The integration creates a seamless, automated path from a customer's first voice interaction to kitchen fulfillment, across drive-thru, phone, kiosk, and in-car channels, in more than 100 languages.
, /PRNewswire/ -- Deliverect, the global restaurant technology platform serving more than 80,000 locations worldwide, today announced a partnership with SoundHound AI (Nasdaq: SOUN), a global leader in voice and agentic AI, to fully automate restaurant voice ordering from the moment a customer speaks to the moment the kitchen receives the order.
The integration connects SoundHound Smart Ordering directly to Deliverect's order and menu management platform. SoundHound's voice AI agents pull real-time menu and location data from Deliverect, capture orders flawlessly across every voice channel, and route them straight to kitchen fulfillment through Deliverect's certified POS integrations. Voice in, order out, with no manual re-entry, no handoff errors, and no added burden on restaurant teams.
Closing the gap between a customer's voice and the kitchen
Until now, the journey from a spoken order to the kitchen has involved staff, manual re-entry, and multiple points of failure. During peak hours, when teams are stretched thin, that fragility translates directly into lost revenue: missed or abandoned phone calls, order errors, and inconsistent experiences across drive-thru, phone, kiosk, and digital channels.
The partnership eliminates those failure points by turning the entire journey into a single automated loop. AI voice agents answer every call and capture every order, while menu accuracy is maintained in real time directly from Deliverect, with no manual updates needed across channels.
For operators, the outcomes are tangible: higher order capture rates with no missed calls, consistent upselling and limited-time-offer promotion across every ordering channel, faster throughput and reduced wait times, and staff freed up from answering phones to focus on cooking and taking care of guests in person.
Any market, any POS, no custom builds
Historically, one of the biggest obstacles to scaling voice ordering internationally has been the cost and complexity of building direct POS integrations market by market. Deliverect removes
that obstacle. With more than 550 POS integrations across over 50 countries, Smart Ordering can go live in any market, on virtually any POS, without custom development.
Combined with support for more than 100 languages, the partnership gives international restaurant groups a future-proof ordering infrastructure that scales across channels, markets, and languages, without rebuilding for every new touchpoint or region. As customer expectations shift toward voice-first and self-service experiences, operators running Deliverect and Smart Ordering are already there.
Mike Lauricella, VP of Channel Partnerships at SoundHound AI, said: "The future of restaurant hospitality relies on automation and convenience. Partnering with Deliverect allows us to deeply embed SoundHound's AI voice agents into the restaurant tech stack. By syncing critical menu and location data, our AI voice agents can handle order placement flawlessly, reducing front-of-house strain and delivering a seamless customer experience."
Don MacMillan, Head of Partnerships for the US and Canada at Deliverect, said: "Voice is the oldest ordering channel in the restaurant business, and until now it's been the least automated. This partnership changes that. By connecting SoundHound's AI voice agents directly to Deliverect, every spoken order, whether it comes through the drive-thru, a phone call, or a kiosk, flows straight into the kitchen with the same accuracy and speed as a digital order. For operators, that means no more missed calls, no more re-keying, and teams that can focus on hospitality instead of handsets. It's a major step toward the fully connected restaurant we're building with our partners."
About SoundHound AI
SoundHound AI (Nasdaq: SOUN) is a voice and agentic AI company that enables businesses to deliver natural, end-to-end conversational experiences across digital and physical channels, including phones, kiosks, chat, smart devices, drive-thrus, TVs, in-vehicle, and more. Its agentic platform, OASYS, is a self-learning, orchestrated AI system where organizations can build and deploy conversational AI agents to handle transactions, tasks, and workflows on behalf of customers and employees. Built on proprietary technology backed by 400+ patents and years of AI research, SoundHound serves leading brands across industries including automotive, financial services, healthcare, retail, telecommunications, and more. It powers millions of products and processes billions of interactions annually for enterprise customers worldwide. Learn more at: www.soundhound.com
About Deliverect
Deliverect is a global restaurant technology company that connects digital ordering channels directly to in-store operations, serving more than 80,000 restaurant locations worldwide. With an API-first platform and over 1,000 certified integrations, Deliverect streamlines digital ordering across carryout, delivery, catering, and in-store fulfillment. It is the only digital ordering platform to have earned DoorDash's Excellent integration rating. By leveraging AI-driven innovation, Deliverect empowers restaurants to anticipate demand, recover lost revenue, and grow smarter at scale. The company processes 30 million API calls daily, has powered 1.5+ billion orders to date, and is trusted by many of the world's largest and most innovative restaurant brands. To learn more, visit deliverect.com.
Provides Opportunity to Participate in Upside of a Combined Company with a Strong Balance Sheet, Greater Scale and Broader Strategic Capabilities
Stockholders Encouraged to Vote "FOR" the Transaction Today
Visit VoteLivePerson.com for Information on How to Vote
, /PRNewswire/ -- LivePerson (NASDAQ: LPSN) ("LivePerson" or "the Company"), a leading provider of predictable conversational AI, today announced that it has mailed a letter to stockholders encouraging them to vote "FOR" the Company's previously announced transaction with SoundHound AI, Inc. (NASDAQ: SOUN). A Special Meeting of Stockholders related to the pending transaction will be held on August 20, 2026, and stockholders of record as of close of business on July 6, 2026 are entitled to vote.
The letter, the full text of which is below, has been filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and is available at www.VoteLivePerson.com with voting instructions and other information about the transaction.
Fellow Stockholder,
We are writing to remind you about the proposed acquisition of LivePerson by SoundHound AI and the upcoming special meeting to be held on August 20, 2026.
By voting FOR the transaction, LivePerson stockholders have the opportunity to participate in the upside of a combined company with a strong balance sheet and no debt, greater scale and broader strategic capabilities.
Your vote and participation, however many shares you own, are very important. A share that is not voted counts the same as a vote against the transaction. Your prompt response will help us secure stockholder approval before the meeting, reducing the risk of postponement.
The Pending Transaction is the Best Strategic Alternative for LivePerson Stockholders
The LivePerson Board of Directors undertook a comprehensive review of alternatives in which 66 potential counterparties were contacted. The Board determined that the transaction with SoundHound represents the best alternative for maximizing stockholder value, including when compared to continuing as a standalone company given the business, financial, competitive, industry and market risks facing LivePerson.
A vote FOR the transaction is a vote in favor of the following benefits to LivePerson stockholders:
Represents Premium Value for LivePerson Stockholders: Based on the assumptions described in the proxy statement/prospectus, most LivePerson stockholders will receive SoundHound stock, which as of the announcement of the transaction on April 21, 2026, represented approximately $3.33 in value per LivePerson share, a premium of approximately 22% over LivePerson's 30-day volume-weighted average trading price before such announcement. Stockholders holding shares listed on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange are expected to receive the equivalent value in cash instead of SoundHound shares. Presents Opportunity to Participate in Future Upside: LivePerson stockholders receiving consideration in the form of SoundHound stock would become stockholders of a combined company with a strong balance sheet with no debt and accelerated path to profitability. SoundHound has stated that, assuming the transaction closes in the second half of 2026, it expects an achievable combined revenue range of at minimum $350 to $400 million in 2027, and that the combined business is expected to reach $500 million based on the existing customer base alone. Creates a More Complete Platform with Greater Scale: The transaction would unite complementary capabilities across voice, digital engagement, agentic AI and AI assurance. The combined customer base includes 25 of the Fortune 100, creating one of the conversational AI sector's most comprehensive enterprise customer footprints and significant opportunities to introduce additional capabilities across the companies' existing customer bases. A negotiated resolution to LivePerson's debt. LivePerson's outstanding debt currently exceeds the total value of the transaction. As part of the transaction, our secured noteholders have agreed to exchange their notes at a value reflecting a substantial discount to the notes' approximately $350 million par value. Given LivePerson's valuation and substantial debt, no strategic transaction that allows LivePerson stockholders to receive any value for their shares may have been possible without such material noteholder concessions. Voting Takes About Two Minutes
It is imperative that you take just two minutes to vote FOR the transaction today using one of the following methods. For more information and additional materials visit www.VoteLivePerson.com.
Online: www.proxyvote.com, or scan the QR code on your proxy card. Phone: Call 1-800-690-6903 with your proxy card, or 1-800-322-2885 to speak with a proxy specialist if you do not have your card. Mail: Mark, sign, and date your proxy card and return it in the postage-paid envelope. Votes must be received by 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time on August 19, 2026, or you may attend the meeting via the Internet and vote during the meeting at www.virtualshareholdermeeting.com/LPSN2026SM. If you hold your shares through a bank or broker, please follow the voting instructions they provide. If you hold shares through the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, please follow the separate instructions in the proxy statement.
If you have any questions, please contact our proxy solicitor, MacKenzie Partners, Inc., toll-free at 1-800-322-2885 or by email at [email protected].
Thank you for your continued support of LivePerson, Inc.
Sincerely,
John Sabino
Chief Executive Officer, LivePerson, Inc.
VOTE TODAY
Your vote is very important. The Special Meeting is scheduled for August 20, 2026.
Approval of the merger proposal requires the affirmative vote of a majority of all outstanding shares of LivePerson common stock. Not voting has the same effect as voting against the transaction.
Vote today by proxy card, online or by phone. For more information and additional materials visit LINK: VoteLivePerson.com, or contact LivePerson's proxy solicitor, MacKenzie Partners, Inc., toll-free at (800) 322-2885 or by e-mail at [email protected].
LivePerson stockholders who hold shares listed on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE) and intend to vote their shares must deliver to LivePerson's Israeli counsel, Arnon, Tadmor-Levy, c/o Moshe Pasker, Azrieli Center (Square Tower), Tel Aviv, Israel, 6702101 (email: [email protected]), an ownership certificate confirming their ownership on July 6, 2026. The form of proxy card for stockholders who hold shares listed on the TASE is available on the websites: https://www.magna.isa.gov.il and https://maya.tase.co.il.
About LivePerson
LivePerson (NASDAQ: LPSN) is an enterprise leader in predictable conversational AI. The world's leading brands use our award-winning Conversational Cloud and Syntrix platforms to connect with millions of customers. We power nearly a billion messages every month, providing uniquely rich data analytics, agent training, and AI evaluation tools to unlock the power of conversational AI for better business outcomes. Learn more at liveperson.com.
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Forward-Looking Statements
This document contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the U.S. federal securities laws about the expectations, beliefs, plans, intentions, prospects, financial results and strategies relating to SoundHound AI's proposed acquisition of LivePerson. Such forward-looking statements include, among others, statements regarding the timing of filing the definitive proxy/prospectus and timing of LivePerson's special meeting, obtaining regulatory approvals, the timing of closing of the proposed acquisition, and the parties' expectations, intentions, strategies, assumptions or beliefs about future events, results of operations or performance or that do not solely relate to historical or current facts. Forward-looking statements are predictions, projections and other statements about future events or conditions that are based on current expectations and assumptions and, as a result, are subject to risks and uncertainties. Many factors could cause actual future events to differ materially from the forward-looking statements in this communication, including: (1) the occurrence of any event, change, or other circumstance that could give rise to the right of one or both of the parties to terminate the definitive merger agreement between LivePerson and SoundHound; (2) the possibility that the transaction does not close when expected or at all due to the failure to satisfy all of the conditions to closing on a timely basis or at all, including the failure to obtain the required shareholder approvals or to consummate the notes restructuring transactions contemplated by the Notes Restructuring Agreement; (3) the risk that the benefits from the transaction may not be fully realized or may take longer to realize than expected, including as a result of changes in, or problems arising from, general economic and market conditions, interest and exchange rates, monetary policy, trade policy (including tariff levels), laws and regulations and their enforcement, and the degree of competition in the geographic and business areas in which LivePerson and SoundHound operate; (4) any failure to promptly and effectively integrate the businesses of LivePerson and SoundHound; (5) the possibility that the transaction may be more expensive to complete than anticipated, including as a result of unexpected factors or events; (6) reputational risk and potential adverse reactions of LivePerson's or SoundHound's customers, employees or other business partners, including those resulting from the announcement, pendency or completion of the transaction; (7) the diversion of management's attention and time to the transaction from ongoing business operations and opportunities; and (8) the outcome of any legal proceedings that may be instituted against LivePerson or SoundHound or in connection with the transaction. Further information on factors that could affect the forward-looking statements and expectations above are contained in the filings that LivePerson and/or SoundHound AI have filed, or that will be filed, with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC"), including as set forth in the Form S-4 and the proxy statement/prospectus contained therein, as well as the documents incorporated by reference therein.
All forward-looking statements are expressly qualified in their entirety by the cautionary statements set forth above. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date they are made, and LivePerson does not undertake or assume any obligation to update publicly any of these statements to reflect actual results, new information or future events, changes in assumptions, or changes in other factors affecting forward-looking statements, except to the extent required by applicable law.
No Offer or Solicitation
This communication is not intended to be, and shall not constitute, an offer to sell, buy or exchange or the solicitation of an offer to sell, buy or exchange any securities, or a solicitation of any vote or approval, nor shall there be any sale of securities in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such jurisdiction. No offering of securities shall be made except by means of a prospectus meeting the requirements of Section 10 of the Securities Act.
Additional Information and Where to Find It
In connection with the proposed transaction, SoundHound AI has filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC") a registration statement on Form S-4 (the "Form S-4") that includes a definitive proxy statement of LivePerson and that constitutes a prospectus of SoundHound AI with respect to the shares of the SoundHound AI common stock to be issued in the proposed transaction, dated July 9, 2026 (the "proxy statement/prospectus"). The proxy statement/prospectus was filed with the SEC on July 9, 2026 by LivePerson, and the mailing of the proxy statement/prospectus began to LivePerson's stockholders on or about the same date. Each of SoundHound AI and LivePerson may also file other relevant documents with the SEC regarding the proposed transaction.
This communication is not a substitute for the Form S-4, the proxy statement/prospectus or any other document that SoundHound AI or LivePerson has filed, or may file, with the SEC in connection with the proposed transaction. INVESTORS AND SECURITY HOLDERS OF SOUNDHOUND AI AND LIVEPERSON ARE URGED TO READ THE FORM S-4, THE PROXY STATEMENT/PROSPECTUS AND ANY OTHER RELEVANT DOCUMENTS FILED WITH THE SEC, AS WELL AS ANY AMENDMENTS OR SUPPLEMENTS TO THOSE DOCUMENTS, CAREFULLY IN THEIR ENTIRETY IF AND WHEN THEY BECOME AVAILABLE BECAUSE THEY WILL CONTAIN IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT THE PROPOSED TRANSACTION. Investors and security holders will be able to obtain copies of these documents (if and when available), as well as other filings containing information about SoundHound AI and LivePerson, free of charge on the SEC's website at www.sec.gov. Copies of the documents filed with, or furnished to, the SEC by the Company will be available free of charge on SoundHound AI's website at https://investors.soundhound.com/financial-information/sec-filings. Copies of the documents filed with, or furnished to, the SEC by LivePerson will be available free of charge on LivePerson's website at https://ir.liveperson.com/financial-information/sec-filings. The information included on, or accessible through, SoundHound AI's or LivePerson's website is not incorporated by reference into this communication.
Participants in the Solicitation
SoundHound, LivePerson and their respective directors and executive officers may be deemed to be participants in the solicitation of proxies with respect to the proposed transaction under the rules of the SEC. Information about the directors and executive officers of SoundHound, including a description of their direct or indirect interests, by security holdings or otherwise, is set forth in SoundHound's definitive proxy statement for its 2026 annual meeting of stockholders under the heading "Proposal 1 – Election of Directors", which was filed with the SEC on April 9, 2026 and is available at https://www.sec.gov/ix?doc=/Archives/edgar/data/0001840856/000121390026041978/ea0285618-01.htm. Information about the directors and executive officers of LivePerson and their ownership of LivePerson equity interests can be found in the section entitled "Interests of LivePerson Directors and Executive Officers in the Mergers" and "Owners and Management of LivePerson" included in the proxy/prospectus, which was filed with the SEC on July 9, 2026 and is available at https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1102993/000121390026076759/ea0297465-01.htm. Further information about the directors and executive officers of LivePerson may be found in its amendment to its Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2025 under the headings "Directors, Executive Officers and Corporate Governance," "Executive Compensation," "Security Ownership of Certain Beneficial Owners and Management and Related Stockholder Matters" and is available at: https://www.sec.gov/ix?doc=/Archives/edgar/data/0001102993/000110299326000020/lpsn-20251231.htm; in the Form 3 and Form 4 statements of beneficial ownership and statements of changes in beneficial ownership filed with the SEC by LivePerson's directors and executive officers; and is in other documents filed by LivePerson with the SEC. Additional information regarding the interests of the participants in the solicitation of proxies will be included in other relevant materials to be filed with the SEC if and when they become available. You should read the Form S-4 and the proxy statement/prospectus carefully before making any voting or investment decisions. You may obtain free copies of these documents using the sources indicated above.
