Source: BIT Securities
The U.S. stock market in August kicked off with a great start. Palantir, after releasing its second-quarter financial report after hours, crushed market expectations in nearly every key metric:

• U.S. commercial sales soared 149% year-on-year, reaching $764 million, far exceeding analysts' expectations of $716.4 million.

• Total revenue grew 93% year-on-year, recording $1.94 billion, higher than the market expectation of $1.8 billion.

• The full-year revenue guidance was significantly raised to a range of $8.15 billion to $8.158 billion, far surpassing the previous market consensus of $7.7 billion.

• The adjusted operating profit guidance for the full year was also raised from the previous range of $4.45 billion to a range of $4.89 billion to $4.91 billion.

In response to this financial performance, the market generously rewarded the company: after-hours stock prices soared by about 14%.

1. This Financial Report Struck the Market's Most Sensitive Nerve

The timing of Palantir's financial report was particularly significant.

Throughout July, chip stocks continued to pull back, and market confidence in the previously dominant AI trading narrative weakened. More and more investors were grappling with the same question: how long can this narrative last? Consequently, the entire market acted like detectives, chasing any clues that could shed light on the situation—and Palantir's financial report happened to be a crucial piece of the puzzle.

More importantly, it didn't just answer the question of "Is AI demand strong?", but also addressed a sharper issue: As foundational model companies like Anthropic and OpenAI rise, can traditional SaaS pricing models, represented by Palantir, still succeed? If large model companies start selling software directly, will Palantirs be crushed?

2. CEO's Counterattack: Not a Model Company, but a "Company That Allows Users to Switch Models"

In the face of the "large model substitution theory," CEO Alex Karp did not shy away this time; instead, he established "AI sovereignty" as the core narrative and directly refuted the criticism.

The management's logic is clear: Palantir's product positioning is as an integration and management interface for large language models (LLM), not the individual models themselves. Its software provides enterprises with a framework that enables flexible switching between different AI models—customers can use one provider's large model today and switch to another's tomorrow, without being held hostage by any single large model vendor.

Karp's statements were quite sharp: he praised clients for refusing to become "vassal states of language laboratories" and promoted Palantir as a company that "allows you to switch models."

The brilliance of this narrative lies in its ability to reverse the originally negative impact of the "rise of large model companies" into its own positive——the more models there are, the stronger and more homogeneous they become, the more enterprises will need a neutral integration layer to manage and switch them. The 149% growth in commercial revenue is the most honest vote from the market for this logic.

3. Hard Battles Ahead in August

Palantir has set a good tone for the U.S. stock market, but the real tests of August are just beginning.

Tomorrow after hours, SpaceX will release its first quarterly financial report since going public in June. As the debut, the market will focus on evaluating the performance of its three major businesses: rocket launches, Starlink satellite internet, and AI infrastructure, answering a fundamental question: Is the current high valuation supported by actual performance?

The market expects SpaceX's revenue for the second quarter to be around $6.88 billion, with a loss of $0.23 per share, and a quarterly EBITDA of about $2.1 billion; the full-year revenue expectation is about $39 billion, with EBITDA around $17.3 billion.

However, the biggest focus of this financial report is not on rockets, but on AI. In February of this year, SpaceX acquired Musk's artificial intelligence company xAI through an all-stock transaction and integrated the related business into its company structure. Data shows that SpaceX's AI business revenue for the first quarter was about $818 million, but it incurred an operating loss of $2.5 billion, while investing $7.7 billion in capital expenditures for AI infrastructure and data center construction.

Revenue of $800 million, a loss of $2.5 billion, and capital expenditures of $7.7 billion——this set of numbers will make investors closely monitor two things: the commercialization progress of the AI business and how much revenue contribution can come from collaborations with companies like Anthropic and Google. As the first major test since going public, every piece of guidance from SpaceX's management will be scrutinized under a microscope.

Furthermore, NVIDIA's financial report will be the grand finale, with significant transaction events nearly spanning the entire month of August.

4. In Conclusion: The Smart People Insure Themselves First

Looking at the calendar for August: Palantir is just the opening act, SpaceX submits its report tomorrow, NVIDIA will conclude at the end of the month, and in between, a host of tech stocks will release their earnings. Each one has the potential to shake the entire sector, and every earnings night could see wild price fluctuations.

In this market structure, the biggest risk is not misreading the direction, but being correct about the direction yet getting thrown off by the dramatic fluctuations of earnings night, or being severely impacted by a single judgment mistake. Holding the underlying stocks during earnings season is akin to running naked——while a surge is certainly exhilarating, if results fall short of expectations, the losses from a gap down have no buffer whatsoever.

This is why experienced investors use options during earnings season. The maximum loss when buying options is locked in at the moment of placing the order, which is just the premium itself—essentially spending a certain, limited cost to buy an insurance policy for their positions or judgments. Positioning options before earnings allows one to reap the benefits of amplified volatility if they're correct, and if they're wrong, the losses have a clear limit; this structure of "risk front-loaded, profit unlatched" is naturally designed for dense earnings periods.

And these tools are all conveniently available on the BIT Securities platform. BIT Securities' options functionality has officially launched, providing the appropriate risk management tools for the August earnings season, ensuring investors can always equip their portfolios with a form of insurance.

Risk Warning: The above content is for market commentary and educational purposes only, compiled based on publicly available financial data and market expectations, and does not constitute investment advice, research reports, offers, or invitations to offer, nor does it predict or guarantee the future performance of any securities such as PLTR, SPCX, NVDA, etc. The financial data, market expectations, and stock price movements mentioned are as of the time of publication and may change or differ from actual disclosures subsequently; please refer to the company's official financial reports and real-time market conditions in the BIT App for accuracy. The statements from management and market interpretations represent the views of the relevant parties only and do not reflect BIT's position or advice. Options trading involves significant risks, including but not limited to loss of principal, time decay, and exercise/assignment risks; leverage effects can amplify gains or losses and may not be suitable for all investors; please fully understand the product terms and your own risk tolerance before participating.

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