Alex Karp, CEO of Palantir Technologies, attends the 56th annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, January 20, 2026.
Denis Balibouse | Reuters
Palantir was an exception in a difficult week for the sotck exchangeas a software and services provider to the U.S. government, saw its shares rebound 15% following the U.S. attack on Iran.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq fell 1.2% for the week, pushed lower by names like Apple, Google And Micronand other benchmarks fell as oil prices soared and a report showed that The US economy unexpectedly lost jobs in February.
But with President Donald Trump Showing no signs that the war in Iran is nearing a quick end, investors have rushed into Palantir, which relies on government spending for about 60% of its revenue and has stepped up its collaboration with military and intelligence agencies. Meanwhile, Wall Street appears unconcerned about the government’s blacklisting of artificial intelligence company Anthropic, which began partnering with Palantir in the defense space in late 2024.
Rosenblatt analysts maintained their Buy recommendation on the stock and raised their price target from $150 to $200. The stock closed Friday at $157.16
The analysts wrote that “conflict in the Middle East bodes well” for Palantir’s government pipeline and that there are “adequate alternatives” to Anthropic’s Claude models. They added that other deals, like the company’s contract with the military, could be in the works.
Last year, Palantir signed a A 10 billion dollar pact with the Army. The company also provides AI capabilities, such as weapons for the military, through its Maven Intelligent system programand its tools were used in Iran.
As for its work with Anthropic, Palantir has said nothing publicly about its plans. The Ministry of Defense announcement A week ago, Anthropic’s technology would be excluded from government contracts after the two sides failed to reach an agreement on how AI models could be used in relation to autonomous weapons and domestic surveillance.
Thursday, Anthropic recognized that it had been officially notified of its designation as a supply chain risk, and CEO Dario Amodei said in a blog post that he had “no choice” but to challenge the decision in court.
Amazon, Microsoft And Googlethe three leaders in cloud infrastructure, all subsequently said they will continue to offer Anthropic products to customers on their clouds for non-defense projects.
Palantir and Amazon Web Services partnered with Anthropic in November 2024 to integrate Claude models on AWS and make them available to defense and intelligence agencies. In July, Anthropic won a $200 million contract with the Department of Defense and was the first AI lab to integrate its models on classified networks.
Analysts at Piper Sandler wrote in a note Tuesday that Anthropic is a “pioneer” of AI in a data-sensitive environment like government, and suggested replacing it would be a headache. Still, they have a Buy rating and a $230 price target on Palantir.
“Although PLTR is model-agnostic, integrating and reestablishing on-board AI functions will take time,” the analysts wrote. “Time could have been spent on growth opportunities.”
Another factor at play in Palantir’s rally this week was bounce in software stocks. The sector has been hammered in recent months by fears that AI will replace software and disrupt long-standing business models. New AI tools, including a security offering from Anthropic, have further fueled concerns, contributing to a cybersecurity liquidation.
This week, the iShares Expanded Tech-Software Sector ETF jumped nearly 8%. Crowd strike, ServiceNow And AppLovin each jumped more than 15% each.
“We got to a point where everyone was running out of software,” Gil Luria, an analyst at DA Davidson, said in an interview. “Once you get to that point, things start to stabilize and we get closer to the bottom. It’s all just market dynamics.”
WATCH: Anthropic to challenge supply chain risk designation in court
