SpaceX and Palantir are both expensive AI investments, but they tackle different market segments. Palantir offers ready-to-deploy data analytics software, whilst SpaceX's xAI provides large language models as building blocks for custom applications. Last quarter, xAI's revenue grew 213% year over year, though SpaceX overall grew 92%. Palantir's growth matched SpaceX's total at 93%. Wall Street analysts expect SpaceX's revenue to grow 153% next year, compared to 50% for Palantir. SpaceX trades at 44 times this year's sales estimates, whilst Palantir trades at 55 times. Both valuations are extremely high, with typical expensive valuations considered around 20 times sales. The analysis favours SpaceX due to its faster growth trajectory and cheaper valuation, suggesting xAI's large language model approach will see broader adoption.

Seattle voice AI startup Ultravox, formerly known as Fixie, acquired by Inworld. Seattle voice AI startup Ultravox, which launched as Fixie, has been acquired by Inworld for an undisclosed sum. Ultravox was founded in 2022 by Google and Apple veterans to build a speech model for real-time, natural-sounding AI voice agents. In perhaps its most whimsical project, the startup launched the HiSanta.ai website in December 2023, allowing users to chat with Santa Claus, who spoke with a British accent, as well as Rudolph, Mrs. Claus and other North Pole notables. The site is no longer active. The company announced a $17 million seed round in March 2023, and PitchBook put its valuation at $51.46 million at the time. Redpoint Ventures led the round, which included Madrona Venture Group, Zetta Venture Partners, SignalFire, Bloomberg Beta and Kearny Jackson. Current and former executives at Google, Amazon and Apple also invested. Ultravox has 10 employees, according to LinkedIn. It was unclear whether the entire team would join Inworld, which is based in Mountain View, Calif. "We're excited to welcome members of the Ultravox team and continue building the platform," said Inworld CEO Kylan Gibbs in a statement. The acquisition will allow Inworld to adopt Ultravox's technology for managing turn-taking and interruptions in voice conversations with AI, which should improve performance in real-time chats. Inworld has raised $119.8 million since launching in 2021 and is valued at $515 million, according to PitchBook. Ultravox co-founder Zach Koch was most recently the company's CEO. His LinkedIn profile says he is now vice president of product at Shopify. Peter Salas, who joined the company as a software engineer in 2023, is currently listed as chief technology officer. The startup's original CEO, Matt Welsh, departed two years ago and is now head of AI systems at defense company Palantir Technologies. Co-founders Hessam Bagherinezhad and Justin Uberti also left, in 2023 and 2024 respectively, and both joined OpenAI. The release announcing the acquisition said Ultravox customers would be upgraded to Inworld's Realtime TTS-2 voice technology.

Sovereign AI push: Palantir (PLTR) teams with Armada on Modular Data centers for enterprise customers. Tldr. * Armada has been designated Palantir's inaugural Certified Modular Data Center Partner. * The collaboration combines Palantir's Sovereign AI Operating System with Armada's Galleon modular data center technology. * PLTR shares finished Thursday's session 2% higher at $190.04, with premarket trading Friday showing an additional gain of nearly 1%. * The alliance focuses on government agencies and enterprises seeking full control over their AI infrastructure. * Neither company revealed the financial details of the arrangement. Shares of Palantir (PLTR) advanced 2% to close at $190.04 on Thursday following the announcement of a partnership with Armada. Early Friday trading saw the stock quoted nearly 1% higher as the market absorbed the implications of the collaboration. The collaboration revolves around sovereign AI - technology infrastructure that operates entirely under a customer's ownership and control. Palantir has been expanding this segment of its operations over recent quarters. Through this arrangement, Armada receives the designation of Palantir's inaugural Certified Modular Data Center Partner. This newly created designation comes with a concrete technology integration. Armada's Galleon modular data center platform will integrate directly with Palantir's Sovereign AI Operating System. The combined solution addresses customers seeking alternatives to reliance on public cloud infrastructure. Who this deal is really for. The primary audience for this offering includes government entities and major enterprise organizations. These are institutions where data sovereignty, localized computing resources, and compliance mandates frequently make traditional cloud solutions impractical. Examples include military and intelligence organizations, heavily regulated sectors, or entities operating under stringent data-residency laws. For such customers, physical infrastructure ownership isn't optional - it's mandatory. According to both companies, the integrated platform supports open-weight AI models. This gives customers the ability to customize these models while maintaining complete control over the underlying infrastructure. Deployment velocity represents another key advantage. Palantir and Armada claim installations can be completed within months, contrasting sharply with the multi-year timelines conventional data center construction typically requires. This accelerated timeline appeals to customers needing rapid AI capabilities who cannot afford extended infrastructure development cycles. The value proposition emphasizes both speed and sovereignty. What wasn't disclosed. Neither organization disclosed financial specifics. No contract values, revenue projections, or deployment schedules were provided. This information gap complicates investor efforts to quantify the opportunity. While the strategic rationale appears sound, concrete financial metrics remain absent. Such opacity isn't uncommon in nascent infrastructure collaborations, where initial agreements often establish frameworks rather than immediate revenue streams. Palantir has structured previous partnerships similarly. Palantir maintains extensive relationships across government and enterprise software markets. This partnership opens a new channel to customers requiring AI capabilities without dependence on major cloud platforms. GuruFocus calculated Palantir's GF Value at $182.93, slightly below Thursday's close, indicating shares trade near fair value by that metric. Investors will consider this alongside numerous other factors. Currently, the agreement extends Palantir's traditionally software-focused business into physical infrastructure territory. Revenue generation will ultimately depend on customer adoption and actual deployments.