Palantir Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ:PLTR) co-founder and chairman Peter Thiel says sales to U.S. corporations have accelerated “tremendously” as American businesses race to adapt to artificial intelligence, while European companies lag behind.

Speaking with Axel Springer CEO Mathias Döpfner upon receiving the 2026 Axel Springer Award in Berlin, Thiel called the U.S. the center of AI development, with China a “fast follower” and Europe “extremely far behind.”

Thiel pointed to Palantir’s corporate growth as evidence of the divide, noting U.S. companies feel intense pressure to “get ahead of the curve.”

“There’s still much, much less of that sense of urgency in Europe,” Thiel said.

Palantir’s U.S. commercial revenue surged 55% year over year to $159 million in Q2 2024, with total U.S. commercial customer count jumping 83%.

IMF Warns Europe Risks Falling Further Behind

Thiel’s comments came days after IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva warned that Europe “qualitatively lags the U.S. in AI adoption.”

IMF survey data showed U.S. companies using AI to overhaul entire business processes, while European companies tend to apply the technology more narrowly.

Thiel said Europe needs to “get its economy going” and become “a part of building the future.”

Thiel contrasts 2 Examples of Europe Trying to Catch Up

With Concorde, Britain and France managed to catch and overtake the U.S. in supersonic passenger aviation, Thiel argued.

Minitel, in his telling, was the opposite. France’s government-backed online network used dedicated terminals connected to telephone lines for services such as banking, directories and messaging before the World Wide Web took off.

"The internet was supposed to be French," Thiel said. Instead, he argued, France fell behind, digging itself into "a deeper and deeper ditch."

Asked whether Europe’s position in AI today looks more like Concorde or Minitel, Thiel said: “Europe’s further behind than Minitel was.”

Prediction Traders See U.S. Firms Dominating AI Race

Polymarket traders give U.S. companies an overwhelming edge to own the world’s top-ranked AI model at the end of 2026. Anthropic leads with a 70% chance, followed by OpenAI at 14%, Google at 10% and xAI at 4%.

Chinese developers including Alibaba, DeepSeek and Z.ai each sit around 1%, while France’s Mistral is at 0.1%.

Palantir shares are currently trading at around $191.78, down 0.4%.

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