PLTR stock jumps 4% after Goldman Sachs upgrades Palantir to Buy with $230 target, but the valuation debate is far from over

Palantir Technologies shares rose today after Goldman Sachs upgraded the stock to Buy from Neutral and set a $230 12-month price target.

PLTR was at $201.20, up 4.14%. The stock had closed at $194.12 the previous session. Goldman's target implies about 18.5% upside from that close. At $201.20, the gap to $230 is closer to 14.3%.

Palantir wasn't moving with the broader software market. The Goldman note was the main catalyst.


Goldman analyst Gabriela Borges said Palantir could be entering another period of stronger performance into 2027. Her argument rests on a bigger potential market, not simply higher demand for the products the company already sells.

Palantir stock gains after Goldman Sachs raises its outlook, but Wall Street remains split on what PLTR is worth

Borges identified sovereign AI, bespoke applications and Palantir's vertical strategy as the three areas that could deepen the company's addressable market.

Sovereign AI has become a bigger part of the company's pitch. Governments and enterprises want more control over where their data sits, how AI models are deployed and who can access the systems. Palantir has been building around that demand.

In September, Palantir expanded its partnership with Fujitsu. Fujitsu agreed to build stronger Forward Deployed Engineering capabilities and use Palantir's Foundry and Artificial Intelligence Platform for customers in Japan and other markets. Palantir said the partnership is aimed at custom AI applications operating inside controlled environments.

Palantir's latest numbers give Goldman room to make that case

Palantir's second-quarter figures were strong enough to give the bullish argument some hard financial backing.

Revenue reached $1.94 billion, up 93% from a year earlier and 19% from the prior quarter. U.S. revenue grew 115% year over year to $1.57 billion.

The commercial side was growing even faster. U.S. commercial revenue rose 149% to $764 million, while U.S. government revenue increased 90% to $809 million.

Palantir closed 220 deals worth at least $1 million during the quarter. Ninety-eight were worth at least $5 million, and 73 reached at least $10 million.

Overall total contract value rose 49% year over year to $3.37 billion. U.S. commercial remaining deal value climbed 124% to $6.24 billion. That figure represents the value of remaining contractual business, not revenue that has already been booked.

Cash generation also stood out. Adjusted free cash flow was $1.22 billion, equal to a 63% margin. Adjusted operating income reached $1.19 billion, a 62% margin.

The other major question in Goldman's note concerns Palantir's Forward Deployed Engineering model.

The company uses engineers close to customers to build and modify software around real operating needs. That gives Palantir a direct feedback loop between the people using its products and the teams developing them.

Borges' view is that Palantir has refined that process enough to automate parts of it with AI.

Customized software can generate larger and more useful deployments, but it can also require more human work. AI-assisted engineering could reduce some of that burden.

Palantir has already been developing AI FDE tools. Its first-quarter 2026 business update described systems that use agents to write AIP functions, create evaluations and debug code in a controlled development loop.

Palantir's today move stood out because other major software stocks were largely quiet.

The market data showed Salesforce around $224.80, up 0.1%, and ServiceNow near $138.28, up 0.3%. The iShares Expanded Tech-Software Sector ETF was down about 0.6%, while QQQ was down roughly 0.7%.

Palantir's position is also somewhat different from companies such as Salesforce and ServiceNow. Its software is built around data, operations, workflows and customized applications, with its Ontology serving as a common structure connecting those elements.