The above button links to Coinbase. Yahoo Finance is not a broker-dealer or investment adviser and does not offer securities or cryptocurrencies for sale or facilitate trading. Coinbase pays us for certain activity generated through this link. Prices displayed are informational.

Palantir Technologies (NASDAQ: PLTR) is a key military contractor -- its relationship with the U.S. armed forces dates back for years, as Palantir has long been linked to providing the intelligence that helped U.S. forces kill 9/11 mastermind Osama bin Laden in 2011.

And fortunately for the company's shareholders, that relationship is just getting stronger. Palantir's Maven Smart System, an artificial intelligence-powered military platform, is now an official program of record for the Pentagon. The designation will be a key factor for Palantir as it seeks to get $2.3 billion over the next five years to expand Maven, which identifies and analyzes battlefield data and supports AI-enabled targeting.

Missed Nvidia in 2009? This Rare Signal Is Flashing Again. In 2009, a "Double Down" signal flashed for a little-known chipmaker called Nvidia. For the first time in years, that same "Total Conviction" signal is flashing for a company 1/100th the size of Nvidia. Continue »

"It is imperative that we invest now and with focus to deepen the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) across the Joint Force and establish AI-enabled decision-making as the cornerstone of our strategy," Deputy Secretary of Defense Steve ​Feinberg wrote in a memo obtained by Reuters.

The budget request is part of the Pentagon's $1.5 trillion 2027 budget proposal, which is still pending in Congress. But even if lawmakers choose not to fully fund the Pentagon's budget, Palantir is in an excellent position to generate revenue and profit from Maven for many years.

Maven traces its roots to the Pentagon's 2017 plan, Project Maven, which was conceived as a drone-imagery labeling program. Palantir won a Pentagon contract in 2024 worth up to $480 million; the program contract ceiling increased to $1.3 billion in 2025.

Maven analyzes data from satellites, drones, radar, intelligence reports, and sensors, and uses artificial intelligence to identify potential threats and target them. It is the primary AI operating system for the U.S. military.

Its status as a program of record will help streamline the use of Maven across all branches of the military -- giving the project stickiness that will help assure Palantir's continued funding. CEO Alex Karp has said Maven gives U.S. troops a huge advantage in combat.

"Once the war zones heat up anywhere in the allied world, the Palantir Maven platform takes very valuable LLMs and makes them actually lethal and useful in the battlefield," he said during an interview on CNBC.

Palantir has gotten a lot of attention recently for its expanding U.S. commercial business -- it currently has a streak of four consecutive quarters with triple-digit revenue growth in that segment.

However, the company still earns the majority of its revenue from government contracts, with the U.S. government as its largest customer. Palantir's U.S. government revenue was $809 million in the second quarter, up 90% from a year ago. The segment generated nearly 42% of Palantir's total revenue of $1.935 billion.

The Pentagon's designation that Maven is a program of record will ensure that those dollars continue to flow into Palantir's coffers.

Before you buy stock in Palantir Technologies, consider this:

The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and Palantir Technologies wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years.

Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $431,488!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $1,279,584!*

Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor's total average return is 958% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 212% for the S&P 500. Don't miss the latest top 10 list, available with Stock Advisor, and join an investing community built by individual investors for individual investors.

See the 10 stocks »

*Stock Advisor returns as of August 25, 2026.

Patrick Sanders has positions in Palantir Technologies. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Palantir Technologies. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Palantir's Maven Is Now an Official Pentagon Program of Record. Here's What Guaranteed Budget Dollars Are Worth. was originally published by The Motley Fool