Palantir Technologies (PLTR) stock is having a good Monday, building on the momentum from Friday's session. The software company is riding a broader tech rally that has multiple engines firing at once.

There's optimism around U.S.-Iran negotiations, Snowflake (SNOW) posted solid fiscal results, and Anthropic just hit a staggering $965 billion valuation. On top of that, IBM (IBM) recently announced a $15 billion spending target for AI and quantum computing infrastructure. All of that is creating a nice tailwind for Palantir and its peers.

The AI Story Is No Longer Just About Hardware

Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives has been making the case that the AI market has entered a new phase — a multi-year enterprise build-out that goes well beyond the chip layer. He argues that structural tech spending is rapidly shifting from semiconductor hardware into the infrastructure layer that sits on top of it.

"What it's showing you is the data layer is now the monetization. It's not just chips. It's gone to the data layer," Ives said in a recent CNBC interview.

That's a direct challenge to the old Wall Street assumption that software companies would get squeezed as AI evolves. Ives sees it differently. He describes data warehousing and repository systems as critical proprietary assets. "That data layer like that is the new oil, the new gold, that's the moat," he said.

Ives emphasized that "data infrastructure install base is key," noting that established players are maintaining clear dominance. With global AI spending projected to hit $4 trillion over the coming years, platforms that sit at the data layer are perfectly positioned to capture a big chunk of that enterprise capital.

PLTR Price Action: Palantir shares were up 2.74% at $160.82 during premarket trading on Monday.