Palantir Explained: How It’s Redefining Enterprise AI

In this episode of The Macro AI Podcast, Gary and Scott take a deep dive into Palantir Technologies — the company quietly transforming how organizations use artificial intelligence to make real-world decisions. 

They explain what Palantir actually is (and isn’t), how its four platforms — Gotham, Foundry, Apollo, and AIP — work together to fuse data, decisions, and actions, and why its ontology-driven architecture has become the blueprint for operational AI at scale. 

The conversation explores Palantir’s: 

• Government and commercial growth engine, including NHS and DoD programs 
• Financial transformation into a profitable, recurring-revenue software company 
• Competitive landscape, from cloud hyperscalers (Microsoft, AWS, Google, IBM, Oracle) to modern AI platforms (Databricks, Snowflake, C3.ai), BI specialists (Tableau, Splunk, Alteryx, SAS), and defense-sector rival Govini 
• Platform differentiation — how Palantir uniquely unifies structured and unstructured data into a single, governable operating system 

Gary and Scott close with practical lessons for executives: how to evaluate enterprise AI platforms, what to ask vendors, and why Palantir’s model represents the next phase of AI transformation — moving beyond analytics toward true decision infrastructure. 

Whether you’re a CEO, CIO, or board member exploring how to operationalize AI responsibly, this episode gives you the clearest explanation yet of what makes Palantir different — and why its approach may define the next decade of enterprise intelligence. 

Links & References: 

• Palantir Investor Relations – Quarterly Results and AIP Overview 
• Govini Ark Platform Overview 
• Macro AI Podcast Executive AI Readiness Checklist 

SEO Tags / Keywords 

palantir technologies, palantir ai, palantir explained, palantir foundry, palantir gotham, palantir aip, palantir apollo, enterprise ai, ai for business, data ontology, ai operating system, macro ai podcast, gary and scott, ai transformation, databricks vs palantir, snowflake ai, govini defense analytics, artificial intelligence platforms, ai governance, ai decision making, ai strategy for executives 

About your AI Guides

Gary Sloper

https://www.linkedin.com/in/gsloper/

Scott Bryan

https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottjbryan/

Macro AI Website:

https://www.macroaipodcast.com/

Macro AI LinkedIn Page:

https://www.linkedin.com/company/macro-ai-podcast/

Gary's Free AI Readiness Assessment:

https://macronetservices.com/events/the-comprehensive-guide-to-ai-readiness

Scott's Content & Blog

https://www.macronomics.ai/blog

Transcript

00:00
Welcome to the Macro AI Podcast,  where your expert guides Gary Sloper and Scott Bryan navigate the ever-evolving world of artificial intelligence.  Step into the future with us  as we uncover how AI is revolutionizing the global business landscape  from nimble startups to Fortune 500 giants.  Whether you're a seasoned executive,  an ambitious entrepreneur,

00:27
or simply eager to harness AI's potential,  we've got you covered.  Expect actionable insights,  conversations with industry trailblazers  and service providers,  and proven strategies to keep you ahead in a world being shaped rapidly by innovation.  Gary and Scott are here to decode the complexities of AI  and to bring forward ideas that can transform cutting-edge technology  into real-world business success.

00:57
So join us,  let's explore, learn  and lead together.

01:05
Welcome back to the Macro AI podcast and thanks for joining us for episode 50. We've had 50 episodes on this podcast and I can't thank our listeners enough. So I'm here today. My name is Gary Sloper. I'm with Scott Bryan. We're drilling into one of the most fascinating and misunderstood players in the AI world, Palantir Technologies. Yeah, I'm Scott here. And uh like Gary said, thanks for joining us for episode 50. Pretty  exciting. ah Yeah. So Palantir, it's not just another

01:35
AI stock, although it is up a couple hundred percent since last year. It's a company that's kind of been quietly in the back, building operating systems for AI driven enterprises and also for governments. So whether you're a senior leader or a CIO, we're just really kind of curious about how AI can run at mission critical scale. This episode should be an interesting one for you.

02:02
Yeah, that's right, Scott. We'll break down what Palantir actually does, how its platforms work, ah its financial engine, its key competitors, including Govini, Databricks, Snowflake, Microsoft, and AWS. And most importantly, what executives can learn from its approach to operational AI. Yeah. And something that a lot of executives,  some of them might ask is, you know, could something like Palantir transform how my business runs?

