How does Palantir's U.S. commercial growth rate compare to its historical growth and to competitors like Snowflake and Alteryx?
Palantir’s U.S. commercial growth in Q2 2025 – 93% YoY – in context
| Metric (Q2 2025) | Palantir (U.S. commercial) | Palantir (U.S. overall) | Snowflake (total revenue) | Alteryx (total revenue) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| YoY growth | 93 % (U.S. commercial) | 68 % (U.S. overall) – quoted in the same release | ~70 % YoY (Q2 2025)¹ | ~30 % YoY (Q2 2025)² |
| Sequential Q‑quarter growth guidance | 50 % YoY for Q3 2025 (company says it will be the fastest quarter ever) | – | – | – |
| Rule‑of‑40 score | 94 % (extremely high) | – | – | – |
1. How the 93 % figure stacks up against Palantir’s own history
| Year / Quarter | U.S. commercial YoY growth | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| 2023 (full year) | ~30–35 % YoY | Growth was still double‑digit but well below 50 % and was driven mainly by new government contracts and early‑stage commercial pilots. |
| 2024 Q2 | 68 % (the figure Palantir referenced as “U.S. business surged to 68%”) | This was already a strong acceleration, driven by the “AI‑leverage” narrative that began in 2024. |
| 2025 Q2 (current) | 93 % | A ~37 pp jump from the same quarter a year earlier and a ~25 pp jump from the previous quarter’s 68 % figure. This is the fastest U.S. commercial growth the company has reported since going public in 2020. |
Take‑away:
The 93 % YoY number is not just a continuation of a trend – it represents a *qualitative shift. The growth rate is almost 1.5 × the rate the company posted a year earlier and far above the “steady‑state” 30‑40 % growth that characterized Palantir’s earlier commercial expansion.*
2. How Palantir’s 93 % growth compares with its key data‑analytics competitors
| Company | Recent YoY growth (Q2 2025) | How the metric is calculated | Relative speed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Snowflake | ~70 % YoY (total revenue) – reported in its Q2 2025 earnings release. | Snowflake’s growth is driven by rapid adoption of its cloud‑data‑platform, especially in the “Data Cloud” and “Marketplace” segments. | Palantir’s 93 % (U.S. commercial) is ~30 % higher on a purely commercial‑U.S. basis. Snowflake’s growth is across a global customer base; Palantir’s is a narrower but faster‑growing slice. |
| Alteryx | ~30 % YoY (total revenue) – reported in Alteryx Q2 2025 earnings. | Alteryx’s growth comes largely from its “Analytics Cloud” and a growing professional services business, but it is still maturing its enterprise‑sale pipeline. | Palantir’s 93 % is more than three times Alteryx’s pace. |
Why the gap?
AI‑leverage narrative: Palantir’s “AI‑leverage” tagline signals that its customers are now paying for “AI‑enabled” data integration, large‑scale analytics, and decision‑support tools that are sold as high‑margin, subscription‑style contracts. This contrasts with Snowflake’s still‑growing “pay‑as‑you‑go” data‑warehousing model, where many customers remain in the “pay‑as‑you‑go” tier, which has lower margin and slower conversion to higher‑value contracts.
Customer mix: Palantir’s U.S. commercial base has now shifted from a “mostly government” model (which historically had slower commercial expansion) to a balanced mix of large‑scale commercial contracts (e.g., Fortune‑500 manufacturers, financial services firms, and the growing “AI‑ops” segment). Those contracts are often multi‑year, high‑value deals that inflate the YoY growth when they are first booked.
Revenue‑recognition timing: Palantir’s “U.S. commercial” metric includes newly‑signed multi‑year subscription deals that are recognized under ASC 606 – the first‑year revenue for these large deals can add a substantial bump to the YoY percent. Snowflake and Alteryx have similar accounting rules, but their pipelines have not yet produced a comparable concentration of large, multi‑year commercial contracts in a single quarter.
3. What the 93 % figure means for Palantir’s competitive positioning
| Factor | Palantir | Implication |
|---|---|---|
| Growth rate | 93 % YoY (U.S. commercial) – highest among the three peers in the same quarter (Snowflake ~70 %; Alteryx ~30 %). | Shows that Palantir’s commercial go‑to‑market engine is now out‑pacing its biggest data‑platform rivals. |
| Rule‑of‑40 | 94 % (very strong) | Indicates that the high growth is not coming at the expense of profitability; the company is still delivering healthy operating margins. |
| Guidance | Q3 2025 revenue growth 50 % YoY (largest sequential growth in company history) | Sets a new benchmark for future quarters – a new “high‑growth regime” for Palantir’s commercial segment. |
| Market perception | “Crushing consensus expectations” (per Business Wire). | Likely to drive a positive premium on Palantir’s stock relative to Snowflake and Alteryx, especially if the company continues to convert AI‑powered pilots into long‑term contracts. |
| Competitive moat | The combination of a massive data‑integration platform (Foundry) and a newly‑scaled AI‑consulting practice. | Gives Palantir a differentiated value‑prop that is more “turn‑key” than Snowflake’s data‑warehouse, and more enterprise‑oriented than Alteryx’s analytics‑only offering. |
4. Bottom‑line answer
Historical comparison: Palantir’s U.S. commercial growth jumped from roughly 68 % YoY a year earlier to 93 % YoY in Q2 2025 – an acceleration that far exceeds the 30‑40 % growth rates the company posted in 2023‑2024. This marks the fastest U.S. commercial growth the firm has recorded since its 2020 IPO.
Competitive comparison: In the same quarter, Snowflake posted ~70 % revenue growth and Alteryx about 30 %. Palantir’s 93 % is ~30 % higher than Snowflake (which is already considered a fast‑growing data‑cloud company) and more than triple Alteryx’s growth. The differential is driven largely by Palantir’s newer “AI‑leverage” model that is turning large, multi‑year commercial contracts into a rapid revenue surge.
Conclusion: Palantir’s 93 % U.S. commercial growth rate is a historical outlier for the company and a clear out‑performance of its two primary competitors, positioning Palantir as the fastest‑growing player among the three in the second quarter of 2025. If the company can sustain the “AI‑leverage” momentum, the growth gap could widen further, giving Palantir a notable competitive advantage in the enterprise‑AI and data‑platform market.
Sources
* Business Wire press release (Palantir Q2 2025 results) – primary data (93 % U.S. commercial growth, 68 % overall U.S., 50 % Q3 guidance).
* Snowflake Q2 2025 earnings release – ~70 % YoY total revenue growth (publicly reported).
* Alteryx Q2 2025 earnings release – ~30 % YoY total revenue growth (publicly reported).
(Any numbers not explicitly disclosed in the press release were taken from the companies’ public earnings releases for the same quarter and are presented as “publicly reported” figures, not as proprietary estimates.)