Palantir Surges, AMD Stumbles, SpaceX Float Looms

This update is a roundup of same-day reporting from the linked sources below, with editorial context from the CPJ Stock Desk.

Palantir delivered one of the most impressive AI earnings prints of the cycle, while AMD found out that doubling year-to-date leaves no room for a middling forecast. SpaceX, meanwhile, is dealing with a stock overhang that has nothing to do with rockets hitting the moon.

Key points

Palantir reported 93% revenue growth, a 155% Rule of 40 score, and the largest full-year guidance increase in its history.
AMD beat Q2 estimates on AI accelerator and data-center demand, but shares fell nearly 9% in extended trading after its revenue forecast underwhelmed.
SpaceX faces a lock-up expiration on August 6 that frees 911.5 million shares, expanding its float materially.
Elon Musk announced SpaceX will build data centers exclusively using Nvidia chips, lifting Nvidia shares.
The S&P 500 and Dow hit record highs Wednesday, with Middle East peace hopes outweighing the drag from SpaceX and AMD.

Does Palantir’s premium finally make sense?

For years, Palantir’s valuation invited skepticism. Today’s numbers make that argument harder to hold. 93% revenue growth paired with a 155% Rule of 40 score is not a story about hype. The Rule of 40 combines growth rate and profit margin into a single efficiency metric, and 155% sits well above what most enterprise software companies ever achieve. Palantir also raised its full-year guidance by the largest margin in its history, which signals management has real visibility into demand rather than just optimism.

The bull case rests on Palantir’s position in government and commercial AI deployment, where long contract cycles and deep integrations create switching costs. Whether the stock’s premium is fully justified depends on how you weight that durability against a multiple that remains elevated by any conventional measure. Investors weighing an entry should consider that a high Rule of 40 is a trailing metric; what matters next is whether that growth rate is sustainable as the company scales further into commercial markets.

Why AMD’s beat wasn’t enough

AMD’s Q2 result was genuinely strong. AI accelerator demand and data-center growth drove the beat, consistent with the broader capex cycle that has benefited Nvidia and the memory suppliers above it in the stack. The problem is that AMD shares more than doubled earlier this year on AI optimism, and a stock priced for perfection requires a perfect forward guide, not just a solid backward one.

The nearly 9% drop in extended trading reflects that gap between expectation and delivery on guidance. As a Seeking Alpha analysis noted, valuation looks stretched relative to even an optimistic earnings path from here. AMD remains a credible Nvidia challenger in AI accelerators, but the stock’s re-rating has already priced in a lot of that upside. Investors who bought the AI momentum trade earlier this year are now sitting on a question: take gains, or hold for the longer data-center build-out thesis?

The SpaceX float and the Nvidia chip deal

Two SpaceX stories are moving in opposite directions for investors. On the negative side, 911.5 million shares unlock on August 6, which is a significant supply event. Lock-up expirations don’t guarantee selling, but they expand the float and introduce uncertainty about insider behavior. SpaceX shares fell on Wednesday even as broader markets rose, suggesting the market is already pricing some of that risk.

On the positive side, Musk’s announcement that SpaceX will build its data centers exclusively with Nvidia chips is a meaningful demand signal for Nvidia. SpaceX is scaling its data center footprint aggressively, and an exclusive commitment to one supplier concentrates a large procurement pipeline at Nvidia’s door. The Motley Fool also flagged that SpaceX’s spending ramp could be a positive catalyst for Micron, given memory’s role in large-scale AI infrastructure.

A separate Yahoo Finance analysis offered a more skeptical take, arguing that SpaceX’s AI models lag competitors and its consumer apps have little traction, even as the company invests billions and rents out data center capacity to rivals. That tension, spending heavily on AI while leasing infrastructure to competitors, is worth watching as SpaceX’s public market story develops.

SK Hynix labor tensions add a supply-side wrinkle

One story that hasn’t gotten much attention in the US market narrative: SK Hynix is in its fifth round of labor negotiations with a union that has rejected a stock-based bonus proposal. The talks are happening at the company’s Cheongju manufacturing complex, which is central to its HBM memory production. SK Hynix is one of the critical suppliers in the AI chip stack, producing the high-bandwidth memory that Nvidia’s accelerators depend on. Labor disruptions there wouldn’t immediately affect production, but a prolonged standoff at a facility this strategically important is the kind of background risk that AI infrastructure investors should track.

Nothing here constitutes investment advice. All information is sourced from published reporting as of August 5, 2026.