02:32
And I think in this episode, we'll cover some of that for you.

02:41
Great.  Let's dig into uh the basics here of what Palantir is and isn't.  And I think there's still a lot of  mythology around Palantir. The name really evokes secrecy and intelligence work, a kind of shadowy data company vibe. You can't see my air quotes, ah but  I think that's what people think when they first hear the name. Yeah, but I think the reality is even more interesting. ah Palantir, don't...

03:10
sell anyone's data, they build software. And specifically they build oh data operating systems that can help organizations make sense of complex, fragmented information and they help them use it to act intelligently. Yeah, I think that's a really good point.  I most analytics tools  really tell you what happened. Palantir helps you decide what to do next and then actually does it through

03:39
whatever business systems you have. That's really the foundation of what they call operational intelligence. Exactly. Yeah. So picture a military command center,  a global logistics network, or a major healthcare system. These types of environments can't wait for quarterly reports. They really need them in real time to help with real time decisions that are executed safely. um So obviously think of military work. That's what you need.

04:06
And Palantir builds the connective tissue that lets data, decisions and actions all live inside the same loop. Yeah, exactly. And Palantir does that through what they call an ontology. So an ontology is essentially a digital model of how your organization operates. Think of it as, you know, it's mapping relationships between things like customers, assets, orders and suppliers. So that

04:35
artificial intelligence can reason about your business  in your own language. Yep. Yeah. And that's, think that's what makes them unique. Volunteer isn't just doing analytics.  It's  closing the loop between insight, decision and execution and all under strict governance. Yeah. And in that sense, they've built something larger than analytics. It's the operating infrastructure for responsible real world AI.  If you really break it down.

05:05
Um, and, I think, you know, Palantir's product stack really has,  you know, they've kind of labeled out four key pillars  and, and to really understand Palantir, we need to kind of walk through their stack. And I think that will help you as a listener, understand them a little bit more if you're not as familiar with them and, and those four key platforms,  um, that, that have kind of been labeled out, uh, the four are Gotham, Foundry, Apollo, and AIP. And each

05:35
really serves a specific mission, which maybe Scott, kind of dig into that a little bit more. I we talked about that before the show. Yeah, I can, I'll start with Gotham. That's their original platform.  It's the one that is built for defense, intelligence and homeland security. Those are places where decisions are urgent. It's where decisions are high stakes and Gotham fuses massive data streams, satellite imagery, field reports, logistics data.

06:03
and helps analysts model out real world information to make better informed decisions and coordinated decisions. that's Gotham. Yeah. Good points there. And then  the second one that I mentioned, Foundry, that's the commercial twin of Gotham. So Foundry applies the same architecture, you know, to enterprises that you were just talking about, Scott, really fusing internal systems, external feeds and workflows into

06:32
a unified view of operations.  It's really where businesses build their data ontology,  which comes out as uh basically a digital  blueprint of how their operations really work. Yeah. So Foundry being the commercialized version of Gotham, like you said, and I  think that ontology is really powerful. So  once your data is structured around how your organization thinks,  things like orders, claims,  assets, plant, uh AI can operate

07:02
directly on it. And that's what turns analytics into actual actionable operations. Yeah.  And that third, you know, piece of the platform, Apollo, it's really the quiet powerhouse within Palantir. So it's their continuous delivery and deployment layer. essentially think of DevOps ah for an entire Palantir ecosystem. That's really where Apollo plays in that, that four stack  component.

07:31
Yeah, exactly. Apollo lets Palantir software run anywhere.  So in the cloud, on-prem,  you your cold-off facility, ah or in air-gapped classified networks that have no connection to the global internet. So it handles  version control updates  and compliance all automatically. So if you're in defense energy or ah some kind of critical infrastructure,  that's a big  differentiator.

08:01
Right, right.  That's a point. And really the last component of the four-legged stool is AIP. So that's Artificial Intelligence Platform, AIP.  This is Palantir's growth engine and what's driving really its commercial surge that a lot of users are taking advantage of. Yeah, exactly.

08:24
And it, AIP connects to connects LLM is large language models and predictive models directly to that ontology, but with built-in governance and guardrails. So it allows you to create AI agents that can take real actions like, you know, update a forecast, reroute supply chains or generate reports.  Um,  and  it also enables  a human oversight and pull audit ability. Yeah. And AIP is also.