SoundHound AI, Inc. (SOUN - Free Report) ended the recent trading session at $6.46, demonstrating a -1.45% change from the preceding day's closing price. The stock's performance was behind the S&P 500's daily loss of 0.14%. At the same time, the Dow lost 0.01%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 0.57%.
Heading into today, shares of the company had gained 1.79% over the past month, outpacing the Computer and Technology sector's loss of 4.82% and the S&P 500's gain of 0.25%.
The investment community will be closely monitoring the performance of SoundHound AI, Inc. in its forthcoming earnings report. The company's upcoming EPS is projected at -$0.05, signifying a 66.67% drop compared to the same quarter of the previous year. Meanwhile, the latest consensus estimate predicts the revenue to be $52.49 million, indicating a 22.99% increase compared to the same quarter of the previous year.
For the full year, the Zacks Consensus Estimates are projecting earnings of -$0.18 per share and revenue of $233.16 million, which would represent changes of -38.46% and +38.03%, respectively, from the prior year.
Investors should also pay attention to any latest changes in analyst estimates for SoundHound AI, Inc. These latest adjustments often mirror the shifting dynamics of short-term business patterns. As a result, we can interpret positive estimate revisions as a good sign for the business outlook.
Our research suggests that these changes in estimates have a direct relationship with upcoming stock price performance. Investors can capitalize on this by using the Zacks Rank. This model considers these estimate changes and provides a simple, actionable rating system.
The Zacks Rank system ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell). It has a remarkable, outside-audited track record of success, with #1 stocks delivering an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Over the past month, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate remained stagnant. Currently, SoundHound AI, Inc. is carrying a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).
The Computers - IT Services industry is part of the Computer and Technology sector. At present, this industry carries a Zacks Industry Rank of 64, placing it within the top 27% of over 250 industries.
The strength of our individual industry groups is measured by the Zacks Industry Rank, which is calculated based on the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within these groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.
To follow SOUN in the coming trading sessions, be sure to utilize Zacks.com.
Key Takeaways SoundHound is expanding restaurant automation with OASYS across drive-thrus, kiosks, phones and chat.AI-enabled drive-thru locations generated higher revenues for a major QSR customer than comparable stores.First-quarter 2026 revenues rose 52%, while cash reached about $216 million with no debt. SoundHound AI (SOUN - Free Report) is strengthening its position as a leading provider of AI-powered restaurant automation, making 2026 an important year for the company. While SoundHound is still expanding beyond its automotive roots, its growing traction in restaurants, combined with new agentic AI capabilities, could make it one of the industry's key disruptors.
A major catalyst is SoundHound's newly launched OASYS platform, a self-learning agentic AI system that allows businesses to build, deploy and continuously improve AI agents across drive-thrus, kiosks, phones, web, chat and other customer touchpoints. This unified platform significantly reduces deployment time while enabling restaurants to automate ordering, customer service and workflow management with minimal manual intervention.
The company's restaurant momentum is also becoming increasingly tangible. Management noted that a major quick-service restaurant (QSR) customer found AI-enabled drive-thru locations generated higher revenues than comparable stores without SoundHound's technology. The company also reported rising cross-selling opportunities among restaurant customers and growing adoption of its Voice Insights analytics platform, suggesting that customers are expanding beyond initial deployments.
Another potential growth driver is the planned acquisition of LivePerson. Once completed, the transaction will combine SoundHound's voice AI with LivePerson's digital messaging capabilities, enabling restaurants to offer seamless customer interactions across voice, text and chat. The acquisition is also expected to expand cross-selling opportunities while broadening the company's enterprise customer base.
Financially, SoundHound appears well positioned to support these initiatives. First-quarter 2026 revenues rose 52% year over year to a record level, the company ended the quarter with approximately $216 million in cash and no debt, and management reaffirmed its full-year revenue outlook of $225-$260 million.
Although continued losses and execution risks around integrating LivePerson remain challenges, SoundHound's expanding restaurant footprint, differentiated voice AI technology and growing enterprise ecosystem position it well to become a meaningful force in restaurant automation during 2026.
Restaurant AI Competition Is IntensifyingNCR Voyix (VYX - Free Report) is one of SoundHound's strongest competitors in restaurant automation due to its extensive restaurant software ecosystem spanning point-of-sale, payment processing, self-service kiosks and digital ordering. NCR Voyix has deep relationships with leading restaurant chains and continues to enhance its AI-driven ordering and operational capabilities.
While NCR Voyix primarily focuses on restaurant commerce infrastructure, it is still expanding its conversational AI capabilities. This creates an opportunity for the company to compete directly with SoundHound as restaurants increasingly seek integrated voice-enabled ordering and customer engagement solutions.
Par Technology (PAR - Free Report) is another major rival, offering cloud-based restaurant management software, digital ordering, loyalty programs, back-office solutions and restaurant analytics. Through acquisitions and continued product development, Par Technology has built a comprehensive platform serving thousands of restaurant locations.
As restaurants increasingly adopt AI to improve order accuracy, labor productivity and customer experience, Par Technology is embedding more automation across its software suite. While Par Technology offers a broad restaurant operating platform, SoundHound differentiates itself with its proprietary voice AI, agentic AI platform and drive-thru automation capabilities, positioning the company to capture a larger share of AI-first restaurant deployments.
SOUN’s Price Performance, Valuation & EstimatesSoundHound shares have lost 34.2% year to date (YTD), underperforming the industry, as shown below:
SOUN’s YTD Price Performance
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
From a valuation standpoint, SOUN trades at a forward price-to-sales (P/S) multiple of 11.18, slightly above the industry’s average.
SOUN’s P/S Ratio (Forward 12-Month) vs. Industry
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
Over the past 60 days, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for SoundHound’s 2026 loss per share has remained unchanged at 18 cents, as shown below. The expected loss also remains wider than the previous year’s loss of 13 cents.
SoundHound AI, Inc. (SOUN - Free Report) has recently been on Zacks.com's list of the most searched stocks. Therefore, you might want to consider some of the key factors that could influence the stock's performance in the near future.
Over the past month, shares of this company have returned -8.3%, compared to the Zacks S&P 500 composite's -0.6% change. During this period, the Zacks Computers - IT Services industry, which SoundHound AI falls in, has gained 1.6%. The key question now is: What could be the stock's future direction?
While media releases or rumors about a substantial change in a company's business prospects usually make its stock 'trending' and lead to an immediate price change, there are always some fundamental facts that eventually dominate the buy-and-hold decision-making.
Revisions to Earnings EstimatesHere at Zacks, we prioritize appraising the change in the projection of a company's future earnings over anything else. That's because we believe the present value of its future stream of earnings is what determines the fair value for its stock.
Our analysis is essentially based on how sell-side analysts covering the stock are revising their earnings estimates to take the latest business trends into account. When earnings estimates for a company go up, the fair value for its stock goes up as well. And when a stock's fair value is higher than its current market price, investors tend to buy the stock, resulting in its price moving upward. Because of this, empirical studies indicate a strong correlation between trends in earnings estimate revisions and short-term stock price movements.
SoundHound AI is expected to post a loss of $0.05 per share for the current quarter, representing a year-over-year change of -66.7%. Over the last 30 days, the Zacks Consensus Estimate remained unchanged.
The consensus earnings estimate of -$0.18 for the current fiscal year indicates a year-over-year change of -38.5%. This estimate has remained unchanged over the last 30 days.
For the next fiscal year, the consensus earnings estimate of $0.14 indicates a change of +25.2% from what SoundHound AI is expected to report a year ago. Over the past month, the estimate has changed -19.6%.
Having a strong externally audited track record, our proprietary stock rating tool, the Zacks Rank, offers a more conclusive picture of a stock's price direction in the near term, since it effectively harnesses the power of earnings estimate revisions. Due to the size of the recent change in the consensus estimate, along with three other factors related to earnings estimates, SoundHound AI is rated Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).
The chart below shows the evolution of the company's forward 12-month consensus EPS estimate:
12 Month EPS
Revenue Growth ForecastWhile earnings growth is arguably the most superior indicator of a company's financial health, nothing happens as such if a business isn't able to grow its revenues. After all, it's nearly impossible for a company to increase its earnings for an extended period without increasing its revenues. So, it's important to know a company's potential revenue growth.
For SoundHound AI, the consensus sales estimate for the current quarter of $52.49 million indicates a year-over-year change of +23%. For the current and next fiscal years, $233.16 million and $270.1 million estimates indicate +38% and +15.8% changes, respectively.
Last Reported Results and Surprise HistorySoundHound AI reported revenues of $44.19 million in the last reported quarter, representing a year-over-year change of +51.7%. EPS of -$0.06 for the same period compares with -$0.06 a year ago.
Compared to the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $42.71 million, the reported revenues represent a surprise of +3.48%. The EPS surprise was -20%.
Over the last four quarters, SoundHound AI surpassed consensus EPS estimates two times. The company topped consensus revenue estimates each time over this period.
ValuationWithout considering a stock's valuation, no investment decision can be efficient. In predicting a stock's future price performance, it's crucial to determine whether its current price correctly reflects the intrinsic value of the underlying business and the company's growth prospects.
While comparing the current values of a company's valuation multiples, such as price-to-earnings (P/E), price-to-sales (P/S), and price-to-cash flow (P/CF), with its own historical values helps determine whether its stock is fairly valued, overvalued, or undervalued, comparing the company relative to its peers on these parameters gives a good sense of the reasonability of the stock's price.
The Zacks Value Style Score (part of the Zacks Style Scores system), which pays close attention to both traditional and unconventional valuation metrics to grade stocks from A to F (an A is better than a B; a B is better than a C; and so on), is pretty helpful in identifying whether a stock is overvalued, rightly valued, or temporarily undervalued.
SoundHound AI is graded F on this front, indicating that it is trading at a premium to its peers. Click here to see the values of some of the valuation metrics that have driven this grade.
Bottom LineThe facts discussed here and much other information on Zacks.com might help determine whether or not it's worthwhile paying attention to the market buzz about SoundHound AI. However, its Zacks Rank #3 does suggest that it may perform in line with the broader market in the near term.
When deciding whether to buy, sell, or hold a stock, investors often rely on analyst recommendations. Media reports about rating changes by these brokerage-firm-employed (or sell-side) analysts often influence a stock's price, but are they really important?
Before we discuss the reliability of brokerage recommendations and how to use them to your advantage, let's see what these Wall Street heavyweights think about SoundHound AI, Inc. (SOUN - Free Report) .
SoundHound AI currently has an average brokerage recommendation (ABR) of 1.75, on a scale of 1 to 5 (Strong Buy to Strong Sell), calculated based on the actual recommendations (Buy, Hold, Sell, etc.) made by eight brokerage firms. An ABR of 1.75 approximates between Strong Buy and Buy.
Of the eight recommendations that derive the current ABR, five are Strong Buy, representing 62.5% of all recommendations.
Brokerage Recommendation Trends for SOUN
Check price target & stock forecast for SoundHound AI here>>>
While the ABR calls for buying SoundHound AI, it may not be wise to make an investment decision solely based on this information. Several studies have shown limited to no success of brokerage recommendations in guiding investors to pick stocks with the best price increase potential.
Do you wonder why? As a result of the vested interest of brokerage firms in a stock they cover, their analysts tend to rate it with a strong positive bias. According to our research, brokerage firms assign five "Strong Buy" recommendations for every "Strong Sell" recommendation.
This means that the interests of these institutions are not always aligned with those of retail investors, giving little insight into the direction of a stock's future price movement. It would therefore be best to use this information to validate your own analysis or a tool that has proven to be highly effective at predicting stock price movements.
Zacks Rank, our proprietary stock rating tool with an impressive externally audited track record, categorizes stocks into five groups, ranging from Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) to Zacks Rank #5 (Strong Sell), and is an effective indicator of a stock's price performance in the near future. Therefore, using the ABR to validate the Zacks Rank could be an efficient way of making a profitable investment decision.
Zacks Rank Should Not Be Confused With ABRIn spite of the fact that Zacks Rank and ABR both appear on a scale from 1 to 5, they are two completely different measures.
Broker recommendations are the sole basis for calculating the ABR, which is typically displayed in decimals (such as 1.28). The Zacks Rank, on the other hand, is a quantitative model designed to harness the power of earnings estimate revisions. It is displayed in whole numbers -- 1 to 5.
Analysts employed by brokerage firms have been and continue to be overly optimistic with their recommendations. Since the ratings issued by these analysts are more favorable than their research would support because of the vested interest of their employers, they mislead investors far more often than they guide.
In contrast, the Zacks Rank is driven by earnings estimate revisions. And near-term stock price movements are strongly correlated with trends in earnings estimate revisions, according to empirical research.
In addition, the different Zacks Rank grades are applied proportionately to all stocks for which brokerage analysts provide current-year earnings estimates. In other words, this tool always maintains a balance among its five ranks.
Another key difference between the ABR and Zacks Rank is freshness. The ABR is not necessarily up-to-date when you look at it. But, since brokerage analysts keep revising their earnings estimates to account for a company's changing business trends, and their actions get reflected in the Zacks Rank quickly enough, it is always timely in indicating future price movements.
Should You Invest in SOUN?In terms of earnings estimate revisions for SoundHound AI, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for the current year has remained unchanged over the past month at -$0.18.
Analysts' steady views regarding the company's earnings prospects, as indicated by an unchanged consensus estimate, could be a legitimate reason for the stock to perform in line with the broader market in the near term.
The size of the recent change in the consensus estimate, along with three other factors related to earnings estimates, has resulted in a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) for SoundHound AI. You can see the complete list of today's Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) stocks here >>>>
It may therefore be prudent to be a little cautious with the Buy-equivalent ABR for SoundHound AI.
SoundHound AI (SOUN +0.64%) aims to control the conversational layer that connects users, AI models, and real-world services. Its growing presence in vehicles and restaurants creates an intriguing opportunity, but profitability remains the crucial test that could determine whether this emerging platform becomes an enduring AI business.
Stock prices used were the market prices of July 10, 2026. The video was published on July 19, 2026.
Rick Orford has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends SoundHound AI. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Rick Orford is an affiliate of The Motley Fool and may be compensated for promoting its services. If you choose to subscribe through their link, they will earn some extra money that supports their channel. Their opinions remain their own and are unaffected by The Motley Fool.
Investing in a top artificial intelligence (AI) company can be a great way for investors to amass some significant returns. Taking a chance on a modestly valued AI stock may yield even greater gains, enabling growth investors to double their money (or more).
SoundHound AI (SOUN 1.75%) has a relatively modest market cap of $2.7 billion, and it's the type of small-but-growing business that may have investors bullish about its future. Although it's been struggling this year and is down around 37%, its low valuation could prove to be enticing, given the opportunities in voice AI. Could the tech stock double in value in the near future?
Image source: Getty Images.
SoundHound AI's business has some encouraging growth opportunities ahead In recent years, SoundHound has been on an acquisition spree to both diversify and expand its presence in the voice AI space. Recently, it launched its Oasys agentic platform, where AI can learn and improve on its own, enabling agents to get better over time.
With significant opportunities in the space, SoundHound doesn't even need to capture a large share to see its valuation grow. According to projections from Grand View Research, the AI voice generators market is growing at a compounded annual growth rate of 29.5% and will be worth approximately $21.8 billion by 2030. It highlights SoundHound as one of the leading players in the market, as businesses look for personalized AI assistants.
