Palantir stock jumps 15% in week on Iran war boost, Anthropic muted

Palantir The stock market had a tough week out, as the provider of software and services to the US government saw its stock rally 15% following the US attack on Iran.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq fell 1.2% for the week, pushed down by such names Apple, Google And MicronAnd other benchmarks fell as oil prices rose and the US economy unexpectedly lost jobs in February, the report showed.

But with President Donald Trump showing no signs of ending the war in Iran quickly, investors have flocked to Palantir, which counts government spending for about 60% of its revenue and is increasing its work with the military and intelligence agencies. Meanwhile, Wall Street seems unconcerned about blacklisting artificial intelligence company Anthropic, which began partnering with Palantir on defense work in late 2024.

Analysts at Rosenblatt kept their buy recommendation on the stock and raised their price target to $200 from $150. The stock ended Friday at $157.16

The analyst wrote that “conflict in the Middle East bodes well for Palantir’s government pipeline” and that there are “plenty of alternatives” to Anthropic’s cloud models. More deals, such as the company’s contract with the Army, are on the way, he said.

Last year, Palantir signed a $10 billion contract with the Army. The company also supplies AI capabilities such as targeting weapons to the military through its Maven Smart System program, and its tools were used in Iran.

As for its work with Anthropic, Palantir hasn’t said anything publicly about its plans. The Department of Defense announced a week ago that Anthropic technology would be excluded from government contracts after the two sides failed to reach an agreement on how AI models could be used for autonomous weapons and domestic surveillance.

On Thursday, Anthropic acknowledged that it had been officially notified of its name 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, after all, said they will continue to offer Anthropic’s products in their clouds to customers for non-security projects.

Palantir and Amazon Web Services partnered with Anthropic in November 2024 to bring cloud models to AWS and make them available to defense and intelligence agencies. In July, Anthropic was awarded a $200 million contract with the Department of Defense and became the first AI lab to integrate its models into classified networks.

Analysts at Piper Sandler wrote in a note on Tuesday that Anthropic is a “trailblazer” for AI in data-sensitive environments like government and suggested that replacing it would be a headache. Still, he has a buy rating and a $230 price target on Palantir.

“While PLTR is model agnostic, onboarding and re-establishing embedded AI functions will take time,” the analyst wrote. “Time could have been better spent on growth opportunities.”

Another factor in Palantir’s rally this week was a rebound in software stocks. The sector has been battered in recent months by fears that AI will displace software and disrupt long-standing business models. New AI tools, including a security offering from Anthropic, have further fueled concerns about contributing to sales in cybersecurity.

This week, the iShares Broadened Tech-Software Sector ETF rose nearly 8%. Crowd strike, Service now And Aplovin Each jumped more than 15%.

“We’ve gotten to the point where everybody is a little bit of software,” Gil Luria, an analyst at DA Davidson, said in an interview. “Once you get to that point, it starts to stabilize, and we get closer to the bottom. It’s just market dynamics.”

Watch: Humanitarian to challenge supply chain risk designation in court