How to Read Palantir's Financial Statements

Not affiliated with Palantir Technologies Inc. This page explains how to find and read Palantir's audited financial filings — it does not interpret specific numbers as investment guidance. Nothing here is financial advice.

Every public company files audited financial statements with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, and Palantir is no exception. This page is about the documents themselves — what they are, who audits them, and what to actually look for — rather than a specific quarter's results.

Where to find them

Palantir's official financial filings are freely available in two places: the SEC's EDGAR database (search "Palantir Technologies" or ticker "PLTR"), and Palantir's own investor relations site. The two main recurring filings are the 10-K (a full, audited annual report) and the 10-Q (an unaudited quarterly update filed three times a year, between annual reports). Palantir also issues an 8-K with each quarterly earnings release, containing the headline financial results and management's discussion before the fuller 10-Q or 10-K follows.

Who audits Palantir's books

Palantir's independent auditor is Ernst & Young LLP, based in San Jose, California — one of the "Big Four" global accounting firms. Each year, EY issues a formal opinion stating whether Palantir's financial statements present the company's financial position fairly, in accordance with U.S. GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles), and separately audits the company's internal controls over financial reporting. In its FY2022 opinion, for example, EY stated it had examined evidence on a test basis and evaluated management's accounting judgments, concluding its audit provided a reasonable basis for its opinion — standard, expected language in a clean audit report, not a red flag.

"Critical audit matters" are worth reading

Modern audit opinions include a section on "critical audit matters" — areas that required especially difficult auditor judgment. In Palantir's FY2023 10-K, EY flagged revenue recognition around the company's on-premises software contracts as one such matter, explaining that determining whether a software license and its associated maintenance and support services should be treated as one combined obligation or two separate ones required significant judgment. This isn't unique to Palantir — revenue recognition is one of the most common critical audit matters across software companies — but it's a useful example of where audited financial statements disclose genuine complexity rather than presenting every number as simple and certain.

What the core statements actually show

The 10-K and 10-Q each include three core financial statements: the balance sheet (what the company owns and owes at a point in time — cash, receivables, liabilities, stockholders' equity), the statement of operations (revenue and expenses over a period, resulting in net income or loss), and the statement of cash flows (how much actual cash moved in and out, split into operating, investing, and financing activities). Reading all three together, rather than just the headline revenue or profit number, gives a fuller picture — a company can show an accounting profit while its cash position tells a different story, or vice versa.

GAAP vs. "adjusted" figures

Palantir's earnings releases prominently feature both GAAP figures (calculated strictly under standard accounting rules) and "adjusted" non-GAAP figures that exclude items like stock-based compensation. We've dedicated a separate page to unpacking exactly what these adjusted metrics mean and why the distinction matters — see our page on Palantir's key financial metrics.

Governance around the audit process

Palantir's board maintains an Audit Committee, which held five meetings in 2024 according to the company's own proxy filing, and is responsible for pre-approving all audit and non-audit services performed by the independent auditor, reviewing internal accounting controls, and overseeing major risk exposures — standard governance structure required of all major U.S. public companies.