Alex Karp, Palantir CEO, joins CNBC’s ‘Squawk on the Street’ on June 5, 2025.
CNBC
Palantir CEO Alex Karp took on a familiar target during the company’s earnings call on Monday: His critics.
“Please turn on the conventional television and see how unhappy those that didn’t invest in us are,” Karp said, after the data analytics company reported better-than-expected third-quarter results. “Enjoy, get some popcorn, they’re crying. We are every day making this company better and we’re doing it for this nation, for allied countries.”
Palantir shares are up 25-fold in the past three years, lifting its market cap to over $490 billion and a forward price-to-earnings ratio of almost 280. The stock slipped in extended trading despite the earnings beat and upbeat guidance.
Karp, who co-founded the company in 2003, said Palantir is “going to go very, very deep on our rightness” because it is “exceedingly good for America.”
The eccentric and outspoken CEO has gained a reputation over the years for his colorful — and oftentimes political — commentary in interviews, shareholder letters and on earnings calls. His essay-like quarterly letters have previously quoted famous philosophers, the New Testament and President Richard Nixon.
In Monday’s letter, Karp quoted 20th-century Irish poet William Butler Yeats and argued for a shared “national experience.” He wrote that rejecting a “shared and defined sense of common culture” poses significant drawbacks.
It’s “that pursuit of something greater, and rejection of a vacant and neutered and hollow pluralism, that will help ensure our continued strength and survival,” he wrote.
On the call, Karp pivoted from a discussion of artificial intelligence adoption to fentanyl overdoses in America, a topic he described as “slightly political.”
“I want people to remember if fentanyl was killing 60,000 Yale grads instead of 60,000 working class people, we would be dropping a nuclear bomb on whoever was sending it from South America,” he said.
Karp also commented on the company’s deals with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Israeli military. Earlier this year, Palantir won a $30 million deal to build ImmigrationOS for ICE, providing data on the identification and deportation of immigrants.
In 2023, Karp had a message for people in the tech industry who have misgivings about his company’s dealings with intelligence agencies and the military.
“You may not agree with that and, bless you, don’t work here,” Karp said at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
Palantir, which gets more than half its U.S. revenue from the government, also provided tools to Israel after the deadly Oct. 7 attack by militant group Hamas. In recent years, both Karp and the company have undertaken a fiercely pro-Israel stance.
Following the Oct. 7 attack, Palantir took out a full-page ad in The New York Times, saying it “stands with Israel” and held its first board meeting in Tel Aviv, Israel, a few months later. Karp has said the company has lost employees due to his staunch Israel stance, and he expects more to leave.
“We’re on the front line of all adversaries, including vis-à-vis China, we’re on ICE and we’ve supported Israel,” he said on the earnings call. “I don’t know why this is all controversial, but many people find that controversial.”
Affirm CEO Max Levchin said Friday that while the buy now, pay later firm isn’t seeing credit stress among federally employed borrowers due to the government shutdown, there are signs of a change in shopping habits.
“We are seeing a very subtle loss of interest in shopping just for that group, and a couple of basis points,” Levchin told CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street.”
At least 670,000 federal employees have been furloughed in the shutdown, and about 730,000 are working without pay, the Bipartisan Policy Center said this week.
Levchin said he’s closely watching employment data for signs of major disruptions, but the company is “capable” of adjusting credit standards when needed.
“Right now, things are just fine,” he said. “We’re not seeing any major disturbances at all.”
The federal funding lapse, which began Oct. 1, is the longest in U.S. history and has halted work across agencies with an impact beyond those who are government employees. The SNAP food benefit program, which serves 42 million Americans, has also been cut off.
Read more CNBC tech news
The comments from Levchin followed a fiscal first-quarter earnings report that blew past Wall Street’s estimates. Affirm posted earnings of 23 cents per share on $933 million in revenue. Analysts polled by LSEG expected earnings of 11 cents per share on $883 million in sales.
Revenues climbed 34% from a year ago, while gross merchandise volumes jumped 42% to $10.8 billion from $7.6 billion a year ago. That surpassed Wall Street’s $10.38 billion estimate.
