Palantir Technologies Inc. CEO Alex Karp Anthropic and OpenAI are aggressively marketing AI agents to businesses for automating white-collar tasks, alongside software to manage these agents. According to exclusive reports last week, both AI developers are competing to form joint ventures with private equity firms to sell AI products to portfolio companies. However, Palantir Technologies Inc., a software company with 22 years of experience, holds a stronger position in delivering AI agents and supporting software to enterprises. Palantir Technologies Inc. offers end-to-end software that helps clients integrate data stored in systems like Snowflake, Salesforce, and SAP, and develop AI agents that utilize this data. This is challenging because traditional enterprise software resists serving merely as data sources for external AI agents. Many traditional software vendors plan to charge fees for such data access. Palantir Technologies Inc.'s advantages extend beyond software. Given the challenges in deploying AI securely at scale, nearly all major players in enterprise software explicitly or implicitly acknowledge the value of Palantir Technologies Inc.'s Field Deployment Engineer (FDE) model in the AI era. FDEs act as on-site consultants, customizing Palantir Technologies Inc.'s Foundry platform to better fit client needs. Companies that admire this model include Salesforce, ServiceNow, Snowflake, and even OpenAI. Unlike OpenAI and Anthropic, Palantir Technologies Inc. does not develop its own large language models. Instead, its software enables clients to use the best proprietary or open-source models for functions ranging from automated supply chain and HR monitoring to sales management data tools. In essence, Palantir Technologies Inc. provides: - Data integration services similar to Snowflake - Consulting services that competitors seek to emulate - An "AI execution layer" that companies like OpenAI and Anthropic aim to sell to businesses

For example, Centrus Energy, the sole domestic uranium enrichment facility operator in the U.S., uses an AI agent developed with Palantir Technologies Inc.'s software and Anthropic's model to: - Automatically adjust employee shifts during staffing shortages - Identify alternative suppliers for delayed shipments - Generate compliance reports for the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission

The company estimates potential savings of $300 million from using the software, though specifics on calculations and timelines were not disclosed. A senior executive at Centrus Energy stated at a recent Palantir Technologies Inc. client event that AI agents enhance employee capabilities rather than replace them, allowing experts to focus on complex challenges. Cost Reduction and Layoffs Discussions with some Palantir Technologies Inc. clients revealed that significant cost savings come from consolidating data sources, leading to layoffs of personnel managing disparate data systems. Collaborations with drone supplier Ondas and stratospheric balloon company World View highlight Palantir Technologies Inc.'s edge over other AI software vendors. Both companies offer monitoring services to businesses and governments. In one case, they plan to use AI agents powered by Palantir Technologies Inc. software to automatically create work orders in pipeline operators' ERP systems upon detecting methane leaks. This demonstrates Palantir Technologies Inc.'s ability to operate above existing enterprise applications and directly access data. The goal is to replace traditional software with Palantir Technologies Inc.-driven systems to leverage existing data more effectively. World View's CEO expressed a desire for a pure Palantir Technologies Inc. solution, eliminating the need for other SaaS tools. While U.S. and international government contracts remain Palantir Technologies Inc.'s largest revenue source, its commercial business has surged over the past year as companies rush to integrate AI into products and workflows. Domestic U.S. enterprise software revenue grew 109% year-over-year, with global commercial revenue up 60%, accelerating by 30 percentage points compared to 2024. In contrast, software companies like Salesforce, SAP, and Adobe saw growth rates around 10% last year. OpenAI's enterprise business is larger than Palantir Technologies Inc.'s, partly due to ChatGPT subscriptions for individuals and organizations. However, OpenAI must rapidly expand its enterprise offerings to justify its $800 billion private valuation, especially as Anthropic's enterprise model revenue grows swiftly. Palantir Technologies Inc.'s current public market capitalization is approximately $370 billion. Earlier this year, OpenAI launched Frontier, a product enabling businesses to create multiple "AI colleagues" assigned tasks that pull data from various enterprise applications. An OpenAI spokesperson noted that Frontier differs from Palantir Technologies Inc.'s Foundry by offering pre-built or customized agents, though Foundry also possesses these capabilities. The spokesperson added that clients can integrate Foundry with Frontier, indicating the two are not mutually exclusive. Why OpenAI and Anthropic Are Courting Private Equity As mentioned, Anthropic is in talks with private equity firms like Blackstone to form joint ventures selling Claude to portfolio companies. OpenAI is negotiating with other PE firms, such as TPG and Bain, to establish similar ventures. These moves are preliminary battles in the competition for large enterprise AI contracts. Both companies already sell AI through consultancies like Accenture and Capgemini; partnering with private equity is a logical next step, as PE firms control technology budgets for dozens of software providers—prime potential AI buyers. Insights suggest OpenAI and Anthropic still have much to learn about serving large clients' complex processes. By selling AI to PE-owned companies, they can gain experience to better engage other clients with autonomous technology budgets.