The AI Application Giant Prints Cash at 51% Margins While the Data Warehouse Burns Through Hundreds of Millions

15 hours ago 1

William Temple

Mon, December 15, 2025 astatine 6:50 AM CST 4 min read

An infographic titled 'AI Stack Showdown: Palantir vs. Snowflake' displays cardinal fiscal metrics for some companies. Palantir is shown with 63% gross growth, a 51% operating margin, and $540M escaped currency flow, suggesting beardown profitability. Snowflake is shown with 29% gross growth, a -27% operating margin, and burning $329M operationally, indicating currency consumption.

Palantir grew gross 63% with 51% operating margins and $540M successful escaped currency flow.
Snowflake grew 29% but posted a antagonistic 27% operating borderline and mislaid $329M operationally.
Palantir trades astatine 112x income portion profitable. Snowflake trades astatine 17x income portion unprofitable.
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Palantir (NYSE: PLTR) and Snowflake (NYSE: SNOW) conscionable reported net revealing 2 companies attacking AI from other ends of the stack. Palantir posted 63% gross maturation with 51% operating margins. Snowflake grew 29% but burns currency with a antagonistic 27% operating margin.

Palantir's Q3 showed a institution hitting flight velocity. U.S. commercialized gross surged 121% to $397 million. The Artificial Intelligence Platform (AIP) drives customers from footwear campy to seven-figure deals successful nether 2 months. CEO Alex Karp: "We person 44% maturation successful the astir important marketplace successful the satellite portion having a Rule of 68, the champion successful the world. We are going to support the contradiction of having some precocious margins and precocious growth."

That Rule of 68 people (growth complaint positive operating margin) is exceptional. Palantir generated $393 cardinal successful operating income, up 248% twelvemonth implicit year, and $540 cardinal successful escaped currency flow. The institution crossed $1 cardinal successful trailing 12-month escaped currency travel for the archetypal time.

Snowflake's 4th looked coagulated connected the surface. Revenue deed $1.21 billion, beating estimates, with merchandise gross up 29%. Net gross retention held astatine 125%, and the institution added customers spending implicit $1 million. But Snowflake mislaid $329 cardinal operationally and $288 cardinal net. Cash travel was affirmative astatine $138 million, but the way to sustained profitability remains murky.

Metric	Palantir	Snowflake
Revenue Growth	63%	29%
Operating Margin	51%	-27%
Free Cash Flow	$540M	$138M
Market Cap	$437B	$75B

Palantir bets AI worth lives successful accumulation deployment, not exemplary training. CTO Shyam Sankar: "The models are converging portion pricing for inference is dropping significantly. This lone strengthens our condemnation that the worth is successful the exertion and workflow layer." AIP automates workflows. One security lawsuit chopped underwriting clip from 2 weeks to 3 hours utilizing 78 AI agents. Trinity Rail saw a $30 cardinal bottom-line interaction successful 3 months.