Palantir Published a Manifesto. A UK MP Called It 'Supervillain Ramblings.' The Stock Is Down 36%.
In April 2026, Palantir Technologies (PLTR) published a 22-point manifesto on X. It called for a national service obligation, argued tech companies had a moral duty to support defense, and included passages about "dysfunctional and regressive" cultures that quickly went viral. A UK member of Parliament described it as "the ramblings of a supervillain." Critics called it an ideological declaration from a surveillance company seeking government legitimacy. The stock is down 36% this year. And yet the bull case for PLTR has never been stronger.
Revenue grew 85% year-over-year in Q1 2026, reaching $1.63 billion. The U.S. government segment grew 84%, driven by a $10 billion, 10-year Enterprise Agreement with the U.S. Army signed last July. Commercial revenue is growing at 120% annually in the United States. The company has raised its full-year 2026 revenue guidance to $7.65 to $7.66 billion. None of that has mattered to the stock this year, which opened 2026 at $177.75 and traded near $113 at the end of June.
The Contracts Are Real. So Is the Controversy.
Palantir's government contract portfolio is among the most extensive of any technology company in the world. The U.S. Army agreement alone is valued at up to $10 billion over 10 years, consolidating 75 existing contracts into a single enterprise-wide deal. Beyond the Army, Palantir holds contracts with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the UK Ministry of Defence valued at up to £750 million over five years, and ongoing work supporting Ukraine's Brave1 defense data platform. Cumulative multi-year contract ceilings awarded in 2025 alone exceeded $13.7 billion.
The controversy is equally real. Palantir's $30 million contract with Immigration and Customs Enforcement to build "ImmigrationOS," an AI platform for tracking deportation targets, drew public criticism and a letter of condemnation from 13 former employees. The company's AI tools used in predictive policing have faced ongoing accusations of racial bias. In June 2026, protests were held outside UK government buildings over Palantir's £330 million NHS contract, with critics raising concerns about health data sovereignty and the company's political affiliations. The Guardian ran the headline: "Technofascism? Why Palantir's pro-West manifesto has critics alarmed."
Why the Stock Is Down While the Business Is Booming
It's kinda like buying a restaurant because the food is extraordinary and then finding out the chef publishes inflammatory op-eds every month. The fundamentals of the business are not the reason the stock is selling off. The reason the stock is selling off is valuation. PLTR trades at a trailing price-to-earnings ratio of approximately 129x and a price-to-sales ratio of 53x. Those multiples are difficult to defend against any traditional framework, even with 85% revenue growth. Investors who bought the stock at $177 in January were not paying for Palantir's government contracts. They were paying for a story about unlimited AI market share, and that story got repriced.
The manifesto did not help. CEO Alex Karp has always positioned Palantir as a company that embraces controversy as strategy. But publishing a 22-point ideological document while your stock is already down and your valuation is under pressure is not timing that most institutional investors applaud. Several large ESG-focused funds reduced positions after the manifesto was published, contributing to additional selling pressure in a stock that was already falling from high expectations.
What Analysts Actually Think
The analyst consensus on PLTR sits at Buy, with a 12-month average price target of $182.75, implying 61% upside from current levels near $113. Some analysts are more aggressive. 247wallst published a target of $150 as a near-term milestone. The bull thesis rests on three pillars: the government contracts are long-duration and not cancellable in any realistic scenario, U.S. commercial revenue growing at 120% suggests Palantir's AI platform (AIP) is gaining serious enterprise traction, and the company's 2027 earnings growth rate is expected to be among the highest in large-cap technology.
You do not have to trust me. Trust the $22 billion in annualized run-rate revenue that Palantir is guiding to. A company generating that kind of top-line growth at 85% year-over-year is not a company with a business problem. It is a company with a multiple problem. Those are different problems with very different solutions. Whether the manifesto continues to create institutional ESG headwinds is the one variable that standard financial models cannot quantify.
Bottom Line
Palantir (PLTR) trades near $113, down 36% from its January 2026 open of $177.75 and 38% below the analyst consensus target of $182.75. The company grew revenue 85% in Q1, has $13.7 billion-plus in contracted government revenue, and is growing U.S. commercial revenue at 120% annually. The bear case is the valuation: 129x earnings is hard to justify at any growth rate. The Karp manifesto added ESG-driven selling pressure that is real even if it has nothing to do with the business. Investors buying at $113 are getting the same contracts, the same growth, and the same platform they would have bought at $177 in January, for 36% less. Whether that is a bargain depends entirely on how you feel about a 129 P/E and a CEO who compares himself to a defense contractor with a mission statement.