Palantir vs Snowflake, side by side
Both are US data-software companies that investors price on high growth expectations, but they do different jobs. Palantir builds data-analysis and AI platforms used by governments and large enterprises to pull information together and act on it. Snowflake provides a cloud data platform that companies use to store, share and query huge amounts of data. Both sit in the same broad software wave.
On our factor screen it looks strongest on growth and quality, and weakest on value.
On our factor screen it looks strongest on momentum and growth, and weakest on income.
The numbers, side by side
| Measure |  Palantir Technologies Inc. |  Snowflake Inc. |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $123.06 | $293.28 |
| Market cap: The company's total value on the stock market - share price times the number of shares. Big = 'large-cap', small = 'small-cap'. | $295.01B | $101.65B |
| P/E: Price-to-earnings: the share price divided by yearly profit per share. Lower can mean cheaper; higher often means investors expect fast growth. | 136.7 | — |
| Div yield: Dividend yield: the yearly dividend as a percentage of the share price - roughly the income you'd earn just from dividends. | 0.0% | 0.0% |
| Revenue growth | 84.7% | 33.5% |
| 1Y: How much the share price has moved over the past year. | -22% | +33% |
More measures
| Forward P/E: Price-to-earnings: the share price divided by yearly profit per share. Lower can mean cheaper; higher often means investors expect fast growth. | 58.8 | 109.0 |
|---|---|---|
| Net margin | 43.7% | -23.8% |
| ROE | 32.6% | -54.9% |
| Beta: How bumpy the share price is versus the whole market. Above 1 swings more than the market; below 1 is calmer. It's about the ride, not whether it goes up or down. | 1.56 | 1.35 |
The bolder figure is simply the larger of the two - higher is not automatically good (a higher P/E means more expectation in the price; a higher beta means bigger swings).
How they differ
Palantir Technologies Inc. is roughly 3x the size of Snowflake Inc. by market value. On our factor screen Palantir Technologies Inc. currently screens higher on quality, while Snowflake Inc. screens higher on momentum and value. Over the past year the share prices moved -22% (Palantir Technologies Inc.) vs +33% (Snowflake Inc.).
Descriptive only - how the two compare on today's data, never a verdict on either.
Palantir Technologies Inc., in one line
Palantir builds complex software platforms that help large organisations and governments make sense of massive amounts of messy data.
Read the full Palantir Technologies Inc. explainer →Snowflake Inc., in one line
Snowflake provides a cloud-based platform that helps businesses store, manage, and analyse vast amounts of data in one place.
Read the full Snowflake Inc. explainer →Common questions
Do Palantir and Snowflake do the same thing?
They both work with data but at different layers. Snowflake is largely a place to store and query data in the cloud, which other tools then plug into. Palantir sits closer to the decisions, offering platforms that analyse data and run AI for governments and big companies. Some customers use both.
Why are both seen as high-expectation shares?
Investors value both on the assumption of fast future growth rather than current profits alone, so their share prices can swing on results and outlook. Palantir leans on winning large government and enterprise contracts, while Snowflake depends on customers using and paying for more of its platform over time.