Palantir, Oracle, Microsoft Lead Defense AI Race

Wedbush analyst Dan Ives has identified Palantir, Oracle, and Microsoft as the top beneficiaries of rising U.S. defense AI spending, citing the OMB's fiscal 2026 budget proposals. He describes the current geopolitical climate as driving a new warfare paradigm that makes AI essential at the military level. Palantir leads as the first mover with 66% year-over-year U.S. government revenue growth, while Oracle builds cloud infrastructure with 84% cloud revenue growth and Microsoft provides enterprise backbone through Azure and its OpenAI partnership. Ives argues defense AI is now a structural budget commitment, not a pilot program.