Palantir, Merck partner to tackle chip shortage

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• Palantir Technologies (NYSE:PLTR) and Merck (OTCPK:MKGAF) (OTCPK:MKKGY) have joined forces to provide a collaborative data analytics platform for the semiconductor industry.
• The Athinia platform will use artificial intelligence (AI) and big data to address challenges such as semiconductor chip shortages, supply chain transparency, time-to-market and product quality.
• The partnership will be led by Laura Matz, Chief Science and Technology Officer of Merck. It will bring together semiconductor manufacturers and materials suppliers to share, aggregate, and analyze data.
• The platform will also offer deeper insights into materials and processes at semiconductor fabrication plants.
• Kai Beckmann, Member of the Executive Board of Merck and CEO Electronics, said: "Partnering with Palantir, we've combined our collective expertise in materials science, data analytics and security to increase our customers' efficiencies and time to innovation."
• Shyam Sankar, Chief Operating Officer of Palantir, added: "Athinia will help companies across the value chain bring new products to market faster and accelerate their product differentiation and growth."
• Merck and Palantir have been collaborating since 2017. Their Syntropy partnership looked at intuitive analytics techniques for biomedical data from disparate sources to accelerate cancer therapy and research.
• PLTR shares +3.09% pre-market.
• Palantir reported Q3 revenue of $392M (+35.5% Y/Y), while billings surged 56% Y/Y to $347M. The company expects FY21 revenue growth of 40% to $1.527B (consensus: $1.53B).
• Last week, Palantir Technologies won an additional $43M contract from Space Systems Command.
• Read a recent bullish analysis on PLTR.