The fintech company, which went public in 2021, also lifted its full-year outlook, saying it now expects gross merchandise volume to hit $47.5 billion, versus prior guidance of $46 billion.
Affirm also said it renewed its partnership with Amazon through 2031. The company has also inked deals with the likes of Shopify and Apple in a competitive e-commerce landscape.
Levchin said categories such as ticketing and travel have seen an uptick in interest, and consumer shopping remains strong. Active consumers grew to 24.1 million from 19.5 million a year ago.
“We’re every single day out there preaching the gospel of buy now, pay later being the better way to buy, and consumers are obviously responding,” he said.
Block shares fell 10% Friday after weak third-quarter earnings fell short of Wall Street expectations and showed slowing profit growth for the company’s Square service.
Here is how the company did compared with LSEG estimates:
Earnings per share: 54 cents adjusted vs. 67 cents expected
Revenue: $6.11 billion vs. $6.31 billion expected
Revenue for the quarter was up 2% over last year. The Jack Dorsey-founded firm’s shares have fallen 24% year to date.
Square’s gross payment volume was up 12% year over year, but gross profit growth for the point-of-sale service was only up 9% over a year ago, slowing from last quarter’s 11%.
The company attributed the slower growth to a processing partner change and lower-margin hardware sales.
“Our product and go-to-market strategies are working as we continued to gain profitable market share in our target verticals like food and beverage, with larger sellers, and outside the U.S.,” Chief Financial Officer Amrita Ahuja said on the earnings call.
Cash App’s gross profit growth fared much better at $1.62 billion, increasing 24% over a year ago with 58 million monthly transacting active users. The strength was driven by the service’s Cash App Borrow, Cash App Card, and Buy Now Pay Later.
Read more CNBC tech news
Morgan Stanley analysts wrote that they were “encouraged by the pace of credit expansion at Cash App” and are focused on “whether credit expansion will ultimately produce better inflows” per active customer and increase direct deposit accounts.
Ahuja said gross profit was a bright spot for Block, as the company reported $2.66 billion in gross profit growth, up 18% over the prior year. FactSet expected $2.60 billion in gross profit for the quarter.
The company raised its full-year guidance to expect a $10.2 billion gross profit for 2025, increasing from last quarter’s projection of $10.2 billion.
Block reported net income of $461.54 million, or 74 cents per share, which was up significantly over a year ago when the company reported net income of $283.75 million, or 45 cents per share.
Stock Chart IconStock chart icon
Block year-to-date stock chart.
CNBC’s MacKenzie Sigalos contributed to this report.
Archer Aviation‘s stock plummeted 12% after a share sale overshadowed a narrower-than-expected third-quarter loss.
The company posted a net loss $129.9 million, narrower than the FactSet estimate of a $178.6 million loss.
However, Archer disclosed a $650 million stock offering for 81.25 million shares to support its $126 million acquisition of Hawthorne Airport in Los Angeles as a hub for air taxi operations there. Archer was chosen as the official air taxi provider for the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.
The move would dilute the value of the stock for existing shareholders. The weighted average for Archer shares outstanding has grown to about 660.9 million from 397.5 million a year ago.
Interest in electric aircraft makers has picked up in recent months as major players have edged closer to certification. Earlier this week, Beta Technologies went public on the NYSE.
Read more CNBC tech news
Archer, like its competitors, is taking major steps toward achieving Federal Aviation Administration certification, a key approval needed to fly commercially.
For the current quarter, Archer said it expects a loss between $110 million and $140 million for adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, a loss of $125 million at the midpoint. Analysts expected a loss of $119.9 million, according to FactSet.
Earlier this week, Joby Aviation reported a wider-than-expected third-quarter loss. Shares have slumped 20% over the last week, while Archer has lost nearly a third of its value. Both companies have more than doubled in value over the last year.
Stock Chart IconStock chart icon
Archer Aviation and Joby Aviation year-to-date stock chart.