SoundHound has already been generating strong results; however, they've largely been driven by acquisitions, boosting its sales. During the first three months of the year, SoundHound's revenue rose by 52%, totaling $44.2 million. The big challenge will be maintaining a high growth rate while also keeping its costs down, as the company also incurred a net loss of $25 million during the quarter, as it continues to struggle to stay out of the red.
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The stock has plenty of upside, but it also carries risk SoundHound's stock is down around 50% over the past 12 months, so even if it were to return to where it was a year ago, it would have doubled in value from where it trades today. Thus, it's not an outlandish scenario to consider, but SoundHound needs to do more than just grow through acquisitions.
It won't be easy with so much competition in AI these days. That's why, while SoundHound may have significant growth potential, it's not a sure thing. This stock might appeal to growth investors, but it may only be suitable for those with a high tolerance for risk.
While many artificial intelligence (AI) stocks are outperforming the broader market right now, not every name in this space has been a winner. SoundHound AI (SOUN +3.08%) stock is down 37% this year, and it recenty was trading 68% below its 2024 record high.
SoundHound AI is a leading developer of conversational AI software, which is currently used by some of the world's biggest brands across industries such as automotive manufacturing, hospitality, healthcare, and more.
Investors have trimmed their exposure to its stock because of its sky-high valuation, but it's starting to look attractive after its recent losses. Is it time to buy the dip?
Image source: The Motley Fool.
SoundHound is rapidly expanding SoundHound developed a series of in-house conversational AI software products. They include Dynamic Drive-Thru and Dynamic Kiosk for quick-service restaurants, which autonomously take customer orders so employees can focus on other tasks. Then there is the Voice AI platform, which allows car brands to install highly intuitive voice-activated AI experiences into their vehicles.
But SoundHound also expanded over the last few years by acquiring other companies. It bought rival conversational AI company Amelia in 2024, and it recently launched the Amelia 7 platform, which businesses can use to build custom AI agents to serve customers or help employees streamline their workflows. Resorts World Las Vegas uses Amelia to autonomously handle more than half of its incoming customer calls, freeing up employees to provide guests with high-touch luxury experiences.
In April of this year, SoundHound announced plans to acquire LivePerson, which built an AI-powered digital engagement platform that processes message conversations on behalf of businesses and their customers. It powers more than 1 billion messages per month across websites, social media, and chat applications, saving valuable time that would otherwise be spent managing phone calls or email correspondence.
SoundHound's revenue growth is fast, but slowing SoundHound's revenue soared by 52% year over year during the first quarter of 2026, to come in at a record $44.2 million. While that sounds like a spectacular result, the company's revenue grew at a much faster pace of 151% during the same quarter of 2025. Some investors might be concerned about the apparent loss of momentum, which is one reason for the steep decline in SoundHound stock.
However, the recent acquisition of LivePerson is about to provide a temporary boost to SoundHound's financial results. Management estimates the company's annual revenue will come in somewhere between $225 million and $260 million in 2026, but that number could grow to $400 million in 2027 once LivePerson's revenue is included. Management says there could be as much as $100 million in potential upside, depending on operational performance.
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While that is great news, investors also have to keep an eye on SoundHound's mounting losses, because scaling an AI business isn't cheap. During the first quarter, the company suffered a generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) net loss of $25 million and an adjusted net loss of $26.5 million. Both figures worsened from the same quarter last year.
SoundHound had $216 million in cash and cash equivalents on hand as of March 31, so it can afford to lose money at the current pace for at least the next year or so. But if it isn't profitable by then, it might have to raise more money, diluting existing shareholders and hurting their future potential returns.
SoundHound stock isn't cheap just yet, but it's getting there SoundHound had a price-to-sales (P/S) ratio of around 100 when its stock peaked in late 2024, which made it extremely expensive. For some context, the Nasdaq-100 technology index currently trades at a P/S ratio of just 6.4.
But the combination of SoundHound's revenue growth and the 68% decline in its stock has pushed its P/S ratio down to a more reasonable level of around 15.
SOUN PS Ratio data by YCharts
SoundHound isn't necessarily cheap just yet, but if we assume the company will generate $400 million in revenue next year, as management expects, then its forward P/S ratio is just 7.2. That is quite attractive given how fast SoundHound is expanding. Plus, AI software is likely to touch every industry in the future, so the company could have an enormous addressable market.
Nevertheless, SoundHound is still in the early stages of commercializing its product portfolio, so investors who buy its stock today should maintain a five-year time horizon to smooth out any potential volatility and maximize their chances of earning a positive return. It's also a good idea to keep a small position, just in case this opportunity doesn't work out.
In the latest close session, SoundHound AI, Inc. (SOUN - Free Report) was down 2.26% at $6.49. This change lagged the S&P 500's 0.79% loss on the day. Elsewhere, the Dow lost 0.26%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 1.55%.
Shares of the company have depreciated by 3.77% over the course of the past month, underperforming the Computer and Technology sector's gain of 3.44%, and the S&P 500's gain of 4.28%.
The investment community will be paying close attention to the earnings performance of SoundHound AI, Inc. in its upcoming release. On that day, SoundHound AI, Inc. is projected to report earnings of -$0.05 per share, which would represent a year-over-year decline of 66.67%. Simultaneously, our latest consensus estimate expects the revenue to be $52.49 million, showing a 22.99% escalation compared to the year-ago quarter.
Regarding the entire year, the Zacks Consensus Estimates forecast earnings of -$0.18 per share and revenue of $233.16 million, indicating changes of -38.46% and +38.03%, respectively, compared to the previous year.
Investors should also note any recent changes to analyst estimates for SoundHound AI, Inc. These revisions help to show the ever-changing nature of near-term business trends. Therefore, positive revisions in estimates convey analysts' confidence in the business performance and profit potential.
Our research shows that these estimate changes are directly correlated with near-term stock prices. We developed the Zacks Rank to capitalize on this phenomenon. Our system takes these estimate changes into account and delivers a clear, actionable rating model.
The Zacks Rank system, stretching from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), has a noteworthy track record of outperforming, validated by third-party audits, with stocks rated #1 producing an average annual return of +25% since the year 1988. The Zacks Consensus EPS estimate remained stagnant within the past month. Currently, SoundHound AI, Inc. is carrying a Zacks Rank of #4 (Sell).
The Computers - IT Services industry is part of the Computer and Technology sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 83, which puts it in the top 34% of all 250+ industries.
The Zacks Industry Rank is ordered from best to worst in terms of the average Zacks Rank of the individual companies within each of these sectors. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.
Remember to apply Zacks.com to follow these and more stock-moving metrics during the upcoming trading sessions.
SANTA CLARA, Calif., July 13, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- SoundHound AI, Inc. (Nasdaq: SOUN), a global leader in voice and agentic AI, today announced it has been positioned by Gartner as a Leader in the Magic Quadrant for Conversational AI Platforms.
The evaluation was based on specific criteria that analyzed the company’s overall Completeness of Vision and Ability to Execute in the rapidly evolving conversational AI market
SoundHound’s Amelia 7 conversational AI platform is highly valued by enterprise businesses for its category-leading, voice-native design, proprietary Agentic+ framework, governed orchestration, and LLM-agnostic architecture. This foundation enables businesses to deploy goal-oriented AI agents that seamlessly reason, plan, and execute complex, multi-intent tasks across channels.
Over the last two years, SoundHound has significantly expanded its market footprint and strengthened its platform capabilities through a series of strategic acquisitions, establishing a robust, enterprise-ready conversational AI ecosystem.
"We believe this recognition by Gartner validates our belief that the future of AI automation will be pioneered by voice-native architecture," said Keyvan Mohajer, Co-Founder & CEO at SoundHound AI. "We designed our platform not just to participate in the conversational AI shift, but to define it. By unifying advanced analytics, specialized voice capabilities, and human-in-the-loop orchestration, we are enabling global organizations to deploy highly sophisticated agents that drive measurable, scalable economic value."
According to Gartner, "CAIPs are purpose-built for broad enterprise adoption, enabling strategic, scalable and organizationwide conversational AI initiatives." Gartner evaluated vendors on a rigorous set of criteria, including customer experience, innovation, sales execution, and market understanding.
To read a complimentary copy of the full 2026 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Conversational AI Platforms report, visit https://www.soundhound.com/gartner-magic-quadrant-conversational-ai-platforms-2026/ .
Driving Enterprise Value
While Gartner recognized SoundHound's vision and platform execution, global enterprises are realizing the company’s business impact. Today, SoundHound's platform processes billions of interactions annually across enterprise sectors, including financial services, health, retail, hospitality, automotive, restaurants, utilities, telco, and more.
In May 2026, SoundHound launched OASYS (Orchestrated Agent System), a category-defining, self-learning platform where AI builds AI to eliminate traditional maintenance burdens. Unlike standard “build and deploy” approaches requiring constant manual upkeep, the OASYS platform autonomously creates, evaluates, and continuously improves entire fleets of conversational agents in minutes.
Backed by enterprise-grade guardrails and patented Human Assisted Resolution (HAR) technology, the platform safely automates complex workflows – from retail orders to insurance claims – across customer channels like phone, web chat, drive-thrus, and in-vehicle while seamlessly maintaining context and language support throughout every interaction.
Learn more about OASYS here.
Gartner, Magic Quadrant for Conversational AI Platforms, Gabriele Rigon, et al., 7 July 2026
Gartner does not endorse any company, vendor, product or service depicted in its publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner publications consist of the opinions of Gartner’s business and technology insights organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this publication, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.
Gartner and Magic Quadrant are trademarks of Gartner, Inc., and/or its affiliates.
About SoundHound AI
SoundHound AI (Nasdaq:SOUN) is a voice and agentic AI company that enables businesses to deliver natural, end-to-end conversational experiences across digital and physical channels, including phones, kiosks, chat, smart devices, drive-thrus, TVs, in-vehicle, and more. Its agentic platform, OASYS, is a self-learning, orchestrated AI system where organizations can build and deploy conversational AI agents to handle transactions, tasks, and workflows on behalf of customers and employees. Built on proprietary technology backed by 400+ patents and years of AI research, SoundHound serves leading brands across industries including automotive, financial services, healthcare, retail, telecommunications, and more. It powers millions of products and processes billions of interactions annually for enterprise customers worldwide. Learn more at: www.soundhound.com.
Voice recognition technology has a long history of overpromising, so a little skepticism is healthy here. But SoundHound AI (SOUN 0.60%) has turned into one of the more interesting independent players in conversational artificial intelligence (AI). It's the software that lets you talk to a car, a drive-thru speaker, or a customer-service line and actually be understood.
The stock has been on a volatile ride, and it remains a speculative, small-company bet. Still, three developments in its business help explain why some investors think the climb isn't over.
Image source: Getty Images.
1. Agentic voice commerce opens a new way to make money The most important shift involves what the company's technology now does. For years, voice assistants mostly answered questions.
SoundHound is pushing into what the industry calls agentic AI -- software that doesn't just respond but takes action on your behalf. At the start of 2026, the company showed off voice agents built into vehicles and TVs that can order takeout, book a restaurant table through OpenTable, pay for parking, and buy tickets, all hands-free.
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Why does that matter for the stock? Because it changes how the company can earn revenue. Instead of only licensing software, sitting in the middle of a purchase lets it participate in the transaction itself. If even a fraction of the millions of cars and devices running its technology start completing everyday errands by voice, it taps a far larger opportunity than selling software licenses alone.
2. SoundHound is no longer a one-industry bet A common knock on smaller AI companies is that they lean on a single customer or single market. SoundHound has spent the past couple of years deliberately spreading out. Its voice technology now shows up on automotive dashboards, in restaurant drive-thrus and ordering kiosks, on the retail sales floor through a new store-associate assistant it unveiled this year, and across businesses' customer service.
That diversification is more than a talking point. When one industry slows -- say, automakers pull back on new features -- another can pick up the slack, which makes the overall business sturdier. To me, a company selling the same core capability into four or five very different industries is simply harder to knock off course than one riding a single wave.
3. Customers are expanding their usage, not just signing up The most encouraging signal for any young software company is when existing customers choose to do more business with it, not less. SoundHound got a clear vote of confidence this spring when Casey's General Stores, one of the largest convenience-store chains in the country, renewed and expanded its partnership, rolling the technology across more than 2,600 locations after its ordering agents had already handled tens of millions of guest interactions. That kind of land-and-expand behavior suggests the product is actually working in the field.
SoundHound has also moved to acquire enterprise conversational-AI company LivePerson, which would plug SoundHound's newer agentic platform into a large base of established corporate customers. Buying reach like that can shorten the path to winning big-ticket enterprise deals.
The risks worth keeping in view Now for the sober side, because it's substantial. SoundHound is still unprofitable and spends heavily to grow, and its stock trades at a rich valuation against a still-modest revenue base -- the kind of situation that can cause shares to fall hard on any disappointment.
A meaningful chunk of the company's ambitious targets leans on acquisitions like LivePerson going smoothly, which is never guaranteed. And SoundHound competes in the same arena as Amazon and Apple, giants with far deeper pockets. Any of those could pressure the story.
SoundHound AI is a classic high-risk, high-reward choice. The bull case rests on real business progress: a shift toward transaction-driven agentic AI, genuine diversification across industries, and customers expanding their commitments. The bear case rests on valuation, cash burn, and deep-pocketed competition.
Key Takeaways SOUN is shifting beyond automotive voice AI into enterprise customer service and workflow use cases.Subscriptions drove SOUN's 2025 revenues, rising as part of a 99% total revenue jump to $168.9M.OASYS and the planned LivePerson deal may expand SOUN's enterprise reach and cross-selling potential. SoundHound AI, Inc. (SOUN - Free Report) is no longer just an automotive voice-assistant story. The company’s investor debate now centers on whether broader enterprise adoption can support durable revenue growth.
The opportunity is clear, but so are the risks. SoundHound is expanding across restaurants, healthcare, retail, financial services, telecom and other verticals while still operating at a loss.
SoundHound Pushes Beyond AutomotiveSoundHound positions itself as an independent conversational intelligence platform for enterprises. Its pitch is that businesses can build branded assistants and customer-facing AI experiences without relying fully on third-party ecosystems.
The product set now spans Smart Answering, Smart Ordering, Dynamic Interaction, Employee Assist and SoundHound Chat AI. That broader portfolio shifts the business identity away from a narrower automotive focus and toward enterprise customer service, ordering, workflow and digital interaction use cases.
SOUN Finds Growth in Service SubscriptionsThe revenue mix is central to the SOUN thesis. Total revenues in 2025 rose 99% to $168.9 million from $84.7 million in 2024.
Service subscriptions accounted for $133.5 million of 2025 revenues, compared with product royalties of $34.9 million and monetization revenues of $0.5 million. That mix highlights why investors are focused on recurring enterprise demand as the main growth engine.
SoundHound Builds a Wider AI PlatformSoundHound’s technology stack includes Speech-to-Meaning, Deep Meaning Understanding, Collective AI, Dynamic Interaction and hybrid Edge+Cloud deployment. These capabilities are designed to support faster natural-language understanding, low-latency performance and flexible deployment across customer environments.
The company reported more than 359 granted patents and more than 100 pending patents as of 2025. For enterprises, the strategic value is control: branded assistants can be customized around customer experience, data, workflow and monetization priorities.
SOUN Has Catalysts but Also Integration RiskOASYS is a major catalyst in SoundHound’s next phase. The platform is designed to help businesses build, orchestrate, evaluate and improve AI agents across voice, chat and digital channels.
The planned LivePerson acquisition adds another layer to the opportunity. SoundHound expects the deal to expand its enterprise footprint, create cross-selling opportunities and support a combined revenue opportunity of about $500 million.
Still, the story is not de-risked. Persistent operating losses, long enterprise sales cycles, acquisition integration demands, fierce AI competition and continued investment needs remain key concerns.
Microsoft Corporation (MSFT - Free Report) and Salesforce, Inc. (CRM - Free Report) also frame the competitive backdrop. Microsoft markets Microsoft 365 Copilot as an enterprise AI tool with access to agents and work-data integrations, while Salesforce markets Agentforce as a platform for building, deploying and managing AI agents at scale.
What SOUN Signals Say About the SetupThe bottom line is that SoundHound has a more interesting business narrative than it did when investors viewed it mainly through automotive voice AI. Enterprise AI adoption, subscription growth, OASYS and acquisition-driven cross-selling all support the long-term case.
