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TRO | Palantir Reports 93% Revenue Growth Following AI Demand
Plus, Anthropic Signs US$10bn Deal with British Start-up Volta and YouTube And NBCUniversal Bundle Peacock With YouTube Premium
Subscribe | 10th August, 2026

In this fast-moving Vertical AI economy, headlines are everywhere but optimism is rare.
Here’s our take on 3 stories that will help you be relentlessly optimistic about the future.
1. Palantir Reports 93% Revenue Growth As AI Demand Outpaces Its Own Forecasts
Palantir posted Q2 2026 revenue of US$1.94 billion, up 93% year on year, beating analyst expectations of US$1.8 billion. Net income reached US$1.1 billion, or US$0.41 per share, against a consensus of US$0.35. US commercial revenue grew 149% and government revenue climbed 90%. CEO Alex Karp noted that Palantir's Q2 net income alone exceeded its total revenue from the prior year. The company raised its full-year 2026 revenue guidance to US$8.15 billion, up from its start-of-year forecast of US$7.19 billion, sending shares up 13% in after-hours trading. |
Here’s why this matters: Enterprise AI spending is converting into measurable revenue at a pace that is surprising even the companies generating it. Palantir has spent years being treated with scepticism by public market investors, its stock is still down 30% for the year, yet the underlying business is compounding at a rate its own CEO describes as unprecedented. For the TMT industry, the more significant number is the US commercial growth figure. A 149% increase in commercial AI software revenue in a single quarter is the clearest proof yet that enterprise adoption has moved well beyond pilot programmes into production deployments that drive real financial results.
2. Anthropic Signs US$10 Billion Compute Deal With British Start-Up Volta
Anthropic has signed a US$10 billion compute deal with Volta, a British AI cloud start-up, over a six-year period. Volta will partner with crypto-mining company Bitdeer to develop a data centre in Norway delivering 133 megawatts of capacity, powered by Nvidia's Vera Rubin chip architecture. Volta is part of Nvidia's Cloud Partner programme. The deal adds to a string of compute partnerships Anthropic has secured in recent months, including agreements with Amazon, Google, and SpaceX, as the company prepares for a public listing expected as early as October. |
Here’s why this matters: A British start-up securing a US$10 billion contract with one of the world's most valuable AI companies is a significant moment for the European technology industry. Volta's Norway facility reflects a deliberate strategic choice: renewable energy, favourable regulatory conditions, and proximity to European enterprise customers who need AI infrastructure that operates within their own regulatory environment. For Anthropic, the deal continues a pattern of diversifying compute supply across multiple partners rather than concentrating dependency on any single hyperscaler. For the TMT industry, Volta's emergence signals that the next wave of AI infrastructure investment will be built in Europe as much as in the US.
3. YouTube And NBCUniversal Bundle Peacock With YouTube Premium In A Landmark Streaming Deal
YouTube and NBCUniversal have announced a multi-year global strategic partnership that will see Peacock Premium bundled with YouTube Premium in the US from early 2027, immediately bringing Peacock to millions of existing YouTube Premium subscribers. Peacock currently has 48 million subscribers while YouTube Premium has a combined 125 million subscribers globally. The partnership also expands Universal+ and Hayu internationally, extends NBCUniversal's distribution on YouTube TV, and deepens collaboration across advertising technology and sports production. |
Here’s why this matters: Peacock has spent six years trying to build scale against Netflix, Disney Plus, and Amazon. Rather than acquiring millions of subscribers one by one, Peacock is being placed in front of YouTube Premium's existing base overnight. The framing from NBCUniversal's own sources captures the shift well: audiences in 2026 think in terms of moments, not platforms. For the streaming industry, this is the clearest signal yet that standalone subscription businesses are giving way to bundled ecosystems. YouTube is building the same aggregation play that cable once was, but with the creator economy, live sport, and premium content all in one place. The platforms that become the bundle win the next decade of entertainment.
Listen: The Relentless Optimist PodcastRecently nominated for the British Podcast Awards, The Relentless Optimist podcast follows the stories of those in the industry who believe better is always possible. Listen to all of Series 1 now, wherever you get your podcasts. |
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