08:53
model agnostic, you can use OpenAI, Anthropic, know, a couple LLMs that we've showcased here on the show, or your own in-house models, and AIP orchestrates them within your operational workflows, kind what we talked about at beginning of the show. Yeah. Yeah. And I think part of the, part of the brilliance in the, in the product offering is how they now deploy it. So it's through, you know, short boot camps. So in a few days, Palantir shows really

09:22
you know, measurable ROI on one use case and then, and then they expand. Yeah. Good point. So, so in summary, Gotham defends nations, Boundary runs enterprises, Apollo delivers anywhere and AIP really brings intelligence to action. So together they form one of the most really cohesive and battle tested AI ecosystems in existence as of today. Yep. Battle tested for sure. Yeah. So let's talk a little bit.

09:51
about their go-to-market and who actually buys it. ah So thinking about their ah go-to-market,  Palantir's customer base is split almost evenly between government and commercial. ah So government, including defense, intelligence, and healthcare provides a lot of stability in their revenue base. And then commercial, which  includes finance, manufacturing, energy, and logistics, ah

10:19
is a good strong  growth engine.  Yeah, that's a point. mean, their go-to-market is all about group through action. They start with a focused AI boot camp, which you mentioned a little while ago. And it's showing immediate operational value back into the business. And then it's expanding by users, or departments, or workflows. So it's really impactful ah just coming out of that boot camp uh focus session.

10:45
Yeah. And I think from a high level, their model is obviously working.  You see it reflected in their stock price, which is, like we said, it's been rocketing. Their U.S. commercial revenue is nearly doubled year over year. And the government side continues to scale and they keep adding long-term contracts ah like, you know, the UK's NHS, the Federated Data Platform. And I think everybody's familiar with a lot of the U.S. Department of Defense awards that they've already won. Yeah. Yeah. I think you were...

11:15
You were pretty bullish on Palantir last year. I remember you talking about that they, uh, it could be one of those growth stocks for sure. you you were early on them. Yep. Yeah. You know, and and really once they land it, it, when the new organization, tends to stay, I mean, the ontology becomes part of the organization's DNA. And I think that's incredibly sticky, not just from a platform standpoint, but just culturally.

11:41
ah especially a lot of these organizations that are still trying to figure out where they begin with AI.  This really is a  nice  option for organizations  to keep it in  platform, but also just getting your users  wrapped around the axle of  AI. ah So I think Palantir definitely has  leaped a lot of the competitors out there.  And I think

12:10
The financial engine, know, really what the numbers tell us, you know, I was just talking about the stock price, but if you look at their financial transformation over the past two years, it's been remarkable. They're, they're now gap profitable. So they're growing revenue, I think close to 40 % year over year, and it's producing a strong cashflow. So, so their investments or, you know, I don't, I don't have any sort of inside information. So I'll caveat that I, I'm an outsider, but you know, when you're

12:39
financially stable like that, could even be an M &A type of organization where they start seeing key components in the industry and gobble up some of those other tool sets that could really continue to right size them. So it should be interesting. Yeah, and I think what's interesting is when you look at the growth, it's not from consulting services, it's not consulting driven growth, it's software driven growth.

13:08
their model has shifted toward scalable recurring revenue with higher and higher margins. And then they can add onto that a lot of the consulting driven growth. Yeah, that's a good point because we all know very closely that consulting driven growth can be very lumpy where you can have more predictable usage and revenue forecasting with that ongoing residual based on a monthly or daily perspective. Financials love recurring revenue.

13:36
Yeah, they do. They do. mean, the US commercial is the breakout story here. I mean, that's where AIP is landing fast. ah It's shorter cycles, faster adoption, and higher customer retention. So it's definitely something to pay attention to if  this is a new company for you. Yeah. And I think right now they have over 5 billion in cash and virtually no debt. So they're obviously positioned to continue to expand aggressively without really needing capital markets.