The stock, however, currently carries a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell). It also has a Value Score of F, a Growth Score of F, a Momentum Score of C and a VGM Score of F. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
Zacks Style Scores are graded from A to F, with stronger scores generally indicating more favorable characteristics for the relevant style category. SOUN’s current mix suggests that, despite the attractive enterprise AI narrative, the near-term stock profile still reflects caution around execution, profitability and valuation.
Key Takeaways SOUN posted 52% revenue growth in Q1 2026 and reaffirmed $225M-$260M full-year guidance.SoundHound's losses and negative operating cash flow cloud the case despite strong AI adoption.SOUN's debt-free balance sheet offers support, but valuation and stock signals limit near-term comfort. SoundHound AI, Inc. (SOUN - Free Report) offers one of the clearer growth-versus-risk debates in enterprise AI. Revenue growth, broader adoption of conversational AI and a debt-free balance sheet keep the bull case alive.
The hesitation is equally visible. Losses, negative operating cash flow and weak stock signals make SOUN difficult to call a straightforward buy, even with long-term AI demand still in focus.
SOUN Revenue Growth Keeps the Bull Case AliveFirst-quarter 2026 revenues reached $44.2 million, up 52% year over year. Management also reaffirmed full-year 2026 revenue guidance of $225 million to $260 million, suggesting the growth plan remains intact.
Underlying demand was not limited to acquired revenue. Excluding acquisitions, core automotive and IoT AI revenues rose 88% year over year, pointing to continued adoption in SoundHound’s original growth pillars.
NVIDIA Corporation (NVDA - Free Report) remains a relevant reference point for AI investors because its computing platforms sit closer to the infrastructure layer. C3.ai, Inc. (AI - Free Report) offers another comparison as an enterprise AI software name, but SoundHound’s case rests more directly on voice, agentic AI and customer-interaction use cases.
SoundHound Losses Cloud the Investment CaseRevenue growth has not translated into profitability. SoundHound posted a first-quarter 2026 GAAP net loss of $25 million and an adjusted EBITDA loss of $26.7 million.
Cash flow also moved in the wrong direction. Net cash used in operating activities was $26.3 million, compared with $19.2 million in the prior-year period. GAAP gross margin declined to 31.1% from 36.5%, as vendor-related true-ups and spending pressure weighed on the quarter.
That makes SOUN a classic growth-versus-profitability stock. Investors are being asked to underwrite future scale while current results still show heavy investment needs.
SOUN Valuation Looks Neither Cheap nor BrokenSOUN trades at 11.45X forward 12-month sales. That is roughly in line with the sub-industry average of 11.64X but above the broader sector and S&P 500 levels.
The stock also carries a $7 price target, modestly above the recent $6.68 stock price. That setup does not point to an obvious bargain, but it also does not suggest valuation has completely detached from its peer framework.
For investors seeking a clear value case, the multiple leaves little margin for disappointment. For growth investors, the valuation may be tolerable only if revenue expansion continues and losses narrow over time.
SoundHound Balance Sheet Offers Real SupportSoundHound’s balance sheet is the main offset to the loss profile. The company ended the first quarter of 2026 with $215.6 million in cash and cash equivalents and no debt.
That liquidity gives management room to fund product innovation, support acquisition integration and pursue commercialization without immediate balance-sheet strain. The company also had total current assets of $288.8 million and stockholders’ equity of $460.7 million.
This matters because the AI opportunity may take time to convert into durable earnings. A debt-free balance sheet does not solve profitability, but it gives SoundHound more time to try.
How SOUN Ratings Frame the Risk RewardThe bottom line is that SOUN looks mixed rather than clearly attractive. Revenue growth and cash resources support the long-term case, while losses, cash burn and valuation limit the near-term comfort level.
SOUN currently carries a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell). That rank points to weak near-term positioning and makes the stock less suitable for investors who rely on earnings estimate revision trends as a first screen.
You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
The Style Scores reinforce that caution. SoundHound has a Value Score of F, a Growth Score of F, a Momentum Score of C and a VGM Score of F. Since stronger scores are generally more favorable, those grades suggest SOUN does not currently screen well for value, growth-at-a-reasonable-price or broad style-based investors.
That does not erase the company’s AI opportunity. It does argue for patience until profitability, cash flow or stock signals show clearer improvement. For now, SOUN is more of a watchlist candidate than a decisive buy.
Key Takeaways SoundHound is shifting from voice recognition toward broader conversational and agentic AI platforms.OASYS is positioned to help businesses build and improve AI agents across voice, chat and digital channels.SOUN's losses, margin pressure, acquisition integration and competition remain key execution tests. SoundHound AI, Inc. (SOUN - Free Report) sits at the center of a shift from narrow voice tools to broader conversational and agentic artificial intelligence platforms. The investment case is no longer just about voice recognition. It is about whether SOUN can convert enterprise demand into scalable, recurring software revenue.
That trend gives SoundHound a clear growth narrative. It also raises a harder stock question: can the company turn platform expansion, acquisitions and new products into better margins and steadier execution?
SoundHound Rides Enterprise AI AdoptionEnterprises are adopting conversational and agentic artificial intelligence across voice, chat and digital channels. SoundHound has expanded beyond its historical automotive base into restaurants, retail, healthcare, financial services, telecommunications and energy.
That broader reach matters because it reduces dependence on a single end market. In the first quarter of 2026, revenues rose 52% year over year to $44.2 million, while core automotive and Internet of Things artificial intelligence revenues, excluding acquisitions, increased 88%.
Microsoft (MSFT - Free Report) is also relevant to this trend because its artificial intelligence strategy includes enterprise workflow, healthcare and productivity use cases. IBM (IBM - Free Report) provides another comparison point through its focus on artificial intelligence agents and workflow automation for enterprises.
SOUN Turns OASYS Into a Key Trend MarkerOASYS is becoming the clearest marker of SoundHound’s move toward agentic artificial intelligence. The platform is designed to help businesses build, orchestrate, evaluate and improve artificial intelligence agents across voice, chat and digital channels.
The strategic appeal is faster implementation. Management has positioned OASYS as a way for businesses to move from months-long builds to faster deployments, while also lowering operating costs and making agents better over time through usage.
That puts SOUN in a market where enterprises increasingly want unified platforms rather than isolated tools. NVIDIA (NVDA - Free Report) remains an important part of the broader enterprise artificial intelligence discussion because infrastructure and software platforms are central to scaling agentic workloads.
SoundHound Uses M&A to Broaden Its ReachAcquisitions are central to SoundHound’s platform-breadth strategy. SYNQ3 added restaurant-focused voice artificial intelligence capabilities, Amelia expanded the company into full-stack enterprise agentic artificial intelligence, and Interactions added customer-service and workflow-orchestration capabilities.
The planned LivePerson acquisition is another step in that direction. It is expected to expand SoundHound’s digital messaging and enterprise customer footprint, creating cross-selling opportunities across voice, messaging and agentic artificial intelligence.
This matters because platform breadth is becoming a competitive requirement. Enterprises want systems that can handle contact-center inquiries, ordering, transactions, workflow automation and customer engagement across multiple channels.
SOUN Still Faces Margin and Execution TestsThe opportunity remains balanced by clear operating risks. SoundHound posted a GAAP net loss of $25 million in the first quarter of 2026 and an adjusted EBITDA loss of $26.7 million.
Margins also showed pressure. GAAP gross margin fell to 31.1% from 36.5% a year earlier, while non-GAAP gross margin was 49.7%, compared with 50.8% in the prior-year period.
Competition is another concern. Large technology companies and specialized artificial intelligence vendors are investing aggressively, while long enterprise sales cycles can delay revenue conversion. SoundHound also needs continued research and development spending to keep pace with fast-moving voice, generative and agentic artificial intelligence markets.
Commercialization risk is still part of the story. OASYS, Dynamic Interaction and broader agentic offerings may become future growth drivers, but adoption, customer acceptance and recurring revenue generation are still developing.
Why SOUN Ratings Temper the Trend NarrativeThe bottom line is that SoundHound has meaningful exposure to conversational and agentic artificial intelligence, but the stock still needs execution to catch up with the trend. Revenue growth, product expansion and acquisition-driven scale are encouraging, yet losses, integration risk and competitive pressure remain material.
SOUN currently carries a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell). The stock also has a Value Score of F, a Growth Score of F and a Momentum Score of C. These scores suggest that, despite the company’s industry positioning, shares do not currently screen well on valuation or growth characteristics, while momentum is more neutral.
You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
For investors, that creates a measured setup. SoundHound may remain a closely watched artificial intelligence name, but the Zacks Rank and Style Scores point to caution until operating leverage, platform monetization and acquisition integration show clearer progress.
SoundHound AI, Inc. (SOUN - Free Report) has been one of the most searched-for stocks on Zacks.com lately. So, you might want to look at some of the facts that could shape the stock's performance in the near term.
Over the past month, shares of this company have returned -4.6%, compared to the Zacks S&P 500 composite's +2.2% change. During this period, the Zacks Computers - IT Services industry, which SoundHound AI falls in, has lost 3.5%. The key question now is: What could be the stock's future direction?
While media releases or rumors about a substantial change in a company's business prospects usually make its stock 'trending' and lead to an immediate price change, there are always some fundamental facts that eventually dominate the buy-and-hold decision-making.
Earnings Estimate RevisionsHere at Zacks, we prioritize appraising the change in the projection of a company's future earnings over anything else. That's because we believe the present value of its future stream of earnings is what determines the fair value for its stock.
Our analysis is essentially based on how sell-side analysts covering the stock are revising their earnings estimates to take the latest business trends into account. When earnings estimates for a company go up, the fair value for its stock goes up as well. And when a stock's fair value is higher than its current market price, investors tend to buy the stock, resulting in its price moving upward. Because of this, empirical studies indicate a strong correlation between trends in earnings estimate revisions and short-term stock price movements.
SoundHound AI is expected to post a loss of $0.05 per share for the current quarter, representing a year-over-year change of -66.7%. Over the last 30 days, the Zacks Consensus Estimate remained unchanged.
For the current fiscal year, the consensus earnings estimate of -$0.18 points to a change of -38.5% from the prior year. Over the last 30 days, this estimate has remained unchanged.
For the next fiscal year, the consensus earnings estimate of $0.17 indicates a change of +6.7% from what SoundHound AI is expected to report a year ago. Over the past month, the estimate has remained unchanged.
Having a strong externally audited track record, our proprietary stock rating tool, the Zacks Rank, offers a more conclusive picture of a stock's price direction in the near term, since it effectively harnesses the power of earnings estimate revisions. Due to the size of the recent change in the consensus estimate, along with three other factors related to earnings estimates, SoundHound AI is rated Zacks Rank #4 (Sell).
The chart below shows the evolution of the company's forward 12-month consensus EPS estimate:
12 Month EPS
Revenue Growth ForecastEven though a company's earnings growth is arguably the best indicator of its financial health, nothing much happens if it cannot raise its revenues. It's almost impossible for a company to grow its earnings without growing its revenue for long periods. Therefore, knowing a company's potential revenue growth is crucial.
For SoundHound AI, the consensus sales estimate for the current quarter of $52.49 million indicates a year-over-year change of +23%. For the current and next fiscal years, $233.16 million and $270.1 million estimates indicate +38% and +15.8% changes, respectively.
Last Reported Results and Surprise HistorySoundHound AI reported revenues of $44.19 million in the last reported quarter, representing a year-over-year change of +51.7%. EPS of -$0.06 for the same period compares with -$0.06 a year ago.
Compared to the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $42.71 million, the reported revenues represent a surprise of +3.48%. The EPS surprise was -20%.
Over the last four quarters, SoundHound AI surpassed consensus EPS estimates two times. The company topped consensus revenue estimates each time over this period.
ValuationWithout considering a stock's valuation, no investment decision can be efficient. In predicting a stock's future price performance, it's crucial to determine whether its current price correctly reflects the intrinsic value of the underlying business and the company's growth prospects.
While comparing the current values of a company's valuation multiples, such as price-to-earnings (P/E), price-to-sales (P/S), and price-to-cash flow (P/CF), with its own historical values helps determine whether its stock is fairly valued, overvalued, or undervalued, comparing the company relative to its peers on these parameters gives a good sense of the reasonability of the stock's price.
The Zacks Value Style Score (part of the Zacks Style Scores system), which pays close attention to both traditional and unconventional valuation metrics to grade stocks from A to F (an A is better than a B; a B is better than a C; and so on), is pretty helpful in identifying whether a stock is overvalued, rightly valued, or temporarily undervalued.
SoundHound AI is graded F on this front, indicating that it is trading at a premium to its peers. Click here to see the values of some of the valuation metrics that have driven this grade.
ConclusionThe facts discussed here and much other information on Zacks.com might help determine whether or not it's worthwhile paying attention to the market buzz about SoundHound AI. However, its Zacks Rank #4 does suggest that it may underperform the broader market in the near term.
In the latest trading session, SoundHound AI, Inc. (SOUN - Free Report) closed at $6.64, marking a -4.6% move from the previous day. The stock's change was less than the S&P 500's daily loss of 0.45%. Meanwhile, the Dow experienced a drop of 0.25%, and the technology-dominated Nasdaq saw a decrease of 1.16%.
The company's shares have seen a decrease of 7.08% over the last month, not keeping up with the Computer and Technology sector's gain of 0.38% and the S&P 500's gain of 2.14%.
The investment community will be closely monitoring the performance of SoundHound AI, Inc. in its forthcoming earnings report. On that day, SoundHound AI, Inc. is projected to report earnings of -$0.05 per share, which would represent a year-over-year decline of 66.67%. Meanwhile, the latest consensus estimate predicts the revenue to be $52.49 million, indicating a 22.99% increase compared to the same quarter of the previous year.
For the entire fiscal year, the Zacks Consensus Estimates are projecting earnings of -$0.18 per share and a revenue of $233.16 million, representing changes of -38.46% and +38.03%, respectively, from the prior year.
Additionally, investors should keep an eye on any recent revisions to analyst forecasts for SoundHound AI, Inc. These latest adjustments often mirror the shifting dynamics of short-term business patterns. Consequently, upward revisions in estimates express analysts' positivity towards the business operations and its ability to generate profits.
Our research suggests that these changes in estimates have a direct relationship with upcoming stock price performance. Investors can capitalize on this by using the Zacks Rank. This model considers these estimate changes and provides a simple, actionable rating system.
The Zacks Rank system, which ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), has an impressive outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks generating an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Over the last 30 days, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has remained unchanged. Right now, SoundHound AI, Inc. possesses a Zacks Rank of #4 (Sell).
The Computers - IT Services industry is part of the Computer and Technology sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 105, putting it in the top 43% of all 250+ industries.
The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our individual industry groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.
Remember to apply Zacks.com to follow these and more stock-moving metrics during the upcoming trading sessions.
On Jan. 2, SoundHound AI (SOUN +6.26%) stock opened at $10.29. On June 30, it closed at $6.47. For the first six months of the year, that represents a loss of roughly 37%, a tough start for anyone who invested at the beginning of the year.
The decline was due to several factors. And while there is an opportunity for the stock to rebound in the second half, it's going to be an uphill battle.
Image source: Getty Images.
Purchasing $5,000 worth of SoundHound stock at $10.29 would have given an investor roughly 485 shares. By June 30, the end of the first half of the year, that stake would have been worth roughly $3,143.
There's been a lot weighing on the stock price during that time, including concerns over the company's continued unprofitability, worries about shareholder dilution, and fears about the impacts of a high-risk, but potentially high-reward, acquisition.
On the positive side, SoundHound AI keeps posting impressive revenue totals: In 2025, the top line increased 99% to $168.9 million, and first-quarter 2026 revenue increased 52% to $44.2 million.
The issue, however, is that more investors want to see artificial intelligence (AI) companies showing signs that they are headed toward profitability rather than continually burning through cash. For the first quarter, SoundHound reported a net loss of $25 million, according to generally accepted accounting principles.
In addition, with SoundHound AI in particular, there are concerns about shareholder dilution and a looming acquisition. It is trying to buy the conversational AI agent company LivePerson (LPSN 2.59%) for $43 million, and that deal -- an all-equity transaction, which is dilutive to shareholders -- is expected to close by the end of this year.
