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PLTR · Forward model · Karp case

The Karp case, 20 quarters out

Model as of

Each segment is projected from its own operating driver, rolled up into consolidated cash flow, and discounted back to a fair value per share. The assumptions below are editable — change them and every number on this page moves with them.

Palantir publishes the two axes SEPARATELY, never as a grid. Segment revenue (Government, Commercial) is reported with a contribution margin for each; geography is reported as United States and rest of world with no segment split. The four boxes are reachable because U.S. commercial and U.S. government revenue appear in the release highlights every quarter, so the two international boxes are exact residuals: segment revenue less the U.S. figure. That arithmetic reconciles — for the basis quarter it gives $181.4M international commercial and $181.0M international government, summing to $362.5M against the disclosed $362.417M rest-of-world, the $47K gap being the rounding of the U.S. figures to the million. The CFO independently stated $182M and $181M for those two lines on the Q2 call, which confirms the method rather than replacing it. What is genuinely ASSUMED is the MARGIN split by geography. Contribution margin is disclosed by segment only — 78% commercial and 71% government in the basis quarter — so both commercial boxes carry 78% and both government boxes carry 71%, and any real difference between U.S. and international economics is invisible here. Note also that contribution is defined as segment revenue less cost of revenue and sales and marketing only: research and development, general and administrative and ALL stock-based compensation are unallocated, and sit in the corporate layer, which is what makes contribution less overhead reconcile exactly to GAAP income from operations. Volume units are disclosed for one box only. Palantir publishes a U.S. commercial customer count (653) and a total trailing-twelve-month customer count (1,049), but never a government, international or per-geography count, so three of the four boxes have no knowable driver. On the projection itself: the base case honours the raised U.S. commercial guide, landing 2026 at $3.44B against the "in excess of $3.424B" Palantir guided, and lands the company at $8.28B against the $8.150-8.158B total guide - about 1.5% high. The two guides cannot both bind unless government and international decelerate abruptly in the second half, and that gap is the conservatism in a guide Palantir has raised every quarter. It is left visible rather than tuned away. One consequence of putting all stock compensation in the corporate layer: free cash flow here runs near 36% of revenue where Palantir's reported figure runs above 60%, because the reported number adds stock compensation back and pays almost no cash tax against accumulated losses. This model charges both - 27.1% of revenue in overhead including the full $265M quarterly stock-compensation expense, and the 23.0% long-run tax rate Palantir itself uses for adjusted EPS. That is the conservative reading, and it is the consistent one, because share count is held flat: if the dilution is not charged to the share count it has to be charged to the cash flow. Every historical bar carries the estimated-split marker, which is correct - consolidated revenue is reported in every quarter, but two of the four boxes inside it are derived by subtraction in every quarter.

PLTR forward model
Horizon
Fair value per share $337.31 +80% against $187.05
Terminal-year revenue $65.09B last four projected quarters
Enterprise value $857.04B $48.74B explicit + $808.30B terminal

The founder's stated commitment taken literally. Karp told the Q2 call he is driving the WHOLE business to grow at or above the U.S. commercial rate for the next eighteen months - so every box is lifted here, not just the one that is already compounding. That requires 653 accounts to keep expanding at something close to 157% net dollar retention while the account count adds only about a third a year, and it requires $2.132B of U.S. commercial TCV in a single quarter to keep repeating. What this case does NOT reach is coverage: even here, most of the revenue in the back half of the horizon comes from contracts not yet signed, because only $4.9B is non-cancelable and 43% of that lands within twelve months. It is a claim about demand, not a claim about backlog.

PLTR REVENUE MODEL

Latest: $18.54B (2031Q2E)

Period Value
2024Q3 $726M
2024Q4 $828M
2025Q1 $884M
2025Q2 $1.00B
2025Q3 $1.18B
2025Q4 $1.41B
2026Q1 $1.63B
2026Q2 $1.94B
2026Q3E $2.25B
2026Q4E $2.60B
2027Q1E $2.99B
2027Q2E $3.42B
2027Q3E $3.89B
2027Q4E $4.41B
2028Q1E $4.98B
2028Q2E $5.60B
2028Q3E $6.28B
2028Q4E $7.01B
2029Q1E $7.80B
2029Q2E $8.66B
2029Q3E $9.59B
2029Q4E $10.59B
2030Q1E $11.68B
2030Q2E $12.85B
2030Q3E $14.11B
2030Q4E $15.48B
2031Q1E $16.95B
2031Q2E $18.54B
Scenarios

Where each case comes from

Bear case — primary sources

The primary sources this case is built from — filings, calls and posts. Where they are claims by an interested party rather than disclosures, every number in the Bear column is what happens if they are taken at face value.

