At AIPCon, an invitation-only special event hosted by Palantir Technologies (PLTR), CEO Alex Karp explained how the company can apply lessons learned in war situations to drive business and productivity growth.
Karp highlighted the company's ongoing relationship with the U.S. government: The Pentagon recently revealed it had awarded Palantir a five-year, $480 million contract to work on a project called “Maven” to develop smart systems that will give warfighters and analysts faster and more accurate information on the battlefield for tasks like identifying enemy targets.
“The country is really focused on leveraging AI to gain a structural advantage in deploying and understanding the battlefield,” Karp told Yahoo Finance (video above) at AIPCon in downtown Palo Alto, Calif. “And Palantir is playing a key role in that space.”
Hundreds of people gathered on Thursday for an event where the data analytics company introduced its Artificial Intelligence Platform (AIP).
More than 70 customers are scheduled to speak to the audience about how they are integrating and leveraging Palantir's artificial intelligence tools in their own businesses, while Palantir engineers sat side-by-side with customers to collaborate on what they can build with the software.
Participating companies include United Airlines (UAL), Lear (LEA), and Wendy's (WEN).
“I'm not paying them to give presentations,” Karp said of the clients who spoke at AIPCon. “The reason they give presentations is because they're like, 'Wow, I never thought this would work, but now it's working really well.'”
The Denver-based software company has hosted more than 1,300 conferences in the U.S. and around the world. These events have driven Palantir's U.S. commercial revenue, which reached $150 million in the first quarter, up 40% from the same period last year.
Attending Thursday's conference was John Couris, president and CEO of the Florida Health Science Center, which includes Tampa General Hospital, which recently announced a deal with Palantir to use AI software.
Specifically, the hospital will implement Palantir's AIP to create what it is calling a new care coordination operating system to help hospital staff make faster decisions about bed placement and staffing to improve clinical outcomes for patients.
“This will undoubtedly improve care, clinical outcomes and the patient experience,” Couris said. “It will make physicians more efficient and effective, it will make nurses and allied health professionals more efficient and effective, and it will help administrators lead their organizations in a whole different way.”
Palantir's Role in the AI Era
While Palantir has been gaining traction among commercial clients, it was originally best known for its work with Washington and U.S. intelligence agencies, including the CIA.
The company was co-founded in 2004 by Karp, billionaire Peter Thiel and 8VC managing partner Joe Lonsdale, and is named after the magical crystal ball in J.R.R Tolkien's novel “The Lord of the Rings.”
Palantir engineers have developed software that enables customers to import large amounts of data, from images to spreadsheets, into a central system and then securely analyze and interpret it using maps and graphs.
“Through our software, we're enabling other software companies and hardware companies to work on our platform,” Karp added of working with the U.S. government. “So this isn't just a win for Palantir. It's a win for the tech ecosystem that runs this country, frankly.”
Palantir is best known for selling software to the U.S. government and its allies, but it's the traction the company is gaining in the enterprise space that has won it the support of some Wall Street investors and financial analysts.
Jefferies analyst Brent Till said he is encouraged by Palantir's fundamentals and improving business, particularly the strength of its AI business.
“I think these mini-bootcamps that they're doing are getting more at-bats,” Till said of AIPCon, “so they're getting more customer engagement by doing these smaller bootcamps.” [software] It increases the number of installs, which in turn increases transaction velocity for the company.”
Till is currently recommending holding the stock due to valuation concerns.
“This is one of the most expensive stocks we carry,” he said.
Some argue that AI is now a historic turning point for the technology sector and the economy at large, a new megatrend that will transform and redefine business and economic development. For example, Nvidia (NVDA) CEO Jensen Huang recently stated that “the next industrial revolution has begun.”
Karp is clearly confident about his company’s role and leadership in this era of AI.
“Talk to our 70 customers,” he said, referring to those presenting at today's conference, “and they think they're winning.”
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