Shares of Palantir Technologies Inc. shot up about 12% in late trading today after the big-data analytics company beat analyst expectations in its fiscal second quarter and forecast a higher-than-expected outlook thanks to increasing growth in artificial intelligence.

For the quarter ended June 30, Palantir reported adjusted earnings per share of nine cents, up from five cents per share in the same quarter of fiscal 2023, on revenue of $678 million, up 27% year-over-year. Analysts had expected eight cents a share on revenue of $653 million.

The company saw net income from operations in the quarter of $134 million and adjusted income of $254 million. Palantir’s solid numbers were driven by strong growth in U.S. commercial revenue, which was up 55% year-over-year to $159 million, driven by the number of U.S. customers growing 83% to 295. U.S. government revenue also grew, up 24% year-over-year to $278 million.

Palantir ended the quarter with $4 billion in cash, cash equivalents and short-term U.S. treasury security on hand, up from $3.9 billion in the previous quarter.

In a letter to shareholders, Palantir Chief Executive Officer Alex Carp said that the company’s growth “across the commercial and government markets has been driven by an unrelenting wave of demand from customers for artificial intelligence systems that go beyond the merely performative and academic.”

Karp noted in the letter that only four years ago, Palantir only had 14 commercial customers in the U.S. but is now nearly 300. “Our flagship artificial intelligence platform was launched just over a year ago and it has already transformed our business,” Karp said.

Discussing the AI side of Palantir’s business, Jordan Berger, an analyst at the research firm Third Bridge Group Ltd., told SiliconANGLE in an email that Palantir’s “second-quarter 2024 U.S. commercial performance tells us that Palantir’s value proposition for AI and generative AI solutions continues to resonate with customers despite a crowded and opaque market landscape.”

For its fiscal third quarter, Palantir expects revenue of $697 million to $701 million and adjusted income from operations of $233 million to $237 million. The revenue outlook was ahead of the predicted $681 million.

For the full year, Palantir raised its revenue guidance upward to $2.742 billion to $2.75 billion, up from an outlook of $2.677 billion to $2.689 billion given in the previous quarter.

Image: Palantir