Billionaire investor Peter Thiel<\/a> was a co-founder of Palantir Technologies (NASDAQ: PLTR), and he has sold millions of shares of the data analytics giant worth billions of dollars in total over the past few years.<\/p>\n Some investors have seen this as a warning sign. But they’re probably reading too much into those sales. Here’s why.<\/p>\n Image source: The Motley Fool.<\/p>\n Thiel has sold millions of Palantir shares but still holds a 3% stake<\/p>\n Observant investors likely noticed that Thiel began selling large portions of his Palantir stake in early 2024. During that time, he unloaded tens of millions of shares.<\/p>\n His selling has continued since then. Most recently, in March of this year, he sold another 2 million shares, totaling about $290 million.<\/p>\n Thiel owned about 8% of Palantir back in 2020, but after all the selling, he has reduced his stake to about 3%.<\/p>\n Why Palantir investors shouldn’t worry<\/p>\n All of this may seem troubling at first glance, but we should put his selling — and his current stake — into perspective.<\/p>\n First, Thiel has owned Palantir shares for more than two decades. That’s a heck of a long time to hold a stock, and it’s certainly a good indicator that he is a believer in Palantir and its highly profitable business<\/a>.<\/p>\n Second, Thiel’s stake in Palantir remains very large. While he’s reduced his position, he still has a 3% stake in the company. Based on Palantir’s current market cap of about $423 billion, that stake is worth about $12.7 billion.<\/p>\n Forbes lists Thiel’s net worth at about $33 billion, which means more than one-third of his net worth is held in Palantir stock — even after selling tens of millions of shares. In short, his fortunes are still very much entwined with Palantir’s success.<\/p>\n All of which suggests that while he has sold a significant amount of Palantir stock over the past couple of years, he hasn’t lost faith in the company. Thiel is still the chairman of Palantir’s board, and his approximately 69 million shares give him the largest stake in the company among individual investors, far surpassing even CEO Alex Karp’s holdings of about 6.4 million shares. It’s worth mentioning, though, that despite his stake’s small size relative to the total market cap of the company, because much of Karp’s stake is held in special share classes, he (and Thiel, and Palantir President Stephen Cohen) retain substantial voting power within the company. \u00a0<\/p>\n Palantir shareholders shouldn’t be worried about Thiel’s recent selling. Instead, they should view it simply as a long-term investor booking some of the profits from the company’s massive share-price gains.<\/p>\n Should you buy stock in Palantir Technologies right now?<\/p>\n Before you buy stock in\u00a0Palantir Technologies, consider this:<\/p>\n The Motley Fool\u00a0Stock Advisor\u00a0analyst team just identified what they believe are the\u00a010 best stocks<\/a>\u00a0for investors to buy now\u2026 and\u00a0Palantir Technologies\u00a0wasn’t one of them.\u00a0The 10 stocks that made the cut are built for long-term growth and could produce monster returns in the coming years.<\/p>\n Consider when\u00a0Netflix\u00a0made this list on December 17, 2004… if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation,\u00a0you’d have $439,308!*\u00a0Or\u00a0when\u00a0Nvidia\u00a0made this list on April 15, 2005… if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation,\u00a0you’d have $1,286,826!*<\/p>\n That performance is why people listen. With a track record of\u00a0beating the S&P 500 by nearly 5x,\u00a0Stock Advisor\u00a0offers a distinct advantage. Don’t miss the latest top 10 list, available with\u00a0Stock Advisor, and join an investing community built for the long haul.<\/p>\n See the 10 stocks \u00bb<\/a><\/p>\n *Stock Advisor returns as of August 27, 2026.<\/p>\n Chris Neiger<\/a> has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Palantir Technologies. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy<\/a>.<\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/https:\/\/media.zenfs.com\/en\/motleyfool.com\/8cf891c50f5793f3daa7fcda799768a1.png\"\/)
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