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What shows promise There are many risks involved in the acquisition. LivePerson is not a profitable company and has struggled heavily. Its stock price is down by more than 99% over the last five years. But if SoundHound can successfully integrate LivePerson's tech into its offerings, the deal could provide long-term value.
SoundHound AI expects its 2027 revenue to land between $350 million and $400 million, with $100 million of that coming from LivePerson. Given that SoundHound's revenue was just under $170 million in 2025, that would be a significant jump.
Why the rest of 2026 could still be bumpy SoundHound AI is likely to keep up its strong revenue growth, but dilution concerns and the pending LivePerson deal still hang heavily over the stock. If the stock price does rebound, it likely won't occur until after the LivePerson acquisition is finalized and investors have a few quarters to see whether it's actually benefiting the buyer.
SoundHound AI is a promising company that has landed many big-name clients, including Walmart, but for shareholders, the second half of the year could be just as rocky as the first.
Key Takeaways SOUN's auto and IoT AI business grew 88% organically in Q1, as total revenues rose 52% to $44.2M.SoundHound signed a seven-figure Japanese auto deal and expanded in South America with an OEM.SOUN is adding Voice AI to Walmart's ONN TV brand, broadening its connected-device footprint. SoundHound AI (SOUN - Free Report) reported strong first-quarter results in its automotive and IoT AI business, reflecting continued traction across automotive customers and connected-device integrations.
In the first quarter of 2026, SoundHound stated that its automotive and IoT AI business grew 88% year over year, excluding the impact of acquisitions. The figure is notable given the company’s active M&A backdrop, making organic growth an important indicator of core voice AI traction. Overall revenues increased 52% year over year to $44.2 million, with growth led by financial services and automotive.
Automotive growth was supported by new and expanded customer commitments. During the quarter, SoundHound signed a seven-figure commitment with a prominent Japanese auto manufacturer to deploy its voice assistant globally. The company also expanded into South America with a multinational OEM, indicating a broader geographic reach in the automotive market.
SoundHound’s IoT activity adds another device-based growth channel. The company signed an agreement to integrate its Voice AI into Walmart’s ONN TV brand and noted progress in voice commerce as multiple TV and well-known automotive brands integrate its solution. These agreements broaden the use cases for SOUN’s voice AI across connected-device platforms.
The monetization profile could also improve as automakers upgrade from pre-GenAI voice systems to GenAI and live GenAI capabilities. Higher-priced upgrades create an opportunity for SOUN to increase revenue per unit, while live GenAI adds a renewal component that could support a more recurring revenue profile over time.
SOUN’s organic growth is supported by expanding OEM relationships, higher-value GenAI upgrades, live GenAI renewal opportunities and a broader connected-device footprint. These drivers likely give the automotive and IoT business a stronger base to remain a meaningful contributor to organic growth in the upcoming periods.
SOUN’s Price Performance, Valuation & EstimatesSoundHound’s shares have lost 42.5% in the past year compared with the industry’s fall of 34.8%. At the same time frame, other industry players, including C3.ai, Inc. (AI - Free Report) and BigBear.ai Holdings, Inc. (BBAI - Free Report) , have declined 64.6% and 54.6%, respectively.
SOUN Stock’s One-Year Price Performance
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
SOUN stock is currently trading at a discount. It is currently trading at a forward 12-month price-to-sales (P/S) multiple of 11.25, slightly below the industry average of 11.53. Then again, other industry players, such as C3.ai and BigBear.ai, have P/S ratios of 6.26 and 10.95, respectively.
SOUN’s P/S Ratio (Forward 12-Month) vs. Industry
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for SoundHound’s 2026 loss per share has widened from 13 cents to 18 cents in the past 60 days.
EPS Trend of SOUN Stock
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
The company is likely to report dismal earnings, with projections indicating a 38.5% year over year fall in 2026. Conversely, industry players like BigBear.ai are likely to witness growth of 69.5% year over year in 2026 earnings. C3.ai is likely to project a rise of 39.3% in 2027 earnings.
2026 investment themes include a fundamental misunderstanding of how AI is impacting long-term growth, revenue, and earnings strength for mission-critical companies. AI, unlike other tech fads, is persistent. It is the evolution of technology and the future of tech as we know it, not a passing craze soon to be eclipsed.
Evidence of the market’s disconnect can be seen in the Q1 S&P 500 reporting results, which outperformed consensus estimates by more than 1,000 basis points heading into the reporting cycle.
The underlying cause is an irrational fear of AI disruption that fails to account for the fundamentals. Basically, AI demand is driven by contracted backlogs connected to hyperscalers, which constitute the majority of global cloud computing and form the backbone of today’s internet.
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NVIDIA Still Has Multi-Bagger PotentialNVIDIA Today
$194.83 0.00 (0.00%)
As of 07/2/2026 04:00 PM Eastern
52-Week Range$157.34▼
$236.54Dividend Yield0.51%
P/E Ratio29.84
Price Target$303.84
A “bagger," in stock market parlance, is a stock with the potential to double in size. A multibagger can potentially rise by several hundred basis points relative to the reference price, and NVIDIA NASDAQ: NVDA, which is already a multibagger for AI traders, is on track for another substantial increase. While its revenue is growing rapidly, outpacing estimates and supported by strong guidance, its share price has spent much of the past year in a broad trading range. At these levels, NVIDIA’s valuation does not fully reflect the premium investors often assign to the most important AI infrastructure company in the market.
NVIDIA is not a GPU play, not anymore. The GPU story is central to the outlook, but the cash flow it provides and the investments NVIDIA has made make the company so much more. Today, NVIDIA is the foundational layer for AI; tomorrow, it will be central to all aspects of AI applications, specifically physical AI and robotics. Physical AI and robotics encompass IoT devices, autonomous machines, and self-driving vehicles, applying the output generated by those GPU clusters. Revenue growth will be tied to networking, enterprise software, and robotics in the long term.
NVIDIA’s valuation metrics, such as the price-to-earnings (P/E) multiple and analyst trends, suggest easy near-term double-digit upside in the 50% range and 400% to 600% over time, with the high end depending on NVIDIA’s market premium. Analysts, of which MarketBeat tracks 54, rate the stock as a consensus of Buy and see it advancing by more than 50% at the mid-point target. The trend, the operative factor, is leading to the high end, which tops out at $500, more than 100% above early-July trading levels.
NVIDIA stock carries no premium as of mid-2026, but tends to trade in the low- to mid-30x range when the market is fully priced. Looking ahead, the 10-year forecasts put this stock in the mid-single-digits P/E range, an ultradeep value that time will unlock.
SoundHound AI: Building Durable, Sticky, Visible Cash FlowsSoundHound AI Today
$6.56 +0.01 (+0.15%)
As of 07/2/2026 04:00 PM Eastern
52-Week Range$5.83▼
$22.17Price Target$14.93
SoundHound AI NASDAQ: SOUN is a value hiding in plain sight because the market is getting it all wrong. While investors focus on acquisition and dilution risks, the company is using its fortress-like balance sheet to invest in growth and widen its moat. The moat is based on proprietary contracts and long-term, multiyear contracts that produce sticky, visible revenue streams.
Among the strengths is the three-pronged approach to revenue, which captures all three pillars critical to SaaS success: subscriptions, services, and commerce. Other strengths include the OASYS platform, which enables users to develop and deploy voice-activated agentic AI applications with ease.
Analyst trends reflect the deep-value opportunity. While fears of a SaaS and AI apocalypse impacted stock prices, coverage increased, sentiment firmed, and the consensus price target improved. Consensus in mid-2026 suggests more than 120% upside over the subsequent 12 months, with the low end implying over 30% upside from the 2026 stock price lows.
Catalysts for this stock will likely emerge with the fiscal Q2 earnings release scheduled for early August. Analysts expect updates on the LivePerson acquisition, scheduled for the second half, and on signs that OASYS is driving results. OASYS is a higher-margin business, expected to clear the pathway to profitability. Closing the LivePerson deal will unlock numerous upsell and cross-sell opportunities and is likely to trigger institutional investor interest. Institutions are bullish, accumulating shares over the trailing 12 months, but ownership remains light at below 20%, leaving the stock susceptible to volatility.
The biggest risk for SoundHound investors is dilution. The cost of its healthy balance sheet is an increasing share count linked to capital raises. The company has no immediate need and sufficient capital for 1-2 years of operations, but is preparing to raise capital to pay down debt incurred during the LivePerson acquisition.
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Key Takeaways SoundHound is gaining telecom and energy traction beyond its automotive and restaurant businesses.SOUN secured electricity, utility and broadband renewals, supporting recurring enterprise revenues.The LivePerson deal would add messaging and boost SOUN's reach across global telecom providers. SoundHound AI (SOUN - Free Report) is broadening its enterprise AI footprint beyond its traditional automotive and restaurant businesses by gaining traction in the telecommunications and energy markets. These industries offer attractive long-term opportunities as enterprises increasingly adopt conversational and agentic AI to automate customer service, improve operational efficiency and reduce costs. The company's first-quarter 2026 results highlighted that this diversification strategy is gaining momentum, helping reduce reliance on any single end market while supporting sustained revenue growth.
During the quarter, SoundHound secured a multi-year renewal with a Texas-based retail electricity provider serving residential and commercial customers while also expanding services with a major Kansas electric utility. In telecommunications, the company renewed and expanded its relationship with a large broadband and digital services provider operating across 25 states. These contract wins demonstrate growing customer confidence in SoundHound's AI platform and provide a stable base of recurring enterprise revenues.
Management also expects the planned acquisition of LivePerson to significantly strengthen its presence in telecom. The combined company will serve customers in more than 30 countries, including more than 10 leading global telecommunications providers, while adding digital messaging capabilities to SoundHound's voice and agentic AI platform. This creates a unified omnichannel solution spanning voice, chat, web and messaging, opening meaningful cross-selling opportunities across telecom, financial services, healthcare and energy customers.
The strategy is already contributing to solid financial performance. First-quarter revenues increased 52% year over year to a record $44.2 million, while management reaffirmed its 2026 revenue guidance of $225-$260 million. With a growing enterprise pipeline, a debt-free balance sheet and expanding vertical diversification, SoundHound appears well-positioned to capitalize on rising enterprise demand for AI-powered customer engagement across telecom and energy markets.
How Competitors Are Expanding Enterprise AI Across Telecom & EnergyNICE Ltd. (NICE - Free Report) is one of SoundHound's strongest competitors in enterprise conversational AI, particularly in customer experience automation. NICE has built a significant presence among telecom operators and utility companies through its CXone platform, which combines AI-powered virtual agents, workforce optimization and analytics. NICE continues to deepen relationships with large enterprises seeking to automate customer support while improving service quality and reducing operating costs, making it a formidable player in these verticals.
Five9 (FIVN - Free Report) is another key rival benefiting from growing enterprise demand for AI-driven contact center solutions. Five9 provides intelligent virtual agents, cloud contact center software and workflow automation for telecommunications, energy and utility providers. Five9 has been expanding its generative AI capabilities through strategic partnerships and platform enhancements, enabling enterprises to deliver seamless omnichannel customer engagement. While SoundHound differentiates itself with proprietary voice AI and agentic capabilities, both NICE and Five9 possess established enterprise customer bases that intensify competition as AI adoption accelerates across telecom and energy markets.
SOUN’s Price Performance, Valuation & EstimatesSoundHound shares have lost 35.1% year to date (YTD), underperforming the industry, as shown below:
SOUN’s YTD Price Performance
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
From a valuation standpoint, SOUN trades at a forward price-to-sales (P/S) multiple of 11.05, below the industry’s average of 11.28.
SOUN’s P/S Ratio (Forward 12-Month) vs. Industry
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
Over the past 60 days, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for SoundHound’s 2026 loss per share has widened to 18 cents, as shown below. The expected loss also remains wider than the previous year’s loss of 13 cents.
SoundHound AI, Inc. (SOUN - Free Report) closed at $6.47 in the latest trading session, marking a +1.09% move from the prior day. The stock's change was more than the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.79%. Elsewhere, the Dow saw an upswing of 0.26%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq appreciated by 1.52%.
The stock of company has fallen by 30.81% in the past month, lagging the Computer and Technology sector's loss of 4.61% and the S&P 500's loss of 1.82%.
The investment community will be paying close attention to the earnings performance of SoundHound AI, Inc. in its upcoming release. The company's earnings per share (EPS) are projected to be -$0.05, reflecting a 66.67% decrease from the same quarter last year. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $52.61 million, up 23.27% from the year-ago period.
Regarding the entire year, the Zacks Consensus Estimates forecast earnings of -$0.18 per share and revenue of $233.14 million, indicating changes of -38.46% and +38.02%, respectively, compared to the previous year.
Investors should also pay attention to any latest changes in analyst estimates for SoundHound AI, Inc. Recent revisions tend to reflect the latest near-term business trends. As a result, upbeat changes in estimates indicate analysts' favorable outlook on the business health and profitability.
Our research demonstrates that these adjustments in estimates directly associate with imminent stock price performance. To benefit from this, we have developed the Zacks Rank, a proprietary model which takes these estimate changes into account and provides an actionable rating system.
The Zacks Rank system, running from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), holds an admirable track record of superior performance, independently audited, with #1 stocks contributing an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Over the past month, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has remained steady. SoundHound AI, Inc. is holding a Zacks Rank of #4 (Sell) right now.
The Computers - IT Services industry is part of the Computer and Technology sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 106, putting it in the top 44% of all 250+ industries.
The Zacks Industry Rank assesses the strength of our separate industry groups by calculating the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks contained within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.
Be sure to use Zacks.com to monitor all these stock-influencing metrics, and more, throughout the forthcoming trading sessions.
SoundHound AI, Inc. (SOUN - Free Report) has been one of the most searched-for stocks on Zacks.com lately. So, you might want to look at some of the facts that could shape the stock's performance in the near term.
Over the past month, shares of this company have returned -28.8%, compared to the Zacks S&P 500 composite's -2.9% change. During this period, the Zacks Computers - IT Services industry, which SoundHound AI falls in, has lost 8.2%. The key question now is: What could be the stock's future direction?
While media releases or rumors about a substantial change in a company's business prospects usually make its stock 'trending' and lead to an immediate price change, there are always some fundamental facts that eventually dominate the buy-and-hold decision-making.
Earnings Estimate RevisionsRather than focusing on anything else, we at Zacks prioritize evaluating the change in a company's earnings projection. This is because we believe the fair value for its stock is determined by the present value of its future stream of earnings.
We essentially look at how sell-side analysts covering the stock are revising their earnings estimates to reflect the impact of the latest business trends. And if earnings estimates go up for a company, the fair value for its stock goes up. A higher fair value than the current market price drives investors' interest in buying the stock, leading to its price moving higher. This is why empirical research shows a strong correlation between trends in earnings estimate revisions and near-term stock price movements.
For the current quarter, SoundHound AI is expected to post a loss of $0.05 per share, indicating a change of -66.7% from the year-ago quarter. The Zacks Consensus Estimate remained unchanged over the last 30 days.
For the current fiscal year, the consensus earnings estimate of -$0.18 points to a change of -38.5% from the prior year. Over the last 30 days, this estimate has remained unchanged.
For the next fiscal year, the consensus earnings estimate of $0.17 indicates a change of +6.7% from what SoundHound AI is expected to report a year ago. Over the past month, the estimate has remained unchanged.
Having a strong externally audited track record, our proprietary stock rating tool, the Zacks Rank, offers a more conclusive picture of a stock's price direction in the near term, since it effectively harnesses the power of earnings estimate revisions. Due to the size of the recent change in the consensus estimate, along with three other factors related to earnings estimates, SoundHound AI is rated Zacks Rank #4 (Sell).
The chart below shows the evolution of the company's forward 12-month consensus EPS estimate:
12 Month EPS
Projected Revenue GrowthEven though a company's earnings growth is arguably the best indicator of its financial health, nothing much happens if it cannot raise its revenues. It's almost impossible for a company to grow its earnings without growing its revenue for long periods. Therefore, knowing a company's potential revenue growth is crucial.
