Palantir vs. Nvidia: A Financial Comparison

Not affiliated with Palantir Technologies Inc. This page is an independent explainer based on publicly available sources. Nothing here is financial advice. Figures below are snapshots from specific 2026 reporting periods and will already be dated by the time you read this.

Palantir and Nvidia are both frequently grouped together as the defining AI stocks of this cycle, but they operate at completely different scales — and the market prices them in strikingly different ways relative to that scale.

Scale: not remotely close

The two companies aren't peers by size. Nvidia generated $81.6 billion in quarterly revenue in Q1 2026 alone — more than 50 times Palantir's $1.6 billion for the same quarter. Nvidia's fiscal 2026 revenue reached roughly $215.9 billion, up 65% year-over-year, driven by its data-center GPU business; Palantir's full-year 2025 revenue was roughly $4.47 billion, discussed in more detail on our revenue growth page.

Growth rates are surprisingly similar

Despite the scale gap, growth rates have tracked closer together than most investors expect. Palantir's Q1 2026 revenue grew 85% year-over-year, essentially matching Nvidia's own 85% growth that same quarter. Later in 2026, one analysis projected the two companies' 2026 full-year growth rates converging further, at roughly 62% for Palantir versus 72% for Nvidia — genuinely comparable momentum for two companies at such different scales.

Where they diverge sharply: valuation

This is the most consistently cited difference across financial coverage. As of mid-2026, Palantir traded at a forward P/E ratio in the range of 94 to 150 depending on the specific date and data source, alongside a price-to-sales multiple as high as 67 to 69 times. Nvidia, over the same period, traded at a forward P/E closer to 21 to 41 and a price-to-sales multiple in the 13 to 23 range. One analysis calculated that investors were paying roughly three and a half times more per dollar of revenue for Palantir than for Nvidia, despite Nvidia's larger absolute growth in dollar terms.

Profitability: both strong, different shapes

Both companies are genuinely profitable, not just growing. Nvidia's gross margins have consistently exceeded 70%, with free cash flow up 86% year-over-year in one recent quarter. Palantir's operating margin swung from negative 26.66% in 2021 to positive 31.59% in 2025 — a roughly 60-percentage-point improvement — with gross margins holding above 80% throughout that period, detailed further on our key financial metrics page.

Stock performance context

Over a multi-year window, Palantir's stock has significantly outpaced Nvidia's in percentage terms — one comparison cited Nvidia up roughly 500% over three years against Palantir's roughly 1,700% gain — though past performance over one stretch says nothing about what happens next, and both stocks have gone through sharp corrections at different points in 2026.

Why analysts disagree on which is the "better" stock going forward

The core disagreement isn't really about which company is executing better — both are, by the numbers above. It's about whether Palantir's software economics (higher margins, stickier customer relationships) justify a premium over Nvidia's hardware economics (larger scale, cheaper valuation, direct exposure to overall AI infrastructure spending) over a multi-year horizon. Different analysts and outlets have reached opposite conclusions on this specific question at different points in 2026, which is itself informative: this is a genuinely contested call, not a settled one.