The idea of a "millionaire-making stock" goes back a long time. The New York Times reported back in 2005 about 10,000 people who bought Microsoft (MSFT 0.20%) stock early, watched shares jump more than a hundredfold between 1986 and 1996, and became "Microsoft Millionaires." Today, almost 40 years after the company's initial public offering (IPO), the number of Microsoft Millionaires is likely much higher.
I think the next stock with that sort of potential is Palantir Technologies (PLTR +1.65%). It's essentially a hybrid of a defense stock and a tech stock.
NASDAQ: PLTR
Key Data Points
Palantir has absolutely trounced the S&P 500's return in the last year, with a gain of 160% versus the S&P 500's 17%.Since its IPO in 2020, Palantir has increased by 1,770%, which means that anyone who invested $60,000 or more then would already be a millionaire.
However, the best is likely yet to come because Palantir is just getting started. It may have even better millionaire-maker potential than Microsoft.
The all-seeing eye
If you're a Tolkien fan like Palantir's most prominent co-founder, Peter Thiel, you likely recognize this company's name. It refers to the seeing stones in Tolkien's legendarium, which allow their users to see and communicate over vast distances. And "seeing stone" might be the most succinct way of describing Palantir's defense and intelligence software, the Gotham AI platform.
Image source: Getty Images.
In layman's terms, Gotham links up all of a military's hardware in a given battlefield, from a sensor or camera worn by an individual soldier to the satellite orbiting above them. All of that is then accessible on one platform by the people commanding a given operation.
It allows those commanders to see nearly everything happening in the chaos of battle and make informed, well-reasoned decisions without the fog of war clouding their vision. It's something any general throughout all of human history would have given anything for.
Palantir also rolled out its Artificial Intelligence Platform in April 2023. AIP is a more general-purpose AI program that allows its users to custom-tailor large language models (LLM) to their specific needs, utilizing Palantir's unique software to take advantage of both public and private data. Much of Palantir's bull run over the last two years has been due to the adoption of its AIP platform, which expanded its customer base from the predominantly government and military buyers of Gotham. Since AIP's launch the stock is up 2,000%.
The company's other products include:
- Apollo, which is for software management and deployment
- Foundry, which is more business-focused and allows for easier management of data in everything from retail to anti-money laundering
If all that sounds a little vague and confusing, you're not alone. Even people who've worked for the company struggle to explain it at times, as reported by Wired. However, the company's results speak for themselves.
Seeing green, and lots of it
Palantir had 911 customers at the end of the third quarter, up 45% from the previous year. It reported year-over-year commercial revenue growth of 121% and U.S. government revenue growth of 52%, for a total of 63% overall revenue growth year over year with a generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) operating margin of 33%. Net earnings per share (EPS) also tripled from $0.06 in Q3 2024 to $0.18 in Q3 2025.
I don't see that slowing down anytime soon. The company closed 204 deals of at least $1 million in the third quarter. Of that, 91 were worth at least $5 million and 53 were at least $10 million. Even better (and an extreme rarity in today's market), Palantir is debt-free and holds $6.4 billion in cash, cash equivalents, and U.S. Treasury securities.
For comparison, let's look at Microsoft's results just a few years after its own IPO. For the fourth quarter of fiscal 1992 (ending June 30, 1991), Microsoft saw revenue growth of 56%, EPS growth of 73%, and a net margin of 26.3%.
At roughly the same amount of time after its IPO, Palantir is dramatically outperforming the growth of Microsoft -- a company that minted at least 10,000 millionaires within 14 years of its IPO. That tells me Palantir is capable of delivering similar results for investors taking a long position.
The 21st century's millionaire-maker?
While Palantir's software is complex, one cannot argue with the numbers the company is putting up. Only time will tell if it can mint the same number of millionaires as Microsoft has. But Palantir has the best potential to do even better. The all-seeing eye is certainly worth a look.
