(Bloomberg) – Palantir Technologies Inc. and International Business Machines Corp. include a partnership that will dramatically expand the reach of Palantir’s sales staff and make IBM’s own artificial intelligence software easier for non-technical customers to use, the companies plan. To announce Monday.
The global partnership is the largest of its kind for Palantir, the maker of data analytics software whose shares have more than tripled since its debut on the New York Stock Exchange in September. Palantir has access to a sales team of more than 2500 people, compared to the current 30.
The ratio is the payday for the project that Palantir started more than a year ago to split the data integration and analysis software into smaller, cheaper modules. The company in Denver sells primarily to companies with revenues of more than $ 500 million, many of which already have a relationship with IBM.
Rob Thomas, IBM’s senior vice president of software, cloud and data, said Robantir’s software to facilitate the data and AI tools that IBM already offers and make it easier for more people to sell. “We’re going to sell it to 180 countries and thousands of customers.”
Palantir’s software requires little or no coding, which enables less technical staff to use it, Thomas said. To expand IBM’s cloud and AI business, half of the revenue comes from partnerships like those entered into with Palantir. “This is a very significant change for us,” he said.
Extended access
Without giving a time frame, Thomas said he expects the partnership will help increase IBM’s customers using AI to 80% from the current 20%.
Shyam Sankar, chief operating officer of Palantir, said the technical pace at IBM and its reach were part of his company’s long-term effort to eventually increase sales. In addition to commercial customers, government contracts increased in number and size during the pandemic.
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Starting with funding from PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel in 2003, Palantir found early success with users at the US Central Intelligence Agency and signed the Department of Defense and the Revenue Service, which used the software to bomb roadside bombs, respectively. to track. and I tax fraud.
Government contracts
Recently, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have used Palantir software to predict Covid-19 outbreaks, distribute protective equipment, and administer vaccines.
While Palantir’s government contracts grew – sometimes amid concerns about privacy and oversight – the business’s commercial business developed more slowly.
Palantir last reported 132 total government and commercial customers, a concentrated pool that includes BP Plc, Merck KGaA and Airbus SE. Early customers like American Express Co. and Coca-Cola Co., which experimented with cheap Palantir software trials and later dropped them, is now not necessarily at the top of Palantir’s list, Sankar said.
“We hope to win back all these issues within the fullness of time,” Sankar said, adding there is no “pride list” of former customers he hopes to re-engage with.
Palantir reports financial results for 2020 on 16 February. A shareholder expiration three days later, releasing the remaining 80% of all shares that were not eligible to trade. Palantir shares rose $ 2 to $ 34.05 on February 5, giving a stock market value of $ 59.3 billion.
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