Dick Cheney walked so Alex Karp could run. Palantir just delivered its first two AI-powered battlefield command centers to the U.S. Army, officially kicking off its $178 million TITAN contract—because, of course, it did. 

Live look at Alex Karp over the weekend… 

(Source: Giphy) 

In short, the Tactical Intelligence Targeting Access Node (a.k.a. TITAN–a.k.a. Bad a$$ name if I do say so myself) is essentially a rolling AI war room, built to ingest satellite and sensor data, process it in real time, and spit out targeting intel so soldiers can decide who to blow up next—faster and more efficiently than ever. If that sentence makes you uncomfortable, congratulations, you still have a soul.

However, the real story here isn’t just that Palantir is cranking out AI-powered kill trucks—it’s who they beat to get the contract. RTX Corporation (formerly Raytheon), a defense contractor that’s been sucking on the Pentagon’s teat since before your parents were born, lost the bid. Meaning not only was this a major shift in military contracting, but it’s official that the Pentagon is moving away from bloated, legacy defense giants and toward Silicon Valley companies that actually understand AI and data warfare.

(Source: CNBC) 

Now of course, Palantir has been in bed with the U.S. government for years, but this is the first time a pure software company has led a major hardware program. So yeah this isn’t just delivering on a contract win—it’s essentially restructuring the entire way war tech will be developed from this point forward. 

And right now, Silicon Valley is the new war machine. For instance, while Palantir’s TITAN is gloating in the limelight right now, they aren’t the only ones cashing fat checks from the Department of Defense when it comes to AI. In fact, Scale AI just landed its own deal to develop AI-driven military planning tools, partnering with Microsoft and Anduril Industries (the defense startup founded by Palmer Luckey, the guy who created Oculus and then decided to pivot to weapons tech). 

(Source: Bloomberg) 

The takeaway? The Pentagon is done waiting for slow, outdated defense contractors to figure out AI. They’re handing the future of warfare to the people who built the surveillance state. Which means for Palantir investors who have gotten rekt over the past month (-25% sell-off)—this is a bigly win as this just fuels the momentum of Palantir’s defense revenue being up 45% year-over-year. 

And now that Palantir has delivered, if you think the Pentagon is going to stop throwing money at AI-powered war machines, you haven’t been paying attention. The TITAN contract proves that Alex Karp and Co. are becoming a core piece of the U.S. AI defense strategy because they understand it more than anyone—making them one of the most important defense contractors in the country. 

(Source: Giphy) 

In the end, this is the future of war, and Silicon Valley is running the show. The only real question is whether anyone’s going to stop and ask if this is a good idea. In the meantime, while people getting paid way higher salaries than me figure that out, keep an eye on Palantir as we resume trading this Monday morning (especially considering Palantir is down a surprising -3.81% in pre-market). Meaning, place your bets accordingly, friends and as always—stay safe and stay frosty! Until next time… 

P.S. $1.4 million, $1.02 million, $6.715 million and $25.3 million—these aren’t lottery winnings or Miami real estate prices… they’re all insider transactions that have gone down in the last week while retail investors were busy panic-selling everything. Want to track these corporate fat cats in real-time so you can pretend you're also an executive with material nonpublic information? (Legally, of course.) Click here to join Stocks.News premium while you still can…

Stocks.News holds positions in Microsoft as mentioned in the article.