A Palantir Technologies TITAN, Tactical Intelligence Targeting Access Node, for military defense field intelligence deployment, is displayed at the companys booth during the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, Nevada on Jan. 5, 2023.
Patrick T. Fallon | AFP | Getty Images
Palantir is rolling out its first two artificial intelligence-enabled systems to the U.S. Army, the company said Friday.
The Tactical Intelligence Targeting Access Node systems, or TITAN, act as a mobile ground station that harness AI to collect data from space sensors to assist soldiers with warfare strategy and improve strike targeting and accuracy, according to Palantir.
President and Chief Technology Officer Akash Jain called the agreement a “leapfrog moment” for the U.S. Army as it makes a big investment in software during an interview with CNBC’s Morgan Brennan.
Palantir won the $178 million contract last March, beating out competitor and defense giant RTX Corp. It marked a key milestone for the company known for its data analysis and software services, as well as the first time a software company has worked as a primary contractor for a significant hardware program.
The company has long provided solutions to U.S. government and defense agencies, showing 45% year-over-year growth in that segment last quarter. The agreement with Palantir also underscores the shifting landscape of software use on the battlefield. Earlier this week, Scale AI announced a deal with the Department of Defense for a flagship AI agent program.
The agreement includes a total of 10 Titan systems. Each system includes an advanced system with two larger trucks and a basic system with two vehicles delivered over five delivery orders, Jain explained. The systems allow soldiers to make intelligence decision without requiring the cloud, putting “all that power in the back of a truck,” he added.
Palantir also joined forces with Northrop Grumman, L3Harris and Palmer Luckey-founded defense tech startup Anduril Industries on some capabilities for the program.
The news from Palantir comes during a volatile period for the 2024 S&P 500 frontrunner. Shares have lost more than one-fourth of their value over the last month as risk-off sentiment hits Wall Street and the buzzing tech sector. Last month, shares jumped 24% to a record high after the company reported strong earnings and guidance fueled by AI demand.
Palantir has been a prime beneficiary of the AI tailwinds that have swept the broader industry and market, jumping 340% last year. The company’s CEO, Alex Karp, has been a vocal proponent of investing in the U.S. tech sector to protect against adversaries.
In response to DeepSeek’s sudden rush onto the tech scene in January, Karp told CNBC’s Sara Eisen that the U.S. needs an “all-country effort” to protect American innovation from getting stolen and misused.
Jain told CNBC that Palantir has been harnessing soldier feedback as it works to deliver the systems on time and on budget.
Business representatives staff a table at a career fair in Harlem hosted by Assemblymember Jordan Wright on Dec. 10, 2025, in New York City.
Spencer Platt | Getty Images
The U.S. November jobs report has something for everybody.
Those convinced of weakness will highlight the higher-than-expected unemployment rate as well as the number of jobs shrinking in October.
On the other hand, proponents of a strong economy will focus on jobs growth in November beating estimates, and point out that the increase in the unemployment rate was mostly because the labor force grew, as CNBC’s Jeff Cox noted.
Without any definitive judgment that can be made on the state of the labor market, traders left their bets on interest rate cuts in January mostly unchanged. It’s currently at 25.5%, around one percentage point higher than before the release of the November jobs report, according to the CME FedWatch tool.
“Today’s data paints a picture of an economy catching its breath,” said Gina Bolvin, president at Bolvin Wealth Management Group. “Job growth is holding on, but cracks are forming. Consumers are still standing, but not sprinting.”
Sam Altman, chief executive officer of OpenAI Inc., during a media tour of the Stargate AI data center in Abilene, Texas, US, on Tuesday, Sept. 23, 2025.
Kyle Grillot | Bloomberg | Getty Images
OpenAI is in discussions with Amazon about a potential investment and an agreement to use its artificial intelligence chips, CNBC confirmed on Tuesday.
The details are fluid and still subject to change but the investment could exceed $10 billion, according to a person familiar with the matter who asked not to be named because the talks are confidential. The Information first reported on the potential deal.
The discussions come after OpenAI completed a restructuring in October and formally outlined the details of its partnership with Microsoft, giving it more freedom to raise capital and partner with companies across the broader AI ecosystem.
Microsoft has invested more than $13 billion in OpenAI and backed the company since 2019, but it no longer has a right of first refusal to be OpenAI’s compute provider, according to an October release. OpenAI can now also develop some products with third parties.
Amazon has invested at least $8 billion into OpenAI rival Anthropic, but the e-commerce giant could be looking to expand its exposure to the booming generative AI market. Microsoft has taken a similar step and announced last month that it will invest up to $5 billion into Anthropic, while Nvidia will invest up to $10 billion in the startup.
Amazon Web Services has been designing its own AI chips since around 2015, and the hardware has become crucial for AI companies that are trying to train models and meet growing demand for compute. AWS announced its Inferentia chips in 2018, and the latest generation of its Trainium chips earlier this month.
OpenAI has made more than $1.4 trillion of infrastructure commitments in recent months, including agreements with chipmakers Nvidia, Advanced Micro Devices and Broadcom. Last month, OpenAI signed a deal to buy $38 billion worth of capacity from AWS, its first contract with the leader in cloud infrastructure leader.
In October, OpenAI finalized a secondary share sale totaling $6.6 billion, allowing current and former employees to sell stock at a $500 billion valuation.
Shares of Chinese chipmaker MetaX Integrated Circuits soared about 700% in their market debut in Shanghai on Wednesday, after the company raised nearly $600 million in its initial public offering.
Shares, which were priced at 104.66 yuan in the IPO, surged to over 835 yuan on debut, marking a 697% jump.
Similar to Moore Threads, which saw a robust debut at the start of the month, MetaX develops graphics processing units for artificial intelligence applications, tapping into a fast-growing sector driven by rising adoption of AI services.
MetaX is part of a growing cohort of local chipmakers building AI processors, reflecting Beijing’s push to reduce dependence on U.S. chips following Washington’s tech curbs on export of high-end technology to China.
Washington has imposed export curbs on U.S. chip behemoth Nvidia, barring sales of its most advanced AI chips to China.
Newer Chinese players such as Enflame Technology and Biren Technology have also entered the AI space, aiming to capture a share of the billions in graphics processing unit, or GPU, demand no longer served by Nvidia. Chinese regulators have also been clearing more semiconductor IPOs in their drive for greater AI independence.
Earlier this month, shares of Moore Threads, a Beijing-based GPU manufacturer often referred to as “China’s Nvidia,” soared by more than 400% on its debut in Shanghai following its $1.1 billion listing.
Macquarie’s equity analyst Eugene Hsiao said investor enthusiasm around Chinese AI-chip IPOs such as MetaX is partly shaped by longer-term expectations that China will build a self-sufficient semiconductor ecosystem as tensions with the U.S. persist.
“For that to work, you need these players. You need names like Moore Threads, Meta X, etc,” he said.
“So I think when investors are looking at these IPOs, they implicitly are thinking about the nationalistic element,” Hsiao noted, adding that the main driver of the frenzy, however, was the firms’ growth potential.