For SoundHound AI, the consensus sales estimate for the current quarter of $52.61 million indicates a year-over-year change of +23.3%. For the current and next fiscal years, $233.14 million and $270.1 million estimates indicate +38% and +15.9% changes, respectively.
Last Reported Results and Surprise HistorySoundHound AI reported revenues of $44.19 million in the last reported quarter, representing a year-over-year change of +51.7%. EPS of -$0.06 for the same period compares with -$0.06 a year ago.
Compared to the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $42.71 million, the reported revenues represent a surprise of +3.48%. The EPS surprise was -20%.
Over the last four quarters, SoundHound AI surpassed consensus EPS estimates two times. The company topped consensus revenue estimates each time over this period.
ValuationWithout considering a stock's valuation, no investment decision can be efficient. In predicting a stock's future price performance, it's crucial to determine whether its current price correctly reflects the intrinsic value of the underlying business and the company's growth prospects.
While comparing the current values of a company's valuation multiples, such as price-to-earnings (P/E), price-to-sales (P/S), and price-to-cash flow (P/CF), with its own historical values helps determine whether its stock is fairly valued, overvalued, or undervalued, comparing the company relative to its peers on these parameters gives a good sense of the reasonability of the stock's price.
As part of the Zacks Style Scores system, the Zacks Value Style Score (which evaluates both traditional and unconventional valuation metrics) organizes stocks into five groups ranging from A to F (A is better than B; B is better than C; and so on), making it helpful in identifying whether a stock is overvalued, rightly valued, or temporarily undervalued.
SoundHound AI is graded F on this front, indicating that it is trading at a premium to its peers. Click here to see the values of some of the valuation metrics that have driven this grade.
Bottom LineThe facts discussed here and much other information on Zacks.com might help determine whether or not it's worthwhile paying attention to the market buzz about SoundHound AI. However, its Zacks Rank #4 does suggest that it may underperform the broader market in the near term.
SoundHound AI (SOUN 2.44%) stock spent the last year on a roller-coaster ride. Its rapidly rising revenue growth and high interest in agentic artificial intelligence (AI) took its stock to a peak of more than $21 per share last October.
However, a high valuation, along with massive losses and shareholder dilution, prompted investors to sell the tech stock. Consequently, it is down almost 70% from that peak after giving back all the gains the stock made since late 2024. Is that enough to make SoundHound AI stock a buy again? Let's take a closer look.
Image source: The Motley Fool.
Where SoundHound AI stock stands SoundHound AI has built a following with its AI technology that can perform tasks based on voice commands. It became popular with auto manufacturers, but businesses such as restaurants, consumer electronics companies, and tech giants also took an interest.
Since going public in April 2022, SoundHound AI has been a volatile stock. It briefly fell below $1 per share soon after its IPO. Nonetheless, as more investors took notice of the client base and rapid revenue growth, they have bid the stock price above $20 per share twice since late 2024, only to suffer massive pullbacks.
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Indeed, bulls have reason to like the stock. Its revenue nearly doubled in 2025, and in the first quarter of 2026, it rose 52% to over $44 million.
Unfortunately, the company has never turned a profit, and in Q1, its operating losses were $23 million, despite a $39 million benefit from a change in the fair value of contingent acquisition liabilities.
Moreover, it has a history of turning to share dilution to raise cash. Although the share count rose by only 5% over the last year, it is up 68% since the beginning of 2024, which has likely worsened the stock sell-offs.
Furthermore, the stock had become quite expensive during its price peaks. The price-to-sales (P/S) ratio briefly exceeded 100 in late 2024 and reached nearly 58 late last year. Today, at 14, its sales multiple is more attractive for buyers.
Still, with revenue growth slowing, that lower valuation may not help. Analysts predict 38% revenue growth for the company this year before it decelerates to 18% in 2027. Investors tend to punish stocks for slowing revenue growth, which does not bode well for the future of SoundHound AI stock.
Given the stock's history and the slowing revenue growth, investors should probably not treat the 70% pullback in the stock as a sign to buy.
Admittedly, anything can happen, and the two moves above $20 per share since late 2024 indicate that SoundHound AI can bounce back under the right conditions.
However, the company's ongoing losses make further stock dilution more likely, which bodes poorly for shareholders. Additionally, revenue growth has slowed, and that has often become a sign of trouble for tech growth stocks.
Amid those challenges, SoundHound AI's stock is more likely to stagnate or fall further than it is to recover.
SANTA CLARA, Calif., June 25, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- SoundHound AI, Inc. (Nasdaq: SOUN), a global leader in voice and agentic AI, today announced that it has been selected as winner of the “Overall Agentic AI Company of the Year” award in the 2026 AI Breakthrough Awards program conducted by AI Breakthrough, a leading market intelligence organization that recognizes the top companies, technologies and products in the global Artificial Intelligence (AI) market today.
SoundHound AI's category-defining agentic platform, OASYS (Orchestrated Agent System), is the world's first self-learning AI system where AI builds AI. Unlike traditional build-and-deploy approaches that demand constant manual upkeep, OASYS autonomously creates, orchestrates, evaluates, and improves entire fleets of conversational AI agents, completing what once took months of developer effort in a matter of minutes. The platform then continuously refines itself based on real-world usage, so businesses get smarter and more efficient AI over time without the maintenance burden.
OASYS also allows businesses to meet their customers and employees wherever they are. Agents built on the platform deploy seamlessly across phones, web chat, in-store kiosks, drive-thrus, social media, smart TVs, and in-vehicle infotainment – maintaining context across channels, devices, and languages throughout every interaction.
Backed by enterprise-grade guardrails and SoundHound's patented Human Assisted Resolution (HAR) technology, OASYS safely handles everything from complex insurance claims and retail orders to prescription refills and outbound customer engagement, delivering fluid, conversational experiences that get better the more they're used.
"Our strength is our depth and experience. More than 20 years of R&D and a series of strategic acquisitions have expanded our capabilities, allowing us to deliver a uniquely mature and comprehensive approach to agentic AI," said Keyvan Mohajer, Co-Founder and CEO of SoundHound AI. "OASYS is built for enterprise-grade performance and flexibility, creating seamless, human-like customer service experiences that exceed consumer expectations"
For nearly a decade, the AI Breakthrough Awards have researched, analyzed and recognized the most important advances in artificial intelligence, and this year's field is the strongest yet. Thousands of nominations from over 20 countries poured in across categories including Agentic AI, Generative AI, Computer Vision, AIOps, Robotics, Natural Language Processing and industry-specific AI applications – underscoring the explosive global growth of AI and its importance as the defining technology of our time.
“SoundHound is pioneering the next generation of intelligent systems, defining the future of agentic AI at scale. Enterprise AI consists mostly of static, single-purpose tools, with traditional AI models taking months to create and AI agents that require constant manual maintenance. This bottleneck keeps businesses from turning conversations directly into transactions and revenue,” said Steve Johansson, Managing Director, AI Breakthrough. “By combining self-learning systems, action-oriented intelligence, and seamless deployment across real-world environments, SoundHound delivers a system that balances flexibility with enterprise-grade precision and reliability.”
SoundHound supports customer service and connected devices across industries, including insurance, banking and financial services, healthcare, retail, automotive, restaurants, telecom, and utilities.
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About SoundHound AI
SoundHound AI (Nasdaq:SOUN) is a voice and agentic AI company that enables businesses to deliver natural, end-to-end conversational experiences across digital and physical channels, including phones, kiosks, chat, smart devices, drive-thrus, TVs, in-vehicle, and more. Its agentic platform, OASYS, is a self-learning, orchestrated AI system where organizations can build and deploy conversational AI agents to handle transactions, tasks, and workflows on behalf of customers and employees. Built on proprietary technology backed by 400+ patents and years of AI research, SoundHound serves leading brands across industries including automotive, financial services, healthcare, retail, telecommunications, and more. It powers millions of products and processes billions of interactions annually for enterprise customers worldwide. Learn more at: www.soundhound.com
About AI Breakthrough
Part of Tech Breakthrough, a leading market intelligence and recognition platform for global technology innovation and leadership, the AI Breakthrough Awards program is devoted to honoring excellence in Artificial Intelligence technologies, services, companies and products. The AI Breakthrough Awards provide public recognition for the achievements of AI companies and products in categories including Agentic AI, Machine Learning, Generative AI, Robotics, AI Hardware, Computer Vision and more. For more information visit AIBreakthroughAwards.com.
Tech Breakthrough LLC does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in our recognition programs, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with award designations. Tech Breakthrough LLC recognition consists of the opinions of the Tech Breakthrough LLC organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Tech Breakthrough LLC disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this recognition program, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.
A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/1943c6d4-e5e8-494b-b13b-a9c5c146518c
In the latest trading session, SoundHound AI, Inc. (SOUN - Free Report) closed at $6.34, marking a -1.63% move from the previous day. The stock fell short of the S&P 500, which registered a loss of 0.1% for the day. Meanwhile, the Dow gained 0.35%, and the Nasdaq, a tech-heavy index, lost 0.43%.
Shares of the company have depreciated by 20.79% over the course of the past month, underperforming the Computer and Technology sector's loss of 2.15%, and the S&P 500's loss of 1.34%.
Market participants will be closely following the financial results of SoundHound AI, Inc. in its upcoming release. On that day, SoundHound AI, Inc. is projected to report earnings of -$0.05 per share, which would represent a year-over-year decline of 66.67%. At the same time, our most recent consensus estimate is projecting a revenue of $52.61 million, reflecting a 23.27% rise from the equivalent quarter last year.
In terms of the entire fiscal year, the Zacks Consensus Estimates predict earnings of -$0.18 per share and a revenue of $233.14 million, indicating changes of -38.46% and +38.02%, respectively, from the former year.
It is also important to note the recent changes to analyst estimates for SoundHound AI, Inc. These revisions help to show the ever-changing nature of near-term business trends. As a result, we can interpret positive estimate revisions as a good sign for the business outlook.
Empirical research indicates that these revisions in estimates have a direct correlation with impending stock price performance. Investors can capitalize on this by using the Zacks Rank. This model considers these estimate changes and provides a simple, actionable rating system.
The Zacks Rank system, ranging from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), possesses a remarkable history of outdoing, externally audited, with #1 stocks returning an average annual gain of +25% since 1988. Over the last 30 days, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has witnessed an unchanged state. As of now, SoundHound AI, Inc. holds a Zacks Rank of #4 (Sell).
The Computers - IT Services industry is part of the Computer and Technology sector. This industry, currently bearing a Zacks Industry Rank of 110, finds itself in the top 46% echelons of all 250+ industries.
The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our industry groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.
Remember to apply Zacks.com to follow these and more stock-moving metrics during the upcoming trading sessions.
Key Takeaways SOUN's EBITDA improvement depends on scale as Q1 revenues rose 52% despite negative EBITDA.The LivePerson deal could expand SoundHound's enterprise reach and lift the 2027 revenue opportunity.OASYS, cloud optimization and restructuring actions are expected to support future EBITDA expansion. SoundHound AI's (SOUN - Free Report) path to EBITDA improvement increasingly depends on one factor — scale. The company delivered first-quarter 2026 revenues of $44.2 million, up 52% year over year, while reaffirming full-year revenue guidance of $225-$260 million. Although adjusted EBITDA remained negative at $26.7 million, management believes growing revenue, cost synergies and a more efficient AI platform can narrow losses over time.
A major catalyst is SoundHound's planned acquisition of LivePerson. The transaction is expected to significantly expand the company's enterprise footprint, adding hundreds of long-standing customers and strengthening its presence across banking, telecommunications, healthcare and retail. Management projects a 2027 revenue opportunity of at least $350-$400 million after the deal closes, while cross-selling voice AI and digital messaging solutions could eventually support a $500 million revenue opportunity from the combined customer base.
Operational efficiency is another key driver. SoundHound is consolidating infrastructure, optimizing cloud spending, replacing third-party technologies with proprietary models and extracting cost synergies from prior acquisitions. Management noted that several restructuring actions taken in the first quarter should begin delivering recurring cost benefits over the next two quarters. The newly launched OASYS platform, powered primarily by SoundHound's in-house AI models, is also expected to reduce inference costs as customer traffic scales, supporting future EBITDA expansion.
The company still faces near-term profitability challenges. Investments in proprietary foundation models and continued integration expenses will likely keep margins under pressure in 2026. However, with $216 million in cash, no debt and multiple cost-saving initiatives underway, SoundHound appears well-positioned to leverage higher revenues into improved EBITDA over the longer term, provided execution on acquisitions and platform integration remains strong.
How Do Nuance and NICE Compare With SoundHound?Two companies worth watching alongside SoundHound are Microsoft's (MSFT - Free Report) Nuance Communications and NICE Ltd. (NICE - Free Report) .
Nuance Communications has built a dominant position in enterprise conversational AI, particularly in healthcare and customer engagement, benefiting from Microsoft's cloud ecosystem and broad enterprise reach. Nuance Communications focuses on large-scale deployments, but its deep integration within Microsoft makes rapid independent innovation less visible than SoundHound's dedicated AI platform.
Meanwhile, NICE continues to strengthen its AI-powered customer experience platform through automation and analytics, helping enterprises improve contact center efficiency and reduce operating costs. NICE is increasingly embedding generative AI into its CX solutions to enhance productivity and customer service. While Nuance Communications and NICE possess greater enterprise scale today, SoundHound aims to close the gap by expanding through acquisitions, cross-selling opportunities and its proprietary OASYS platform, which management believes can lower AI inference costs and support stronger EBITDA improvement as revenue scales.
SOUN’s Price Performance, Valuation & EstimatesSoundHound shares have lost 35.4% year to date (YTD), outperforming the industry, as shown below:
SOUN’s YTD Price Performance
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
From a valuation standpoint, SOUN trades at a forward price-to-sales (P/S) multiple of 11.03, below the industry’s average of 11.23.
SOUN’s P/S Ratio (Forward 12-Month) vs. Industry
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
Over the past 60 days, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for SoundHound’s 2026 loss per share has widened to 18 cents, as shown below. The expected loss also remains wider than the previous year’s loss of 13 cents.
EPS Trend of SOUN Stock
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
SOUN currently has a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell).
You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
Although voice artificial intelligence (AI) company SoundHound AI (SOUN 0.39%) has been generating some impressive growth in recent quarters, its stock has been struggling. Thus far in 2026, it's down around 30%, and at roughly $7, it would need to more than triple in value to get back to the high of more than $22 it reached last year.
Given the opportunities in AI and the company's continued growth through acquisitions, is SoundHound AI's stock overdue for a rebound, and could it be a good buy right now?
Image source: Getty Images.
Why SoundHound AI's strong growth may not be enough to win over investors The big problem with SoundHound AI isn't a lack of growth; it's its bottom line, which is often in the red. As you'll see from the charts below, while SoundHound AI has done an excellent job of growing revenue, its bottom line, aside from a few quarters, has typically remained in the red in recent years.
SOUN Revenue (Quarterly) data by YCharts
This is a concern for investors because if a business is growing its sales but not its earnings, it may be chasing growth opportunities too aggressively rather than carefully pursuing those that are accretive to the bottom line. Without strong financials, the business may need to raise cash through debt or equity offerings to invest in its operations and future growth. And those concerns may very well be weighing down the tech stock right now.
Today's Change
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Will SoundHound AI stock rally this year? SoundHound AI's stock may not seem too expensive, with a market cap of $3 billion, but it still trades at 16 times its revenue, which isn't cheap. And although the company technically posted a profit in one of its recent quarters, there's a lot of noise in its financials due to acquisitions; without other income items, it would have landed in the red, as it has incurred an operating loss in each of the past four quarters.
Unfortunately, while SoundHound AI's business is growing, it isn't demonstrating to investors that it's becoming a safer overall investment. Investors aren't going to be impressed by growth driven primarily by acquisitions. Plus, with interest rates potentially rising further this year, risky stocks such as SoundHound AI may be under even greater pressure in the near future, which is why I don't expect a rally in the stock unless it shows a drastic improvement in its bottom line.
David Jagielski, CPA has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends SoundHound AI. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
Chief Operating Officer Sells 65K Shares for $485KThis AI voice platform provider to enterprise clients reported a notable insider sale amid a challenging year for its shares.
