Shares in US tech firm Palantir, which recently won a multi-million-pound contract with the NHS, jumped nearly 20 per cent in after-hours trading yesterday after it said demand for artificial intelligence (AI) has driven sales higher.
After reporting a record profit of $209.8m (£167m) in 2023, the data analytics firm gave a higher-than-expected profit guidance for 2024 between $834m (£664m) and $850m (£677m), on Monday.
For the quarter ended December 2023, it posted revenue of $608m (£484.2m), up 20 per cent from the previous year and beating expectations of $603.5m (480.6m).
Palantir chief Alex Karp said in a letter to shareholders that the demand for large language models from US corporates has been “unrelenting.”
“Every part of our organization is focused on the rollout of our Artificial Intelligence Platform (AIP), which has gone from a prototype to a product in months.
“And our momentum with AIP is now significantly contributing to new revenue and new customers,” he added.
In November last year, New York-listed Palantir secured a £330m contract with NHS England to develop a new patient data platform, to make it easier for staff to access important information. The move prompted some data privacy concerns.