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Kyle Dijamco is a proud member of Palantir Technologies ' fast-growing retail investor base. The Los Angeles-based marketer has bet big on the defense tech stock, even increasing his exposure after a drawdown earlier this year. The 31-year-old's position now stands at roughly $25,000. "It's an exciting stock to own," Dijamco told CNBC. Dijamco is part of an army of mom-and-pop traders who have poured billions of dollars into the Denver-based company's shares in 2025, according to data from VandaTrack. Its monster gains over recent years amid the artificial intelligence boom has made the stock an indisputable star of the retail investing world, in spite of Wall Street's reservations about valuation. Individual investors were on track to buy nearly $8 billion in Palantir stock on balance in 2025, per Vanda data as of Dec. 8. That is a gain of more than 80% over the prior year, and it reflects an increase of over 400% from 2023.
Palantir is on pace to be the fifth-most bought security on balance for the year, Vanda data shows. The stock sits behind only megacap names like Tesla and Nvidia and popular exchange-traded funds such as the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY) , which tracks the entire U.S. market benchmark. "It's been great," said Viraj Patel, deputy head of research at Vanda, which tracks retail trader flows. "Palantir has kind of been brought into this group of AI-tech poster [children]."
An 'insane' business
Palantir has won the hearts of retail investors amid its takeoff as a stock. Its shares have surged more than 150% so far in 2025, placing the name on track for its third straight year with triple-digit gains. The stock has skyrocketed nearly 3,000% in the last three years, crushing the S&P 500 's roughly 80% gain and the technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite 's more than 120% climb in the same time frame.
Stock Chart Icon Stock chart icon Palantir vs. the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite, 1-year chart
Since its 2020 market debut, Palantir has been considered a mysterious enterprise given its business with both public and private entities. On the surface level, Palantir helps both governments and major corporations organize their data. Beyond being viewed as a beneficiary of the push to adopt AI, it's seen as a winner under the Trump administration's priorities of increasing federal government efficiency and bolstering national defense. "The joke for a while has always been like, 'What does Palantir even do?'" said Paxton Earl, an investment banker with a focus on software who began reading regulatory reports to better understand the company. After learning more, he remembers thinking: "This is actually an insane business. It's really good." Earl discovered through research that the company's revenue was more diversified beyond military work than he initially predicted. In addition, the 23-year-old found Palantir worked with consumer-facing brands he knew like Ferrari and Wendy's.
The logo of U.S. software company Palantir Technologies is seen in Davos, Switzerland, on Jan. 22, 2020. Arnd Wiegmann | Reuters
The San Diego resident said he picked up more shares following the company's third-quarter earnings report in early November. Palantir tanked 16% that month as investors dumped their AI plays on valuation fears, and the stock posted its worst monthly performance in more than two years. Wall Street largely chalked up the sell-off to profit-taking and broader concerns about the health of the AI trade. Vanda found the bulk of Palantir's retail buying took place in the first nine months of the year, then cooled off as growing fears of an AI bubble left investors questioning the trade.
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