⚠ The Customers It Paid ForLow threat

Palantir Technologies (PLTR) — threat to the moat

Palantir's 2021 contracts with companies it invested in now produce about $400,000 a quarter, the cost of buying customers rather than winning them.

Palantir once tried to buy commercial growth, and the result is still in its filings. In 2021 it invested in newly listed companies that signed software contracts with it, the so-called strategic commercial contracts. Their total value was $492.7 million at the end of 20221; by the end of 2025 it was $326.1 million, with "no remaining contractual options"2.

Strategic commercial contracts, total value ($M)492.7Dec 2022326.1Dec 2025Palantir Forms 10-K FY2022 and FY2025
Contracts that stopped paying.

The revenue has almost vanished. On the second-quarter 2026 call management said "Revenue from these contracts was approximately $400,000"3, a negligible share of $1.935 billion of quarterly revenue4. The investments themselves cost Palantir $272.1 million of net unrealised and realised losses in 20225.

The episode matters because it shows the difference between customers who chose the platform and customers who were paid to take it. The bootcamp customers expand; the funded ones did not.

The lesson for investors is to watch for its return. If Palantir again finances its own customers, through investments or unusually generous terms, to keep growth high, the quality of revenue will have fallen. The strategic contracts' revenue, now near zero, is the benchmark against which any new arrangement should be judged.

References
  1. ReportedTheir total value was $492.7 million at the end of 2022; by the end of 2025 it was $326.1 million, with "no remaining contractual options".
    Palantir Technologies Form 10-K for fiscal 2022 - segment revenue and contribution for 2020-2022, US revenue for 2020-2022, US government revenue for 2021-2022, strategic commercial contracts and investment losses. — FY2022 · publ. February 2023 · source ↗
  2. ReportedTheir total value was $492.7 million at the end of 2022; by the end of 2025 it was $326.1 million, with "no remaining contractual options".
    Palantir Technologies Form 10-K for fiscal 2025 - Item 1 business: platforms, employees, competition, pilots and government programmes. — FY2025 · publ. 17 February 2026 · source ↗
  3. ReportedOn the second-quarter 2026 call management said "Revenue from these contracts was approximately $400,000", a negligible share of $1.935 billion of quarterly revenue.
    The Motley Fool, Palantir Q2 2026 earnings call transcript - international revenue, total remaining deal value, RPO growth, Maven and a large technology contract. — Q2 2026 · publ. 3 August 2026 · source ↗
  4. ReportedOn the second-quarter 2026 call management said "Revenue from these contracts was approximately $400,000", a negligible share of $1.935 billion of quarterly revenue.
    Palantir second-quarter 2026 results release, Form 8-K exhibit 99.1 - revenue, US commercial and government revenue, deal counts, TCV, US commercial RDV, cash and raised 2026 guidance - second-quarter results: revenue by line, margins, deal counts, contract value, cash and stock pay. — Q2 2026 · publ. 3 August 2026 · source ↗
  5. ReportedThe investments themselves cost Palantir $272.1 million of net unrealised and realised losses in 2022.
    Palantir Technologies Form 10-K for fiscal 2022 - segment revenue and contribution for 2020-2022, US revenue for 2020-2022, US government revenue for 2021-2022, strategic commercial contracts and investment losses. — FY2022 · publ. February 2023 · source ↗
Sources
Generated September 25, 2026