14:05
Yeah, mean, financially, they've hit a turning point moving from, you know, that mission critical niche to global AI platform at scale. It's pretty impressive. ah So then if we think about the competitive landscape, you know, who really competes with Palantir? I've had that  question ah sent to me a couple of times uh from clients. And so if we're to talk about that, ah because Palantir operates in one of the most crowded and misunderstood markets in all of tech,

14:35
It's really the intersection of data, cloud, and AI. ah So that's  just from a baseline standpoint, something to think about here as we kind of go a little deeper. Yeah, exactly.  to uh make sense of it from uh a higher level, maybe group them into the competitors into three main categories. So you have  the hyperscalers  that everybody's familiar with, uh modern AI platforms,  and the specialized analytics tools.

15:05
And then there are some  key defense industry specific players like uh Govini that we'll talk a little bit more about. Yeah. Yeah. Good. Yeah. So I think I'll just take that first section.  first up, the hyperscalers,  Microsoft, Amazon, Google, IBM  and Oracle, they  obviously dominate the cloud infrastructure  and they have really rich AI and analytics ecosystems, obviously. So yeah, they're

15:34
they're in that competitive space. Well, Microsoft Stack, mean, you have Azure Synapse, Power BI, and now Microsoft Fabric, that gives Microsoft deep transaction  traction in enterprise accounts. So they already have a huge enterprise base for all the services they've had for years. So it's an easy conversation for Microsoft to have. AWS counters with Redshift, SageMaker, Bedrock, and they're really

16:03
offering everything from data warehousing to custom LLMs. And then when you look at another competitor, Google, you know, they're bringing in BigQuery, Vertex AI, and Looker into the whole mix. And they're really excelling in data science and uh machine learning workloads. So there is competition there. Yeah, then obviously  we haven't yet mentioned IBM and Oracle. They're obviously hugely relevant for large enterprise. uh

16:31
enterprises that have legacy systems, enterprises that that are, uh, have complex networks and IBM's Watson studio, uh, Oracle analytics cloud, they, they still compete for AI modernization projects, uh, continuously. Yeah. I think really unites these players is modularity. They're selling building blocks. So you look at Palantir on the other hand, they're selling the operating system that orchestrates across those blocks. It's additive, not.

17:00
directly a substitution,  which some of the other competitors might look to do. Yeah, exactly. ah So let's just cover the next group of competition for Palantir. It's really the modern data and AI platforms that'll be companies like Databricks, Snowflake,  C3 AI. Yeah, those are good ones. ah Databricks Lakehouse model, that merges structured and unstructured data for training and analytics. So

17:29
use case here, it's really ideal for teams that want to build their own AI infrastructure, which we're starting to see more clients want to do.  Yeah. And then there's a snowflake. Meanwhile, they're more evolving from a data warehouse  into an AI data cloud. And they're targeting some of the same  enterprise decision makers that Palantir serves in a commercial space. Sure. Yeah. And you mentioned C3 AI. You know, they're offering pre-built AI apps for

17:58
industries like energy, finance and defense.  So definitely some, some competition there. It overlaps with Palantir and government bids, but focuses more on app templates than on a deep operational platform that Palantir may offer. Yeah. And I think that's the difference that these players that we just mentioned are model builders and Palantir is a system orchestrator, like we've mentioned a few times and they're, fusing data AI and operations in that one ontology.

18:28
Yeah, that's a point. And if you were to look at, you know, business intelligence and specialized analytics tools,  um, you know, in those categories for BI, for example, and even the analytics specialists, you have folks like Tableau, Splunk, Alteryx and  SAS. Yeah. And in that category, Tableau leads in, uh, visualization,  uh, Splunk.

18:54
is really dominant in observability and machine data analytics. uh Alterix  simplifies the data prep  and SAS is just a continuous powerhouse and predictive modeling. Yeah,  I agree. Each fills a really an important niche, but they operate as tools.  So as we've been talking about throughout the episode here, Palantir is a platform. So it doesn't just visualize or analyze, it's really operationalizing.

19:22
throughout the whole entire process. And that's what I think really makes it sticky for a lot of organizations. Yeah, and I think we should probably just talk a little bit about niche competitors. One that made a little bit of news recently, stock price went up as investors were looking for the next Palantir. There is one in the defense space that came up and that's Govini and they're kind of a direct challenger. Their platform, which is known as ARK, ARK.

