Palantir CEO Alex Karp sells shares for over $50 million!

Palantir CEO Alex Karp sells shares for over $50 million!

Palantir co-founder and CEO Alex Karp completed a stock sale worth over $50 million this week. According to reports from Focus and The shareholder The sale took place on Tuesday and Wednesday at prices between $125.26 and $127.70 per share. Following these transactions, Karp still holds approximately 6.43 million shares of Palantir, valued at approximately $787 million.

The main reason for the sale was tax obligations. These result from an automatic sales plan to settle tax liabilities from so-called “restricted stock units” (RSUs). In addition to Karp, other company executives also sold shares. Chief Technology Officer Shyam Sankar sold shares worth around $21 million and President Stephen Cohen sold shares worth around $44 million.

Market development and company value

Palantir's current market value is approximately $291 billion. The company's stock has seen a massive rise in the last twelve months, with its share price up over 457% - from $19 at the end of May 2024 to over $106 now. This growth is attributed to increasing demand for artificial intelligence and an increase in government contracts. Palantir has also recently overtaken Salesforce in market capitalization.

The company, which specializes in data analytics platforms, serves a range of customers including intelligence agencies, law enforcement agencies and the military. In Germany, authorities in North Rhine-Westphalia, Hesse and Bavaria use Palantir's services. In 2024, Palantir had sales of approximately $2.87 billion.

Peter Thiel, one of the co-founders of Palantir, is worth an estimated $20.2 billion and also has a stake in SpaceX. Despite the insider sales for tax reasons, investors should not be deterred as the company continues to benefit greatly from demand in the field of artificial intelligence.