Palantir Technologies (NASDAQ: PLTR) has grown into a dominant force in AI-driven data analytics, securing lucrative government contracts and expanding its mission-critical intelligence business.
This has positioned PLTR among the best-performing stocks of the past two years. In 2025, the stock has rallied 105% year-to-date, trading at $154 as of press time.
However, its throne in the AI space could be under threat, as two smaller sub-$10 AI stocks are emerging as contenders that could potentially outperform Palantir by the end of 2026.
To explore this, Finbold consulted OpenAI’s ChatGPT model for insights on the most promising sub-$10 stocks with the potential to surpass Palantir by next year.
BigBear.ai (NYSE: BBAI)
BigBear.ai (NYSE: BBAI) is executing a bold strategic pivot. In its third-quarter 2025 results, the company announced the acquisition of Ask Sage, a generative AI platform designed for secure, regulated sectors such as defense and national security.
Ask Sage already supports over 100,000 users across roughly 16,000 government teams and is expected to generate about $25 million in annual recurring revenue in 2025.
According to ChatGPT, the acquisition could transform BigBear from a decision-intelligence contractor into a full-stack generative AI provider with secure, differentiated infrastructure.
The integration of Ask Sage with BigBear’s existing decision-intelligence tools could create a powerful platform for mission-critical government clients.
BigBear’s strong balance sheet, with more than $450 million in cash, provides significant financial flexibility to fund growth initiatives, scale operations, and pursue additional strategic investments.
ChatGPT noted that these combined factors could help BigBear.ai carve out a unique position in defense and national security AI, an area that overlaps with Palantir’s core business but with a more generative-AI-focused approach.
As of press time, BBAI stock was valued at $5.40 after gaining more than 20% in the past 24 hours.
Lantern Pharma (NASDAQ: LTRN)
Lantern Pharma (NASDAQ: LTRN) operates in a very different domain, using its proprietary RADR AI platform to reimagine oncology drug development. The platform incorporates more than 200 billion oncology-focused data points and over 200 machine-learning algorithms.
Among its most notable tools is predictBBB.ai, which forecasts blood-brain-barrier permeability with high accuracy, a major hurdle in drug development.
Lantern has also built a drug-combination prediction module that identifies synergistic cancer-therapy combinations based on clinical trial data.
On the clinical front, the LP-184 Phase 1a trial has completed enrollment, showing a 48% clinical benefit rate at or above the therapeutic dose among heavily pretreated patients, including those with difficult-to-treat cancers like glioblastoma.
ChatGPT noted that these results validate Lantern’s AI-driven biomarker predictions. The company is managing cash carefully, with $19.7 million in cash and short-term securities, providing runway through at least mid-2026. Lantern also plans to commercialize portions of its RADR platform, potentially generating revenue through licensing AI modules for broader R&D use.
At the close of the last market session, LTRN stock was trading at $3.02, down nearly 5% year-to-date.
In summary, the AI model noted that BigBear.ai and Lantern Pharma could outperform Palantir if they execute effectively; however, they face meaningful risks, including integration challenges, uncertain clinical outcomes, cash burn, and regulatory or competitive pressures.
Featured image via Shutterstock
