Goldman Sachs sees 18% upside for Palantir on sovereign AI growth

Investing.com -- Goldman Sachs has upgraded Palantir Technologies (NASDAQ: PLTR) from Neutral to Buy, establishing a 12-month price target of $230.00 that implies an 18% upside. Shares of the enterprise software giant closed yesterday at $194.12 and were indicated to open up 2.5% at $199.05 following the note.

The bullish stance from analyst Gabriela Borges provides a major shot in the arm for Palantir bulls, who have continuously faced pushback from short sellers critical of the stock's premium valuation—a skeptical cohort that notably includes high-profile investor Michael Burry, who has maintained a short position against the company.

In her comprehensive report, Borges tackled the two most pressing debates facing Palantir at its current $8 billion revenue run rate and roughly 100% growth trajectory: whether the market has already priced in its AI opportunity, and whether its human-capital-intensive Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE) model can scale efficiently. On both fronts, Goldman Sachs concluded that the setup favors sustained growth.

Borges wrote that "our primary takeaway from our most recent set of industry conversations is that the stock is setting up for another phase of outperformance into 2027."

Addressing the total addressable market, Borges noted that Palantir is experiencing a "step function change in depth," driven by demand for sovereign AI, bespoke software development, and specialized vertical sales motions. As for the concerns surrounding the scaling of its workforce, she pushed back, arguing that the FDE model is "more than simply hiring FDEs; it requires tight feedback loops between field and product, which Palantir has perfected to the point of being able to automate via AI FDEs."

Goldman Sachs highlighted a fundamental shift in how enterprises are adopting artificial intelligence, moving away from the broad experimentation with generic coding tools seen in 2025 and 2026.

"We believe enterprises are in the early stages of applying AI to their proprietary data to amplify their existing moats," Borges wrote. This evolution closely aligns with the concept of "Sovereign AI" championed by Palantir CEO Alex Karp and echoed by Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella—the idea that the number of frontier AI models should eventually match the number of distinct enterprises worldwide. While tech-heavy firms have the talent density to build in-house models, non-tech industries represent a massive, untapped market for Palantir.