Palantir's Investments in Transport
$PLTR Bull Thesis Part 02 – Data-Driven Mobility
There is a lot to talk about when it comes to Palantir ($PLTR) and its three platforms: Gotham, Foundry, and Apollo. One thing many investors may not realize is that Palantir also invests in other companies, both with money and by letting commercial companies build on top Foundry via the Foundry for Builders program. In fact, Palantir has well over a dozen such investments on its books today. In a previous article, I looked at the #robotics companies that Palantir has invested in. In this one, I want to look at three #transportation and #electricvehicles companies that $PLTR is invested in to showcase how Palantir's flexible Foundry platform can be used to revolutionize the transport of people and goods on the ground and even in the sky!
(shown above: Wejo's connected data pipeline, which sits on top of Palantir's Foundry)
The word “Wejo” is a combination of the words “we journey”. Wejo ($VOSO) onboards and standardizes over 14 billion unique data points every day from connected vehicles through its cloud platform called Wejo ADEPT, which stands for Automotive Data Exchange Platform & Technology. The type of data it takes in is vehicle location, speed, environmental data, camera data, and more. By partnering with automotive manufacturers, Wejo will be able to take in automobile data directly from any vehicles manufactured by a partner brand. That data is then stored in the Wejo data lake and used to inform traffic management, advertising, remote diagnostics, roadside assistance, and even payments.
(shown above: Wejo's connected marketplace and Software-as-a-Service model)
From there, Wejo is building a marketplace for other companies to build apps and services on top of that huge data set. Think apps like traffic monitoring, civil engineering and parking optimization, EV charging loads, mapping and navigation, and more. This is a no-brainer business for Palantir's platforms, which focus on exactly this type of data collection, refinement, and insight generation. $VOSO is currently still trading at its $10/share SPAC price (sitting at under a $300M market cap) and will trade under the ticker symbol $WEJO if that merger completes.
(shown above: Tritium charger technology and barriers to entry)
Tritium ($DCRN) is a DCFC or Direct Current Fast Charging company focused on infrastructure for electric vehicles. Electric vehicles have two perceived problems today and they're both related to charging. First, people aren't confident that there are enough chargers to get them across long distances without taking major detours, and second, the actual charging experience itself is much longer and less convenient than filling up a gas tank. Tritium's 350-kilowatt DC fast charger can add 20 miles of range per minute and their charging solution is positioned to supply all types of demand, from consumers to fleet managers to retail campuses to utilities. That's because their chargers have a very low footprint, allowing bigger electric vehicles to fit in the charging parking spots.
(shown above: Tritium charger footprint compared to competitors)
These chargers are also modular, meaning they're upgradeable over time and are very easy to service. Tritium's barriers to entry are their integrated software, firmware, and the data they collect per each use in each location, as well as on things like climate and electrical grid conditions. That data is fed into a software management platform called Tritium Pulse. Tritium seems to be a direct competitor to Tesla's ($TSLA) supercharger network and this aggressive focus on data seems pretty unusual for physical infrastructure companies, which is probably why Palantir invested in Tritium. Palantir's Foundry will help by managing and visualizing the data to provide insights into demand and different ways to use their platform. Tritium is merging with Decarbonization Plus Acquisition Corporation 2, ($DCRN) and will trade under the ticker symbol $DCFC later this year.
(shown above: Lilium manufacturing of electric vertical take-off and landing vehicles)
Lilium ($LILM) is a company focused on electric vertical take-off and landing vehicles, or EVTOLs. For people, they want to deliver the feel of a business jet with the convenience of a car. For cargo, they want to deliver… well, the cargo. When you combine the revenues for delivering people and cargo with the revenues from the hardware sales themselves, ARK Invest's Big Ideas report says that Air Taxis could be a 52 billion dollar per year market by 2030. Lilium expects that market to be about one-third logistics and freight and two-thirds aerial taxis for people wanting to move inter- or intra-city while avoiding traffic. According to their investor presentation, Lilium has a few distinct advantages in this space:
(shown above: Lilium's modular designs, resulting in 30X fewer parts than airliners)
Their battery systems are very energy-dense and built to scale, meaning they just stack up the same battery module until they meet their power, redundancy, and safety requirements. Those modules are also fully self-contained, so if there's a malfunction, they can continue to fly safely as the damage will be contained to the battery. Their Ducted Electric Vectored Thrust system is low noise, low vibration, and modular as well. Low noise is important because noise pollution could become an issue as the air taxi market takes off (pun intended). Just like the battery cells, they can stack the thrust system modules on the wings until they have the propulsion they need. All together, Lilium's aircraft has a whopping 30 times fewer parts than commercial airliners, resulting in a very efficient manufacturing process. Lilium will be building 28 vertiports between Florida and Germany with 315 jets into service in 2025.
(shown above: Lilium's planned launch network in Florida – I'm located in Tampa)
You can bet your tailfin that I'm going to take a ride when they finish their vertiport in Tampa (where I'm currently located). My guess is they'll be using the Palantir platform for everything from flight planning to aircraft charging and data management as well as and other complex operations that require understanding what's going on with the entire fleet. $LILM is currently trading at around its $10/share SPAC price (sitting at under a $3B market cap).
Palantir ($PLTR) is championing the end-to-end data pipeline of a lot of different verticals through their Foundry for Builders program. In each case, not only do they get to invest early in a high-tech innovative company, but they also gain access to new use-cases to make the Foundry platform more flexible and robust for future clients. In my opinion, companies like Wejo ($VOSO), Tritium ($DCRN), and Lilium ($LILM) are clear examples of how far Palantir is able to reach beyond the traditional government work for which it is known.
Want to learn more about $PLTR and their investments? Check out my video that highlights a dozen of them: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5r3fEl6_e_c
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🙏 Thanks for reading!
⚡ Alex @ TickerSymbolYOU