Michael Zagorsek, Chief Operating Officer of SoundHound AI (SOUN 0.70%), disclosed the direct sale of 64,994 shares for a total value of approximately $485,000 on June 15, according to a SEC Form 4 filing.
Transaction summaryMetricValueShares sold (direct)64,994Transaction value$484,712.25Post-transaction shares (direct)1,669,497Post-transaction value (direct ownership)$12.2 millionTransaction value based on SEC Form 4 reported price ($7.46); post-transaction value based on June 15 market close ($7.33).
Key questionsHow does this sale compare to Michael Zagorsek’s recent trading activity?
Since December 2024, Zagorsek has made seven sales, with this transaction’s size (~65,000 shares) closely matching the average sell-only event (~47,000 shares), reflecting a consistent disposition strategy as direct holdings have declined.What proportion of total direct holdings was affected by this transaction?
The sale represented 3.8% of direct holdings at the time, a moderate portion that aligns with the scale of prior sell events and leaves the majority of the executive’s direct equity interest intact.Were indirect or derivative securities involved in this transaction?
No indirect holdings or derivative awards were sold or exercised; all shares disposed were held directly, and Zagorsek retains no indirect or derivative exposure post-transaction.What is the ongoing equity exposure for the insider following this transaction?
Post-sale, Zagorsek maintains 1,669,497 shares of Class A Common Stock, providing continued alignment with shareholders and significant residual equity capacity for future liquidity events.Company overviewMetricValueMarket capitalization$3.2 billionRevenue (TTM)$184.0 millionNet income (TTM)-$169.0 millionCompany snapshotSoundHound A. operates within the voice AI sector, leveraging a comprehensive technology stack to deliver tailored conversational solutions. The company’s strategy centers on providing flexible, domain-specific voice platforms that can be deeply integrated into client ecosystems. I
Offers a proprietary AI voice platform (Houndify) featuring automatic speech recognition, natural language understanding, custom wake words, text-to-speech synthesis, and embedded voice solutions.Generates revenue primarily through licensing its voice AI technology and providing enterprise solutions to brands integrating conversational interfaces into their products and services.Targets enterprise clients across industries such as automotive, consumer electronics, and customer service, enabling them to deploy advanced voice-enabled experiences for end users.What this transaction means for investorsCOO Michael Zagorsek’s share sales, although not a large percentage of his total holdings, send a cautionary signal. That’s because a number of senior executives, including CEO Keyvan Mohajer, sold SoundHound AI shares.
The other senior executes reporting sales include the chief technology officer, chief product officer, and the chief science officer. Notably, none of the shares were sold under 10b5-1 trading plans, which outline sales activity, including timing, ahead of time.
The executives’ transactions come as the shares have woefully underperformed small-cap stocks, as measured by the Russell 2000 index. SoundHound AI’s shares lost 30.7% over the last year, through June 22. During this span, the Russell 2000 returned 44.2%, including dividends.
Looking at results, SoundHound AI lost $25 million in the first quarter under generally accepted accounting principles compared to a $129.9 million profit in the year-ago period. The company reports second-quarter results in early August.
Lawrence Rothman, CFA has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends SoundHound AI. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
SoundHound AI, Inc. (SOUN - Free Report) is one of the stocks most watched by Zacks.com visitors lately. So, it might be a good idea to review some of the factors that might affect the near-term performance of the stock.
Over the past month, shares of this company have returned -12.2%, compared to the Zacks S&P 500 composite's +2.1% change. During this period, the Zacks Computers - IT Services industry, which SoundHound AI falls in, has remained unchanged. The key question now is: What could be the stock's future direction?
Although media reports or rumors about a significant change in a company's business prospects usually cause its stock to trend and lead to an immediate price change, there are always certain fundamental factors that ultimately drive the buy-and-hold decision.
Earnings Estimate RevisionsRather than focusing on anything else, we at Zacks prioritize evaluating the change in a company's earnings projection. This is because we believe the fair value for its stock is determined by the present value of its future stream of earnings.
We essentially look at how sell-side analysts covering the stock are revising their earnings estimates to reflect the impact of the latest business trends. And if earnings estimates go up for a company, the fair value for its stock goes up. A higher fair value than the current market price drives investors' interest in buying the stock, leading to its price moving higher. This is why empirical research shows a strong correlation between trends in earnings estimate revisions and near-term stock price movements.
For the current quarter, SoundHound AI is expected to post a loss of $0.05 per share, indicating a change of -66.7% from the year-ago quarter. The Zacks Consensus Estimate remained unchanged over the last 30 days.
For the current fiscal year, the consensus earnings estimate of -$0.18 points to a change of -38.5% from the prior year. Over the last 30 days, this estimate has changed -18.3%.
For the next fiscal year, the consensus earnings estimate of $0.17 indicates a change of +6.7% from what SoundHound AI is expected to report a year ago. Over the past month, the estimate has remained unchanged.
Having a strong externally audited track record, our proprietary stock rating tool, the Zacks Rank, offers a more conclusive picture of a stock's price direction in the near term, since it effectively harnesses the power of earnings estimate revisions. Due to the size of the recent change in the consensus estimate, along with three other factors related to earnings estimates, SoundHound AI is rated Zacks Rank #4 (Sell).
The chart below shows the evolution of the company's forward 12-month consensus EPS estimate:
12 Month EPS
Revenue Growth ForecastWhile earnings growth is arguably the most superior indicator of a company's financial health, nothing happens as such if a business isn't able to grow its revenues. After all, it's nearly impossible for a company to increase its earnings for an extended period without increasing its revenues. So, it's important to know a company's potential revenue growth.
For SoundHound AI, the consensus sales estimate for the current quarter of $52.61 million indicates a year-over-year change of +23.3%. For the current and next fiscal years, $233.14 million and $270.1 million estimates indicate +38% and +15.9% changes, respectively.
Last Reported Results and Surprise HistorySoundHound AI reported revenues of $44.19 million in the last reported quarter, representing a year-over-year change of +51.7%. EPS of -$0.06 for the same period compares with -$0.06 a year ago.
Compared to the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $42.71 million, the reported revenues represent a surprise of +3.48%. The EPS surprise was -20%.
Over the last four quarters, SoundHound AI surpassed consensus EPS estimates two times. The company topped consensus revenue estimates each time over this period.
ValuationWithout considering a stock's valuation, no investment decision can be efficient. In predicting a stock's future price performance, it's crucial to determine whether its current price correctly reflects the intrinsic value of the underlying business and the company's growth prospects.
Comparing the current value of a company's valuation multiples, such as its price-to-earnings (P/E), price-to-sales (P/S), and price-to-cash flow (P/CF), to its own historical values helps ascertain whether its stock is fairly valued, overvalued, or undervalued, whereas comparing the company relative to its peers on these parameters gives a good sense of how reasonable its stock price is.
The Zacks Value Style Score (part of the Zacks Style Scores system), which pays close attention to both traditional and unconventional valuation metrics to grade stocks from A to F (an A is better than a B; a B is better than a C; and so on), is pretty helpful in identifying whether a stock is overvalued, rightly valued, or temporarily undervalued.
SoundHound AI is graded F on this front, indicating that it is trading at a premium to its peers. Click here to see the values of some of the valuation metrics that have driven this grade.
ConclusionThe facts discussed here and much other information on Zacks.com might help determine whether or not it's worthwhile paying attention to the market buzz about SoundHound AI. However, its Zacks Rank #4 does suggest that it may underperform the broader market in the near term.
At $7.35, SoundHound AI (NASDAQ:SOUN) screens as a wait-and-watch setup, with research framing suggesting a more attractive entry near $6.50 on macro-driven weakness.
Key Takeaways SoundHound trades above its industry's P/S average as investors weigh AI growth against risks.SOUN posted 52% Q1 revenue growth, reaffirmed 2026 guidance and launched its OASYS platform.SOUN's losses, weaker estimates and acquisition risks make its risk-reward profile unfavorable. SoundHound AI (SOUN - Free Report) has emerged as one of the more prominent pure-play conversational AI companies, benefiting from growing enterprise adoption of voice and agentic AI solutions. However, while the company's growth prospects remain attractive, its valuation continues to spark debate among investors. SOUN stock currently trades at a forward 12-month price-to-sales (P/S) ratio of 12.6X, above the Zacks Computers - IT Services industry's average of 11.88X. Such a premium typically reflects expectations for stronger growth, expanding market opportunities and future profitability. The question is whether SoundHound's business momentum can justify paying more than the industry average.
SOUN Stock’s Valuation (P/S F12M)
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
SoundHound continues to deliver strong revenue growth, launch new AI products and expand its enterprise customer base. At the same time, losses remain elevated, earnings estimates have moved lower, and the stock has plunged 26.2% year to date. Investors must therefore weigh the company's long-term AI opportunity against its near-term execution and profitability risks when deciding how to play the stock.
SOUN’s YTD Price Performance
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
Strong Demand Supports Growth Story for SOUN StockSoundHound entered 2026 with solid operating momentum. First-quarter revenues increased 52% year over year to a record $44.2 million. Management highlighted that excluding acquisition-related contributions, revenues from its core automotive and IoT AI business jumped 88%, reflecting strong customer demand across its key markets.
The company continues to benefit from growing adoption of conversational AI across industries. During the first quarter, SoundHound signed new agreements and expanded existing relationships across automotive, financial services, healthcare, retail, telecommunications and energy markets. The company also reported strong traction in enterprise AI, which remained its largest revenue contributor.
Management reaffirmed its 2026 revenue guidance of $225-$260 million, signaling confidence that current demand trends will continue through the remainder of the year.
SoundHound’s OASYS Expands the AI OpportunityOne of SoundHound's biggest recent developments is the launch of OASYS, its self-learning agentic AI platform. The platform is designed to automate the creation, deployment and continuous improvement of AI agents. Unlike traditional AI solutions that require ongoing manual updates, OASYS can automatically evaluate performance, identify gaps and improve workflows over time. The company believes this approach can significantly reduce implementation time and lower operating costs for customers.
Another advantage is channel flexibility. Businesses can deploy AI agents across phones, websites, text messaging, drive-thrus, kiosks, vehicles and smart devices using a unified platform. This capability strengthens SoundHound's position as enterprises increasingly seek integrated AI solutions rather than standalone products.
Management views OASYS as a key step toward building a unified agentic AI ecosystem that combines technologies from its acquisitions and internal development efforts.
LivePerson Deal Could be Transformational for SOUNAnother major growth catalyst is SoundHound's planned acquisition of LivePerson. The transaction would combine SoundHound's voice AI and agentic AI capabilities with LivePerson's digital messaging and customer engagement platform. Together, the companies would serve enterprise customers in more than 30 countries, including many leading banks, airlines, automakers and telecommunications providers.
The acquisition broadens SoundHound's reach into digital customer engagement while creating opportunities to cross-sell voice AI solutions to LivePerson's customer base. Management expects the combined platform to offer one of the most comprehensive conversational AI ecosystems in the market.
The company believes the existing customer base alone could support a long-term revenue opportunity approaching $500 million, while the combined business is expected to generate annual revenues of at least $350-$400 million in 2027 after the transaction closes.
SOUN’s Customer Expansion Remains a Key TailwindSoundHound is not only winning new customers but also expanding relationships with existing ones. A recent example is Casey's General Stores, which expanded its partnership with SoundHound after the company's AI-powered ordering agents handled more than 21 million guest interactions across more than 2,600 locations. The success of such deployments demonstrates the practical value customers are receiving from SoundHound's technology.
The company also reported increased cross-selling activity among restaurant customers, stronger adoption of Voice Insights and growing deployment of voice commerce solutions across automotive and consumer electronics platforms. These trends support management's strategy of generating more revenue from existing customers while adding new ones.
Profitability Challenges Remain for SoundHoundDespite strong revenue growth, profitability continues to be SoundHound's biggest challenge. The company reported a first-quarter adjusted EBITDA loss of $26.7 million and a non-GAAP net loss of $26.6 million. Operating expenses increased as SoundHound continued investing in research and development, sales expansion and acquisition integration activities.
Management is also investing in proprietary AI foundation models that are expected to power OASYS and reduce long-term dependence on third-party AI models. While these investments may improve future margins, they are likely to keep near-term profitability under pressure.
On a positive note, SoundHound ended the quarter with $216 million in cash and no debt, providing financial flexibility to support growth initiatives and acquisitions.
SOUN Stock’s Estimate Revisions Raise ConcernsInvestor sentiment has also been affected by deteriorating earnings expectations. Over the past 60 days, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for SoundHound's 2026 loss widened to 18 cents per share from 9 cents. The projected loss is also wider than the 13-cent loss reported in the previous year.
Although analysts expect revenues to grow 38% in 2026 and another 15.9% in 2027, earnings are still expected to remain in negative territory. The consensus estimate calls for a loss of 17 cents per share in 2027.
Negative estimate revisions often indicate that analysts expect profitability improvements to take longer than previously anticipated, which can weigh on stock performance.
SOUN Stock’s Estimate Revision
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
AI Rivals Are Also Chasing GrowthSoundHound competes in a rapidly evolving AI market alongside companies such as C3.ai (AI - Free Report) , BigBear.ai Holdings (BBAI - Free Report) and Innodata (INOD - Free Report) .
C3.ai remains a leading enterprise AI software provider focused on helping organizations deploy AI applications across industries. C3.ai continues to benefit from growing enterprise AI spending, and it has built strong relationships with government and commercial customers. However, C3.ai faces intense competition from both large software vendors and emerging AI companies.
BigBear.ai has carved out a niche in defense, intelligence and government markets. BigBear.ai is benefiting from rising demand for AI-enabled decision-making tools, while it continues expanding its presence in national security applications. However, BigBear.ai remains dependent on government contract activity and funding cycles.
Innodata has become an important player in AI data engineering and model training services. Innodata is benefiting from increasing demand for high-quality AI training data, and it continues to win business from leading AI developers. While Innodata operates in a different area of the AI ecosystem, it competes for investor attention as another high-growth AI stock.
How to Play SOUN StockSoundHound offers an attractive long-term growth story driven by expanding enterprise adoption, growing customer relationships, the OASYS platform launch and the pending LivePerson acquisition. The company is building a broader conversational AI ecosystem that could support significant revenue growth over the next several years.
However, investors must balance these positives against ongoing losses, rising investment spending, acquisition integration risks and worsening earnings estimates. While the stock trades at a premium valuation, profitability remains elusive and estimate revisions have moved in the wrong direction.
Given these factors, the current risk-reward profile appears unfavorable despite the company's promising growth prospects. This view is consistent with SoundHound's current Zacks Rank #4 (Sell), suggesting investors should remain on the sidelines until earnings trends and estimate revisions begin to improve.
You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
SANTA CLARA, Calif., June 18, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- SoundHound AI, Inc. (Nasdaq: SOUN), a global leader in voice and agentic AI, today released new data revealing that customer service leaders are beginning to see ROI on agentic AI as more businesses deploy AI agents to deal with consumer queries and transactions.
Key Takeaways SOUN cited Q1 analysis showing higher revenues at QSR locations using its drive-thru voice AI.SoundHound saw increased cross-selling activity and stronger adoption of SoundHound Voice Insight.Restaurants remain a key vertical for SOUN, given their high-volume and execution-sensitive operations. SoundHound AI, Inc. (SOUN - Free Report) is building a stronger case for restaurant automation, supported by early ROI evidence from its drive-thru voice AI deployments.
In the first quarter of 2026, management cited a major QSR customer analysis showing that locations deploying SoundHound’s drive-thru voice AI generated higher revenues than locations without the technology. The data point provides an early ROI reference for SOUN’s restaurant automation offering, particularly as operators focus on throughput, order accuracy and labor efficiency.
The restaurant opportunity is also broadening beyond order-taking automation. During the quarter, SoundHound cited increased cross-selling activity and stronger adoption of SoundHound Voice Insight, which provides operators with analysis of customer interactions and staff responses. These tools could support deeper customer relationships and broader account penetration over time.
Restaurants remain a relevant vertical for SoundHound because drive-thru operations are high-volume, labor-intensive and execution-sensitive. Automation that improves throughput and service consistency can offer a practical return on investment, particularly for quick-service operators focused on operational efficiency. SoundHound’s AI is designed to support order handling, improve service accuracy and assist employees in delivering faster service.
