KYIV, May 13, 2026, 21:03 EEST
- Palantir CEO Alex Karp sat down with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in Kyiv, with Ukraine pushing forward on artificial intelligence in its wartime efforts.
- Palantir slipped 4.4% to $129.97 during afternoon hours on the Nasdaq.
- Rapid growth in both U.S. government and commercial segments has investors weighing upside potential against valuation concerns and intensifying AI rivalry.
Palantir Technologies shares slipped Wednesday, despite CEO Alex Karp’s meeting with President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, which again highlighted the U.S. software firm’s role in Ukraine’s ramped-up wartime AI deployment.
Timing is crucial here. Ukraine is working to speed up air-defense and strike responses by leveraging real-time battlefield data. Russia, for its part, continues using drones to target Ukrainian cities. The Associated Press said Russia launched no fewer than 800 drones at around 20 regions on Wednesday, leaving at least six dead and dozens injured.
Brave1 Dataroom, a Kyiv initiative with ties to Palantir, is designed for training and testing AI models on wartime data collected since Russia’s 2022 invasion. Part of the aim: use the software to help stop Russian drones, Reuters noted.
Zelenskiy’s office said he and Karp talked over tech for both military and civilian use, and committed to keeping their teams in touch. According to Zelenskiy, there’s potential for both sides to “be useful to one another” in shoring up defense for Ukraine, the U.S., and other allies. president.gov.ua
Ukraine’s defense minister Mykhailo Fedorov didn’t mince words after his meeting with Karp. “Technology, AI, data analysis and the mathematics of warfare” — those, he said, are now shaping results on the ground. According to Fedorov, over 100 firms are working on training upwards of 80 models aimed at spotting and taking down aerial threats. Reuters
Launched in partnership with Palantir earlier this year, the Dataroom offers Ukrainian defense developers a secure space to train AI tools for military use. According to Ukraine’s defense ministry, the platform already houses both visual and thermal datasets covering aerial targets—Shahed-type drones among them—and supports testing for detection, classification, and autonomous interception models.
For Palantir, the Ukraine contracts play straight into its pitch: more of its software is getting woven into defense, intelligence, and government operations. Earlier this month, Palantir bumped up its revenue outlook for 2026, setting a new range of $7.65 billion to $7.66 billion. First-quarter revenue climbed 85%, reaching $1.63 billion.
U.S. commercial revenue soared 133% in the first quarter, Palantir reported, with U.S. government revenue up 84%. CEO Karp described the U.S. as Palantir’s “constant core” and told shareholders the business was “erupting.” Reuters
Even so, the stock trades at a steep valuation. As of Wednesday, it carried a market cap around $334 billion and a price-earnings ratio close to 146. That puts the cost at about 146 times earnings per share for investors.
Morningstar’s Mark Giarelli left his fair value estimate for Palantir unchanged at $153 this week, writing that the price tag “can make sense,” though it hinges on “things need to go well.” Giarelli also pointed out that investors remain focused on whether the rise of frontier AI model firms could challenge Palantir’s main software business. Morningstar
Still, the risk looms large. Morningstar tags Palantir with a “Very High” uncertainty rating, pointing to doubts about the company’s ultimate market size, its ability to deepen customer engagement, and the threat from lower-cost AI models making entry easier for competitors. The firm flagged OpenAI and Anthropic as possible challengers, especially if agentic large language models—those capable of planning and acting—keep advancing. Morningstar
Prediction markets weren’t eager to call a bounce. On Polymarket, just 1% of bets backed Palantir to close higher on May 13, with $4.4K traded on the contract. Traders on a separate market for the week of May 11 put the stock’s chances of slipping to $129 at 84%.
Palantir is right back where it’s been before. Headlines keep fueling the company’s pitch around defense-focused AI, yet the stock isn’t pricing in much risk—there’s hardly any cushion for mistakes. Ukraine offers management a real-time, high-stakes example of its tech in action. Now, Wall Street wants to know what kind of valuation that story justifies.
