Palantir has been the best-performing stock in the S&P over the past two years.

Palantir Technologies ( PLTR -1.12% ) has been the single best-performing stock in the S&P 500 not just this year, but last year as well. The artificial intelligence (AI) leader more than doubled in 2025 through mid-August, on top of a stunning 340% gain in 2024. That kind of back-to-back performance is almost unheard of, and it's no accident.

The company is growing at a blistering pace, landing massive new contracts and rapidly expanding the reach of its Artificial Intelligence Platform (AIP). With momentum this strong, it's worth looking at exactly what's driving the surge, what could slow it down, and why the long-term opportunity remains enormous.

What Palantir does

Palantir made a name for

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