Valuation

From cash flow to fair value

The published model, discounted at 10.0% a year with an exit multiple of 20.0x on revenue. The horizon and sliders above do not change this walk.

Present value of free cash flow, 20 quarters$48.74B
Terminal-year revenue$65.09B
Terminal-year EBITDA$34.63B
Exit multiple, on revenue20.0x
Terminal value$1.30T
Discounted at 10.0% a year, terminal value becomes$808.30B
Share of enterprise value from the terminal94%
Enterprise value$857.04B
Net cash$9.41B
Equity value$866.44B
Shares2.57B
Fair value per share$337.31
Against the deployed price of $187.05, as of +80%

10% on a business with $9.4B of net cash, no debt and a 55% GAAP net margin, marked up for key-man risk and for the half of revenue that is terminable for convenience. 15x terminal revenue on a cash margin near 60% is about 25x cash flow - a mature compounder, and a long way below the roughly 55x forward sales the shares carry today.

Read the other way round: at $187.05 the market is paying 10.4x terminal-year revenue, holding every other assumption on this page fixed. That is the number to argue about.

Quarter by quarter

The projected path

The published model's 20 quarters. The horizon and sliders above do not change this table.

Quarter U.S. commercialU.S. governmentInternational commercialInternational government Revenue YoY EBITDA Capex FCF R40 PV of FCF
2026 Q3E $969M$899M$189M$192M $2.25B +90% $1.12B $22M $843M +128 $823M
2026 Q4E $1.21B$991M$196M$203M $2.60B +85% $1.30B $26M $981M +122 $935M
2027 Q1E $1.49B$1.09B$203M$214M $2.99B +83% $1.50B $30M $1.14B +121 $1.06B
2027 Q2E $1.80B$1.18B$211M$225M $3.42B +77% $1.73B $34M $1.31B +115 $1.19B
2027 Q3E $2.16B$1.28B$218M$235M $3.89B +73% $1.98B $39M $1.50B +112 $1.33B
2027 Q4E $2.56B$1.38B$226M$246M $4.41B +70% $2.26B $44M $1.71B +109 $1.48B
2028 Q1E $3.01B$1.48B$234M$257M $4.98B +67% $2.56B $50M $1.94B +106 $1.64B
2028 Q2E $3.51B$1.58B$241M$269M $5.60B +64% $2.89B $56M $2.19B +103 $1.81B
2028 Q3E $4.06B$1.69B$249M$280M $6.28B +61% $3.26B $63M $2.46B +100 $1.98B
2028 Q4E $4.67B$1.79B$257M$291M $7.01B +59% $3.65B $70M $2.76B +98 $2.17B
2029 Q1E $5.34B$1.90B$266M$303M $7.80B +57% $4.08B $78M $3.08B +96 $2.37B
2029 Q2E $6.06B$2.01B$274M$315M $8.66B +55% $4.54B $87M $3.43B +94 $2.58B
2029 Q3E $6.86B$2.12B$283M$327M $9.59B +53% $5.04B $96M $3.81B +92 $2.79B
2029 Q4E $7.73B$2.23B$292M$340M $10.59B +51% $5.58B $106M $4.22B +91 $3.02B
2030 Q1E $8.67B$2.35B$301M$353M $11.68B +50% $6.17B $117M $4.66B +90 $3.26B
2030 Q2E $9.70B$2.47B$310M$366M $12.85B +48% $6.80B $128M $5.14B +88 $3.51B
2030 Q3E $10.82B$2.59B$320M$380M $14.11B +47% $7.49B $141M $5.66B +87 $3.77B
2030 Q4E $12.04B$2.72B$330M$393M $15.48B +46% $8.23B $155M $6.22B +86 $4.05B
2031 Q1E $13.36B$2.84B$340M$408M $16.95B +45% $9.03B $170M $6.82B +85 $4.34B
2031 Q2E $14.80B$2.98B$350M$423M $18.54B +44% $9.89B $185M $7.47B +85 $4.64B

Every row is projected. A year-over-year change is shown only where the quarter it compares against exists — an em dash means there is no comparable quarter, not a flat year.

Track record

Model revisions

Assumptions are marked to reality as each quarter prints. Every change is appended here, with the fair value the model produced at the time, so the model's own history stays visible.

DateFair value thenNote
2026-08-24 $166.13 First build, on the 2026 Q2 basis, from the intake brief.