Palantir Technologies, a leader in big data in Silicon Valley, has one of the biggest gains in the s&p 500 index this year, helping the company reach a milestone in market cap.

As of last Friday's closing, the market cap of this software company reached 100 billion US dollars, reflecting increasing acceptance from investors of Palantir's positioning in the field of artificial intelligence.

D.A. Davidson analyst Gil Luria stated: "They are better positioned than any company (excluding Nvidia) to help those looking to make progress in integrating artificial intelligence into their products but unsure how to do so. Palantir has been able to offer a combination of pre-built software and custom services, which has resonated with many commercial clients."

Among the components of the S&P 500 index, Palantir's stock price has accumulated a 162% increase year-to-date, ranking only behind Vistra's 232% and Nvidia's 185% within the S&P 500 components. Palantir joined the index last month.

Artificial intelligence is not the only driver of Palantir's stock price increase, as the company also sells software to governments and has been winning more government clients due to global uncertainty.

In addition, palantir continues to demonstrate profitability, which was one of the factors that helped it join the s&p 500 index earlier this year.

This stock also has a passionate base of retail investors.

However, from an analyst's perspective, the stock is more controversial. Among the 24 analysts tracked by FactSet, 6 gave it a buy rating, 10 gave it a hold rating, and 8 gave it a sell rating. The average target price is $28.32, about 37% lower than recent levels.