Palantir Stock (PLTR) News Today: Tech Force Buzz, Navy ShipOS Deal, and Analyst Targets in Focus (Dec. 17, 2025)

Dec. 17, 2025 — Palantir Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ: PLTR) is back in the spotlight as investors weigh a fresh mix of catalysts: a Street-high price target from Bank of America, a new federal tech modernization push that lists Palantir among private-sector partners, and a steady drumbeat of government and national-security related contract headlines. At the same time, the stock’s valuation remains a central point of contention, and legal and political risks are increasingly part of the PLTR narrative.

Shares traded around $184–$185 in late morning New York time on Wednesday, down roughly 1%–2% on the session. ^[1]

Why Palantir stock is in focus on Dec. 17

Two themes are dominating today’s Palantir stock conversation:

A bullish analyst stance collides with a divided Street. Bank of America’s Mariana Perez Mora reiterated a Buy rating and a $255 price target, a level that implies roughly 38% upside from the mid-$180s. ^[2]
Government modernization tailwinds are back on the front page. The U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) announced the launch of the United States Tech Force, a cross-government program to recruit technologists to modernize federal systems, and the partner list includes Palantir. ^[3]

Those headlines land against a backdrop of a stock that has already delivered outsized gains this year. Barron’s reported PLTR was up about 142% year-to-date coming into this week, even as valuation concerns have limited how many analysts are willing to recommend buying at current levels. ^[4]

The “United States Tech Force” and what it could mean for PLTR

The OPM’s United States Tech Force announcement is not a Palantir-specific contract award, but investors are paying attention because it reinforces an ongoing theme: Washington wants more AI and software talent inside government, and Palantir’s platforms are already entrenched in federal workflows.

In its announcement, OPM positioned Tech Force as a recruiting program intended to modernize the federal government’s technology. The release lists a set of private-sector partners, including Palantir, alongside several major technology and defense-adjacent organizations. ^[5]

For PLTR shareholders, the potential significance is indirect but clear: if agencies accelerate modernization and AI adoption, Palantir is widely seen as a “prime beneficiary” name in that theme—especially given its long-standing government footprint and its marketing push around deploying AI “at scale.” ^[6]

The Navy’s ShipOS partnership: a concrete government catalyst

While Tech Force is a broad modernization initiative, the U.S. Navy ShipOS partnership is a tangible, contract-linked headline.

A Business Wire release describing the initiative says the Navy is partnering with Palantir to deploy Foundry and Palantir’s Artificial Intelligence Platform (AIP) across the Maritime Industrial Base, and that the initiative “authorizes up to $448 million” to accelerate adoption of AI and autonomy technologies. ^[7]

The same release also describes reported pilot outcomes meant to illustrate ROI in operational settings—such as schedule planning shrinking from 160 manual hours to under 10 minutes at General Dynamics Electric Boat, and a material-review process dropping from weeks to under an hour at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard. ^[8]

Axios, separately, highlighted ShipOS in the context of the Navy’s shipbuilding push, reporting the service introduced ShipOS (developed with Palantir) as it aims to speed processes and meet fleet timelines. ^[9]

For investors, the ShipOS story matters for three reasons:

It reinforces Palantir’s positioning as a mission-critical operating layer in government environments that face complex supply chains and security constraints. ^[10]
It supports the idea that Palantir can move beyond “pilot projects” into broader, multi-entity deployments (shipbuilders, shipyards, suppliers). ^[11]
It strengthens the bull case that government customers can become long-duration platform customers—exactly the dynamic that tends to justify premium software multiples (though those same multiples are also the bear case, discussed below). ^[12]

International security business: France’s DGSI renewal

Palantir also posted notable news from Europe in recent days via a Business Wire announcement: the company disclosed a three-year renewal of its contract with the DGSI, France’s domestic intelligence agency, extending a partnership described as “ongoing for nearly a decade.” ^[13]

The renewal is significant because it cuts against a frequent narrative risk for Palantir in Europe—namely, political scrutiny around U.S. software firms in sensitive security domains. While it doesn’t erase that risk, a renewal of this sort can be interpreted by the market as evidence that Palantir’s software and services remain sticky in mission-critical use cases. ^[14]

Chain Reaction: Palantir’s new bet on AI infrastructure bottlenecks

Beyond defense and intelligence, Palantir has been trying to broaden its “operating system” identity into the physical buildout required for AI—power, compute, and supply chains.

Reuters reported that Palantir teamed with Nvidia and CenterPoint Energy on a platform called “Chain Reaction” aimed at speeding up AI data center construction by coordinating permitting, construction, and supply chain complexity using AI on fragmented data sources. ^[15]

Business Wire’s release framing Chain Reaction calls it an operating system for “American AI infrastructure,” with Nvidia and CenterPoint Energy named as founding partners. ^[16]

For PLTR stock, Chain Reaction is the kind of initiative that can cut both ways:

Bulls see it as a pathway to capture budget from the AI infrastructure boom, potentially diversifying Palantir beyond classic government analytics. ^[17]
Bears see it as another ambitious narrative layered on top of an already expensive stock—raising expectations the company must meet to justify valuation. ^[18]

What Palantir’s latest reported metrics and guidance say

For investors trying to connect the headlines to fundamentals, Palantir’s most recently shared company materials (Q3 2025 investor presentation) underscore a few themes: cash generation, large deal volume, and confident full-year outlook commentary.