19:52
provides  analytics for defense acquisition, industrial base visibility and supply chain risk. So really, really kind of niche in the defense space. Yeah, you're spot on. They have been getting a lot of press because I mean, they do a lot of things, especially on the government side. They've been helping Pentagon and defense agencies  see where the money is spent and where the bottlenecks exist within the government's process. ah

20:19
Palantir's Gotham by contrast powers live operations. So mission planning, logistics, tactical intelligence that those agencies, my guess, I'm not a part of those,  need those things real time  to make  important crucial decisions. Yeah, so I think if you could probably think of  Govini as specifically as strategic planning and Palantir as mission execution. And they sometimes appear on the same contract radar, but really their missions are completely

20:49
complimentary and not really identical. Yeah. Yeah. Good point. Yeah. So let's just start to summarize by really talking about Palantir's differentiation and where they stand out. And I think really you could summarize it in one phrase. It's ontology driven  operationalization. uh So where others offer analytics or infrastructure, Palantir offers AI operating system that unifies data governance and action. So it's

21:19
It's the only stack really  that moves seamlessly from insight to execution.  And  it does so under military grade compliance, which is their  history. Well, I think that's an important piece because you can go on LinkedIn right now and every company is an AI company all of a sudden. And I don't know if that's  factually accurate. um And I think what listeners have to understand, that's why

21:47
Palantir is not just another data vendor. It's a blueprint for how organizations can safely operationalize AI at scale for their business. So it's really an important component when you're evaluating your AI strategy. Just keep that in mind. Yeah. And I think  what does it mean for executives, for business leaders out there? I think there are a couple of big lessons here. Gary, you want to kick off on the lessons? Yeah, sure. I think first,

22:17
Artificial intelligence value comes from embedding intelligence into your operations. You don't want another dashboard. You've had dashboards for years.  Sometimes they're effective. Sometimes they're not, but really making sure that this is implanted into your business is a key lesson, I think, em from an AI perspective. Yeah. And second, secondly, we talk about governance in a lot of our episodes and now it's really not an option. It's something that you have to be planning for.

22:46
And I Palantir's success shows that enterprises will only deploy AI that they can audit and trust. And Palantir's been doing that for a while now. Yeah. And I'd say a third component here, it's all about speed to operational value. Palantir's Bootcamp model we talked about a little while ago, that really demonstrates that even large organizations can see a return on investment in days, not quarters. And that's important, not just again for

23:16
leadership for the board, but it's very important for your customers and your individual contributors in your business. It drives your culture.

23:26
Yeah, and I'm just going to click on this  checklist that we put together for evaluating AI vendors,  and I'll just run through them. So a couple of  questions on the checklist. Can it model our business ontology? ah What are the guardrails for AI-driven actions? Can it run across our environments securely? So obviously that's somewhere that Palantir has a lot of experience. ah How can we see measurable value?

23:54
And what's the path to self sufficiency after year one? Sounds like you've  helped a lot of organizations build their AI strategy, Scott.  Just, just a few. Yeah. No, I mean, that's, that's  spot on. I mean, I think if these questions aren't being answered clearly and decisively uh for the next steps, you're not looking at the enterprise ready ah for an artificial intelligence solution. I mean, these are, these are basics.

24:22
table stakes for any organization to get started with. Yeah, and just  some closing thoughts. think  Palantir's uh evolution is kind of a good, it's a good story. AI's future isn't just chat bots or dashboards. It's really in overall decision infrastructure  that can make your organization,  your enterprise or obviously  military operations work cohesively.

24:52
Yeah, I think that's a good point. mean, Palantir has proven that artificial intelligence can be both powerful and governable. And that's the foundation every enterprise will need. Even if governance isn't top of mind, we've talked about this on multiple episodes, the governance requirements are coming. So you want to have that into your organization thinking about those types of areas day one, not having to play catch up later on.

25:19
Yeah. And I think that'll be something to watch in Palantir's numbers. You'll,  you can really keep an eye on how quickly they're expanding their commercial growth  and,  how quickly they can  expand on AIP deployments. So I think that's kind of the next phase of where uh AI operationalization is starting to happen. Yeah, that's great.  I couldn't say it better. So we're out of time. I want to say thank you to everybody that's listened today. ah

25:49
Thanks for joining us on this deep dive into Palantir,  their AI operating system for the enterprise. uh We have the show notes that you can take a read if you'd like and some links.  And uh please share us with your friends, your colleagues. uh Like and subscribe.  And until then, we'll see you next time on the Macriod podcast.