notable interest in a $187.50 strike call expiring Dec. 12, 2025 (35,432 contracts). [13]
This doesn’t predict direction by itself—but it does show that traders have been clustering around the current price zone, which can amplify intraday moves.
Palantir’s latest fundamentals: what the company guided (and why valuation is so debated)
The most recent major fundamental anchor remains Palantir’s Q3 2025 report and its forward guidance.
Reuters reported that Palantir forecast Q4 revenue of $1.327B to $1.331B, above analyst expectations (LSEG). [14] It also reported Q3 revenue of $1.18B and adjusted EPS of $0.21, both ahead of consensus estimates. [15] The same Reuters piece noted Palantir raised its annual revenue outlook again—marking the third increase that year—while also flagging that the implied growth deceleration was enough to keep valuation concerns in the spotlight. [16]
The tension is simple:
- The bull case says Palantir is becoming mission-critical infrastructure for government and large enterprises deploying AI into workflows.
- The bear case says the stock’s multiple already discounts years of perfect execution.
2026 forecasts for Palantir stock: revenue expectations and analyst price targets
Revenue outlook: what “consensus” is pointing to
Forecasts vary by data provider, but multiple widely followed consensus trackers cluster around a similar 2026 top-line story.
- Zacks lists a next-year revenue estimate around $6.23B. [17]
- Yahoo Finance commentary on Dec. 12 cites consensus expectations for ~41% revenue growth in 2026 (context: after a much faster 2025). [18]
If that plays out, it supports the narrative that Palantir’s commercial and government momentum continues—but at a slower pace than the “breakout” year that lit the fuse on the current valuation.
Price targets: unusually wide dispersion
Analyst targets remain spread out, which is typical when a stock’s valuation is the story.
One compilation shows a target range from $50 to $255, with an average around $171.74 (implying downside from current levels) and a median near $190. [19] Another widely used forecast page similarly shows a max estimate of $255 and min of $50, with a mid-point close to current trading levels. [20]
How to read this:
The “range problem” reflects disagreement on one core question: Is Palantir more like a defense prime with software margins—or a platform company that can compound into a broader enterprise operating system? Different answers produce very different fair values.
Valuation reality check: why PLTR is a lightning rod
Several current metrics show why Palantir is polarizing:
- Investopedia notes Palantir’s P/E ratio exceeds 400, highlighting how expensive the stock appears on trailing earnings. [21]
- Yahoo’s key statistics snapshot lists price-to-sales around ~121.88 and price-to-book around ~67.82. [22]
- MarketWatch places Palantir’s market cap near $447B. [23]
- Reuters previously cited Palantir trading at an extremely high forward P/E versus mega-cap AI leaders (based on LSEG data). [24]
These aren’t “good” or “bad” by themselves—but they set the bar. At this valuation, investors typically demand:
- sustained high growth,
- visible margin expansion, and
- expanding total addressable market (TAM) beyond just defense/government.
Beyond the stock: business momentum signals investors are tracking
While ShipOS is the loudest current contract story, other recent reporting has emphasized how Palantir is trying to turn defense wins into broader “industrial AI” positioning.
Axios reported that an L3Harris–Palantir partnership is generating measurable production gains for night-vision goggles, framed as a manufacturing modernization story with national-security implications. [25]
Separately, Palantir has continued to drive brand visibility through non-traditional moves, including a recently announced “Neurodivergent Fellowship” recruitment pathway; Business Insider reported the program includes roles based in New York or Washington, D.C., with pay listed between $110,000 and $200,000. [26]
These items won’t move quarterly revenue alone—but they feed into the broader narrative that Palantir is building a talent pipeline and an industrial footprint around applied AI.
Key risks to watch now
Even in a bullish setup, PLTR investors are watching several real risks:
- Legal overhang: escalation in the Percepta matter could create distractions, cost, and reputational noise—regardless of merit. [27]
- AI multiple compression: if the market continues rotating away from richly valued AI names after Oracle’s capex-driven concerns, PLTR can get pulled with the group. [28]
- “Perfection pricing”: with valuation ratios this elevated, small changes in growth expectations can move the stock dramatically. [29]
- Insider selling headlines: Barron’s has highlighted sizable CEO stock sales in 2025 tied to automatic/tax-related transactions, which can spook momentum traders even when routine. [30]
What to watch next for Palantir stock
If you’re tracking PLTR into year-end and early 2026, these are the near-term “catalyst windows” most investors focus on:
- Next earnings date: MarketWatch lists Palantir’s next earnings timing around Feb. 18, 2026. [31]
- Follow-on defense expansion: whether ShipOS expands beyond submarines into broader naval platforms is a key upside narrative. [32]
- Commercial scaling signals: any update that proves AIP deployments are turning into repeatable, high-margin subscription growth
- Market regime: continued AI skepticism vs renewed “risk-on” behavior will matter as much as company-specific headlines. [33]
Bottom line
On Dec. 12, 2025, Palantir stock sits at the intersection of three forces:
- Real contract momentum (ShipOS and defense-linked execution), [34]
- headline risk (a newly expanded lawsuit against Percepta leadership), [35]
- valuation pressure (where any macro wobble in AI sentiment can create outsized swings). [36]
For investors, the question is no longer whether Palantir is “an AI company.” The question is whether it can keep proving—quarter after quarter—that it deserves to trade like a platform defining a category, not just a contractor winning projects.
References
1. robinhood.com, 2. www.marketwatch.com, 3. robinhood.com, 4. www.marketwatch.com, 5. www.investors.com, 6. www.wsj.com, 7. www.reuters.com, 8. www.businesswire.com, 9. www.businesswire.com, 10. www.barrons.com, 11. www.reuters.com, 12. www.reuters.com, 13. www.nasdaq.com, 14. www.reuters.com, 15. www.reuters.com, 16. www.reuters.com, 17. www.zacks.com, 18. finance.yahoo.com, 19. stockanalysis.com, 20. www.tradingview.com, 21. www.investopedia.com, 22. finance.yahoo.com, 23. www.marketwatch.com, 24. www.reuters.com, 25. www.axios.com, 26. www.businessinsider.com, 27. www.wsj.com, 28. www.reuters.com, 29. www.investopedia.com, 30. www.barrons.com, 31. www.marketwatch.com, 32. www.barrons.com, 33. www.reuters.com, 34. www.businesswire.com, 35. www.wsj.com, 36. www.reuters.com