Highlights shown in the presentation include:

$6.4 billion in cash, cash equivalents, and U.S. Treasury securities, and no debt at the end of Q3 2025. ^[19]
204 deals of at least $1 million closed during Q3 2025 (including 91 deals of at least $5 million and 53 deals of at least $10 million). ^[20]
Net dollar retention shown at 134% in Q3 2025, with Total RPO shown at $2.60B and billings at $1,226M on the “Additional Metrics and Notes” slide. ^[21]

On outlook, the presentation shows:

Q4 2025 revenue guidance of $1.327–$1.331 billion. ^[22]
FY 2025 revenue expected between $4.396–$4.400 billion and adjusted free cash flow expected between $1.9–$2.1 billion. ^[23]

Investors often focus on these points because they help answer the key question for a premium-valued software name: can growth and cash generation remain strong enough—long enough—to justify today’s multiple?

Wall Street forecasts: price targets remain scattered

Despite Palantir’s strong momentum, the sell-side picture remains far from unanimous.

MarketBeat’s tracking of analyst recommendations shows a consensus “Hold” rating based on 23 analyst ratings, with an average 12-month price target of $172.28. It also lists a very wide dispersion—$255 on the high end and $18.50 on the low end. ^[24]

That wide range captures the core PLTR debate:

The bull case argues Palantir has become a default platform for organizations that need to operationalize AI in complex, regulated environments—especially government and defense—and that adoption momentum can broaden into more commercial workflows. ^[25]
The bear case argues that a meaningful portion of future success is already priced in, leaving the stock vulnerable to any slowdown, execution stumble, or macro shift in AI sentiment. ^[26]

After Palantir’s recent earnings cycle, Investopedia summarized that analysts have expressed sharply conflicting views, citing valuation concerns from some firms while noting bullish targets from others—including a Wedbush target of $230 and Bank of America’s $255, while also referencing far more conservative targets such as $70 from Jefferies. ^[27]

Valuation: the key risk that keeps coming up

Even many investors who like Palantir’s products acknowledge a central reality: the stock trades at valuation levels that leave little room for disappointment.

Barron’s described Palantir as one of the most expensive names in the S&P 500, citing a multiple near 190x forward earnings (FactSet), with only Tesla trading more richly in that context. ^[28]

Stock Analysis data similarly puts PLTR at extremely high multiples, listing a forward P/E around ~200 and a trailing P/E above 400, with a market cap above $440 billion at the time of publication. ^[29]

Those numbers help explain why many analysts stay on the sidelines even as Palantir wins high-profile deals: with a valuation this elevated, the market can punish the stock on good news if expectations rise faster than results.

Legal and political risks are part of the story again

A lawsuit against a rival AI startup

Palantir’s recent legal escalation is another headline investors are monitoring. The Wall Street Journal reported Palantir expanded legal action against rival AI startup Percepta, accusing its CEO and former Palantir employees of an effort to poach employees and clients and take confidential information. ^[30]

Reuters previously reported on the earlier phase of the dispute, describing Palantir’s claims that former senior engineers misappropriated confidential information to build a “copycat” firm. ^[31]

Legal fights can matter for PLTR in two ways: they can become a distraction, and they can also signal how seriously Palantir treats protecting platform IP as competition in enterprise AI heats up.

Immigration enforcement work draws scrutiny

On the political and reputational front, The Washington Post reported Palantir software is being used by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in an “Immigration OS” project, describing a contract awarded in April and a renewal in late September that brought total value to around $60 million, according to the report. ^[32]

Federal procurement records in FPDS show action obligations of $29,898,236 dated April 11, 2025, and another $29,898,236 dated Sept. 25, 2025, which together total $59,796,472—consistent with a “roughly $60 million” figure when rounded. ^[33]

For PLTR stock, this is another example of the company’s strengths and risks being intertwined: government demand can be durable and large, but certain mission areas can also bring heightened public scrutiny.

Macro backdrop: AI trade volatility still matters

Even for a company-specific story like Palantir, the broader AI market mood continues to influence daily moves. Reuters recently reported renewed investor concerns about AI-related overvaluation after disappointing updates from major tech names, reflecting the ongoing tension between long-term AI optimism and near-term worries about spending efficiency and execution. ^[34]

For Palantir, that means the stock can move on both company news (contracts, guidance, partnerships) and sector flows (risk-on vs. risk-off in AI).

What to watch next for Palantir stock heading into 2026

With PLTR already up sharply in 2025, investors are likely to focus on a few concrete checkpoints:

Next earnings and guidance update: Stock Analysis lists an earnings date in early February 2026, which will likely be the next major catalyst for revisiting growth expectations and margins. ^[35]
ShipOS expansion signals: Any evidence that ShipOS scales beyond initial deployments—or becomes a template for other defense logistics transformations—could reinforce the bull thesis. ^[36]
Follow-through from Tech Force and federal modernization: Investors will be watching for staffing momentum, procurement activity, or agency-level programs that could translate “modernization initiative” into budget allocations that benefit platform vendors. ^[37]
Valuation tolerance: With forward P/E levels still extremely high, the market may demand continued “beat-and-raise” style execution—or else compress the multiple even if the business grows. ^[38]