For SOUN, the key test is whether early customer evidence converts into broader restaurant rollout activity. If operators expand deployments across more locations and adopt adjacent analytics tools, the vertical could become a more meaningful contributor to SoundHound’s enterprise AI growth strategy.
SOUN’s Price Performance, Valuation & EstimatesSoundHound’s shares have lost 26.1% in the past year compared with the industry’s fall of 30.1%. At the same time frame, other industry players, including C3.ai, Inc. (AI - Free Report) , have declined 57.4%, while BigBear.ai Holdings, Inc. (BBAI - Free Report) has fallen 2.1%.
SOUN’s Stock One-Year Price Performance
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
SOUN stock is currently trading at a discount. It is currently trading at a forward 12-month price-to-sales (P/S) multiple of 11.96, above the industry average of 11.89. Then again, other industry players, such as C3.ai and BigBear.ai, have P/S ratios of 6.67 and 12.11, respectively.
SOUN’s P/S Ratio (Forward 12-Month) vs. Industry
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for SoundHound’s 2026 loss per share has widened from 9 cents to 18 cents in the past 60 days.
EPS Trend of SOUN Stock
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
The company is likely to report dismal earnings, with projections indicating a 38.5% fall in 2026. Conversely, industry players like BigBear.ai are likely to witness growth of 69.5% year over year in 2026 earnings. C3.ai is likely to project a rise of 40% in fiscal 2027 earnings.
In the latest close session, SoundHound AI, Inc. (SOUN - Free Report) was up +2.3% at $7.12. The stock outpaced the S&P 500's daily gain of 1.09%. Elsewhere, the Dow gained 0.14%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq added 1.91%.
The company's stock has dropped by 17.63% in the past month, falling short of the Computer and Technology sector's gain of 0.22% and the S&P 500's gain of 0.29%.
Market participants will be closely following the financial results of SoundHound AI, Inc. in its upcoming release. The company is predicted to post an EPS of -$0.05, indicating a 66.67% decline compared to the equivalent quarter last year. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $52.61 million, up 23.27% from the year-ago period.
For the entire fiscal year, the Zacks Consensus Estimates are projecting earnings of -$0.18 per share and a revenue of $233.14 million, representing changes of -38.46% and +38.02%, respectively, from the prior year.
Investors should also take note of any recent adjustments to analyst estimates for SoundHound AI, Inc. Recent revisions tend to reflect the latest near-term business trends. As such, positive estimate revisions reflect analyst optimism about the business and profitability.
Our research shows that these estimate changes are directly correlated with near-term stock prices. To utilize this, we have created the Zacks Rank, a proprietary model that integrates these estimate changes and provides a functional rating system.
The Zacks Rank system, spanning from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), boasts an impressive track record of outperformance, audited externally, with #1 ranked stocks yielding an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Over the past month, there's been a 18.3% fall in the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate. SoundHound AI, Inc. is currently a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell).
The Computers - IT Services industry is part of the Computer and Technology sector. With its current Zacks Industry Rank of 167, this industry ranks in the bottom 32% of all industries, numbering over 250.
The Zacks Industry Rank assesses the vigor of our specific industry groups by computing the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks incorporated in the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.
Keep in mind to rely on Zacks.com to watch all these stock-impacting metrics, and more, in the succeeding trading sessions.
After surging to new all-time highs over a year ago, SoundHound AI (SOUN 1.21%) stock has plunged 72%. Yet the business continues to expand rapidly, with revenue surging 52% year over year in the first quarter.
Is this an ideal time to buy shares, or does the volatility signal a problem with the growth story?
Image source: Getty Images.
SoundHound AI is a volatile stock but patient investors could be rewarded. It has spent 20 years collecting data from user interactions to develop its voice AI technology. Restaurants and automakers are using it to power drive-thru ordering and in-car assistants.
The company recently unlocked another huge opportunity with its OASYS agentic AI system. This platform allows businesses to build a fleet of agents that continuously train and improve. One Fortune 100 company has already saved $10 million in quarterly costs by using SoundHound's platform.
Voice AI assistants could be one of the fastest-growing consumer applications over the next decade. The market is expected to reach $47 billion by 2034, growing nearly 35% annually, according to Market.us.
The stock's volatility largely reflects the company's lack of profitability. It reported a $26 million adjusted net loss in the first quarter 2026, and negative free cash flow of $113 million on a trailing-12-month basis. Moreover, SoundHound faces competition from tech giants like Google, which is also working on voice AI technology.
Still, SoundHound AI offers investors pure exposure to this burgeoning market. The recent pullback may provide a more attractive entry point to start a small position. The stock will remain volatile, but the long-term upside could be significant for a small AI company with a market cap close to $3 billion.
John Ballard has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet and SoundHound AI. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
As it sinks below $7, it's easy to forget that SoundHound AI (SOUN 1.21%) once traded above $20 in late December 2024 and early January 2025. Since then, however, SoundHound's stock price has been on a downward march, with shares slumping more than 30% in 2026.
For the stock price to regain momentum, SoundHound needs to finalize an acquisition, turn that acquisition into a revenue generator, and move closer to profitability. It's possible for all that to happen, but it will take time.
Image source: Getty Images.
Finalizing and monetizing the deal SoundHound is in the process of acquiring LivePerson for an equity value of $43 million. The acquisition target offers artificial intelligence (AI) agents that businesses can use to answer website questions or reply to text messages.
LivePerson reported revenue of more than $243 million in 2025, but it also reported a net loss of more than $67 million and has been financially struggling over the last several years. Still, SoundHound believes LivePerson's digital messaging offerings complement its voice-enabled AI solutions and projects that LivePerson will contribute $100 million in revenue in 2027.
That would be quite a meaningful contribution, as SoundHound forecasts its 2026 full-year revenue will fall between $225 million and $260 million.
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What comes next? The LivePerson deal is expected to close in the second half of 2026. Once that is finalized, how well SoundHound integrates LivePerson into its operations can start to show up in the results.
If SoundHound executes on that integration, investors will look for the AI company to move closer to profitability. If all that happens, the stock price can regain some footing and start working its way back up to that $20 range it was previously in.
Since the acquisition still needs to close, this will take some time. SoundHound has upside, but the stock price may still keep sliding or trading sideways until the uncertainty over whether the LivePerson deal is a savvy move or a misstep clears up.
Jack Delaney has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends SoundHound AI. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
Several stocks trading below $10 are drawing fresh attention from Wall Street analysts, even as broader markets remain focused on mega-cap technology names.
The appeal is not simply that these shares look cheap.
Each company sits inside a larger investment theme, from quantum computing and voice AI to fintech automation, space imaging and electric aviation.
The risks are high, and many of these businesses are still proving their models.
But as of June 2026, analysts see meaningful upside in a handful of overlooked names where small price tags are tied to potentially large markets.
1. Quantum Computing Inc. is one of the more speculative names on the list.
The company, known by its ticker QUBT, is trying to build hardware and software tools that make quantum computing more practical for enterprises.
Cantor Fitzgerald analyst Troy Jensen remains a cautious voice.
According to TipRanks, Jensen kept a Neutral rating and a $10 price target on QUBT, while estimating that the company could reach about $375 million in sales by 2035 if it captures 5% of the quantum market.
That caution sits against a more bullish broader view. TipRanks data shows a Strong Buy consensus on QUBT, based on three Buys and one Hold over the past three months.
The average price target of $17.50 implies roughly 77% upside from recent levels.
2. SoundHound AI (NASDAQ: SOUN) offers a different kind of AI exposure.
Instead of large language models or chips, the company focuses on voice-based artificial intelligence used in cars, restaurants and enterprise customer-service systems.
TipRanks recently showed a Strong Buy consensus on SOUN, with five Buys and one Hold, while other aggregators have been more restrained.
The stock’s average target is around the mid-teens, suggesting analysts still see upside if enterprise adoption keeps improving.
The key risk is execution as SoundHound needs customers to move from pilots and partnerships to sustained revenue growth.
3. Blend Labs (NYSE: BLND) is the turnaround story in the group. The fintech software company helps banks and lenders automate mortgage, consumer-loan and deposit-account workflows.
The stock was hit hard during the housing slowdown, when mortgage activity weakened and investors lost patience with growth software names.
Since then, Blend has been cutting costs, improving margins and adding AI tools for financial institutions.
Canaccord recently lowered its Blend Labs price target to $4.50 from $5.25, according to TipRanks, but kept a Buy rating.
The firm cited Blend’s continued push on growth, profitability and product expansion despite a difficult mortgage backdrop.
4. Satellogic (NASDAQ: SATL) is less flashy but has one of the clearest business cases.
The company provides high-resolution Earth-observation data, a market driven by demand from governments, defence agencies and commercial customers.
Northland analyst Michael Latimore recently raised his target on SATL to $11 from $9 and kept an Outperform rating after the company won an $18 million defence contract.
Latimore also lifted his FY26 revenue estimate to $45 million and narrowed his expected EBITDA loss, helped by the contract’s high-margin profile.
Wall Street’s consensus rating on SATL is Strong Buy, with four Buys and one Hold. The average target of $10.60 implies about 41% upside.
5. Archer Aviation (NYSE: ACHR) is the highest-risk, highest-imagination name here.
Electric air taxis still sound futuristic, and the path to commercial scale remains expensive, regulated and uncertain.
Still, analysts are not treating Archer as a meme stock.
The company has made progress through the FAA certification process for its Midnight aircraft, and investors are watching infrastructure plans, defence opportunities and institutional backing closely.
Investing.com data shows an average 12-month price target of about $10.61 for ACHR, with six analysts recommending Buy and no Sell ratings.
MarketBeat puts the average target closer to $11.83, implying more than 100% upside from recent levels.
SoundHound AI, Inc. (SOUN - Free Report) closed at $6.91 in the latest trading session, marking a -1.29% move from the prior day. This change lagged the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.5%. On the other hand, the Dow registered a gain of 0.7%, and the technology-centric Nasdaq increased by 0.31%.
The company's stock has dropped by 17.84% in the past month, falling short of the Computer and Technology sector's loss of 0.42% and the S&P 500's loss of 0.23%.
The investment community will be paying close attention to the earnings performance of SoundHound AI, Inc. in its upcoming release. In that report, analysts expect SoundHound AI, Inc. to post earnings of -$0.05 per share. This would mark a year-over-year decline of 66.67%. At the same time, our most recent consensus estimate is projecting a revenue of $52.61 million, reflecting a 23.27% rise from the equivalent quarter last year.
For the full year, the Zacks Consensus Estimates project earnings of -$0.18 per share and a revenue of $233.14 million, demonstrating changes of -38.46% and +38.02%, respectively, from the preceding year.
It is also important to note the recent changes to analyst estimates for SoundHound AI, Inc. These revisions typically reflect the latest short-term business trends, which can change frequently. With this in mind, we can consider positive estimate revisions a sign of optimism about the business outlook.
Research indicates that these estimate revisions are directly correlated with near-term share price momentum. To benefit from this, we have developed the Zacks Rank, a proprietary model which takes these estimate changes into account and provides an actionable rating system.
The Zacks Rank system, which ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), has an impressive outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks generating an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Over the past month, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has shifted 18.3% downward. SoundHound AI, Inc. is holding a Zacks Rank of #4 (Sell) right now.
The Computers - IT Services industry is part of the Computer and Technology sector. This industry, currently bearing a Zacks Industry Rank of 172, finds itself in the bottom 30% echelons of all 250+ industries.
The Zacks Industry Rank evaluates the power of our distinct industry groups by determining the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks forming the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.
Be sure to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and many more, on Zacks.com.
Wall Street analysts make their living by taking a close look at companies' financials and offering informed advice on their stocks. As part of this advice, they commonly set one-year price targets for stocks to give investors an idea of where the stock's price could be heading. These targets can range widely from analyst to analyst and should be looked on as educated guesses.
Any one guess is subject to error, but if multiple analysts are all guessing similarly, the average can be useful as part of a broader analysis for or against a stock. For SoundHound AI (SOUN +3.93%), a survey of 16 analysts put the low share price target at $8, while the high was $20. On average, it's $14, indicating over 56% upside from today's stock price.
A 56% gain in one year is impressive, and if that pans out, SoundHound AI will be a top performer in the coming year. But is this target realistic? Let's take a look.
Image source: Getty Images.
SoundHound AI has major potential SoundHound AI is a rare, pure-play artificial intelligence (AI) investment that looks promising. Its technology incorporates audio recognition technology with AI, which opens up a huge market. Basically, anywhere a human normally talks to another human for service is a potential for expansion, and it has already conquered one sector. SoundHound AI has a major foothold in the restaurant industry. While that's not a massive use case, and the number of requests at a drive-thru window is normally limited to the restaurant's menu, it's a solid starting point.
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If SoundHound AI can expand to other areas like insurance, finance, and healthcare, it could become a major player in multiple industries. It has already signed several customers in these industries, and the next few years should tell the success of these endeavors.
In the meantime, SoundHound AI is putting up solid 52% year-over-year revenue growth. While it's still a long way from profitability, that shouldn't come as a surprise given that SoundHound AI is in a growth phase.
As for valuation, SoundHound AI no longer has a massive premium attached to it.
Data by YCharts.
A little over 18 times sales is fairly cheap for a company with incredible prospects and a strong growth rate like SoundHound AI. Normally, I'd expect to see a stock like this trading in the 30 times sales range, which would nearly account for the 56% gain in share price that Wall Street projects.
I think if SoundHound AI can beat growth expectations and continue to expand into some of the major opportunities ahead, it will be a solid stock to own and can easily deliver the growth that investors are looking for. However, if another company comes along and tries to steal market share from SoundHound AI, don't be surprised to see the stock take a major hit.
The past few months haven't been kind to SoundHound AI (SOUN +3.93%) shareholders. The company posted record revenue in the first quarter, but that wasn't enough to offset concerns about its pending acquisition of another company.
As of this writing, shares are down roughly 29% over the last six months. The good news is that if SoundHound successfully integrates that acquisition into its business, its momentum could be reignited, sending the stock price higher.
Image source: Getty Images.
A wise purchase or a risky gamble? The company that SoundHound is looking to buy (at an equity value of $43 million) is LivePerson (LPSN +1.92%) -- it believes the target's digital engagement suite will complement its current business. SoundHound's focus and strength are in audio-enabled artificial intelligence (AI), which it can use to embed its tech in everything from vehicles to restaurant drive-thrus. LivePerson operates primarily through messaging with its AI agents, such as answering a question in a chat box on a website or sending a reminder via text message.
If the acquisition closes as expected in the second half of this year, SoundHound plans to cross-sell products, opening a potentially significant new revenue source; in 2025, LivePerson generated $243.7 million in revenue, while SoundHound generated just under $169 million.
It sounds like a good fit on paper, but there are two issues that investors seem worried about with this deal. One is that SoundHound is paying for LivePerson and settling the target's outstanding debt with its own stock, which dilutes SoundHound shareholders. That can create short-term pressure, but it could be resolved so long as this deal provides long-term value.
That potential long-term value, however, is the other issue weighing on the stock. LivePerson reported a net loss of more than $67 million in 2025, and SoundHound itself is unprofitable. That means one unprofitable company will have to successfully integrate into its operations another unprofitable company that has been struggling for years.
The long-term outlook for SoundHound
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SoundHound expects LivePerson to add $100 million to its revenue in 2027, bringing the total to between $350 million and $400 million. SoundHound currently has no debt and expects to be debt-free after the acquisition.
At the time of its Q1 report, management reiterated its forecast for 2026 revenue of between $225 million and $260 million, so hitting the upper end of that $400 million range in 207 would require a solid jump. The company will still have to work on profitability, but it's still a growth stock in an aggressive expansion phase for now. That's going to create a lot of short-term volatility. In order for the stock price's momentum to improve over the rest of the year, there would either need to be a broad market rally for the stock to get swept up in, or SoundHound would need to boost its 2026 revenue guidance in one of its next earnings reports.
Over the longer term, if SoundHound can successfully integrate LivePerson into its operations, the deal could add meaningful value to the company. It's still liable to remain a volatile stock, however. So even if you're among the most aggressive of investors and (after weighing the risks and potential rewards) you want to add it to your portfolio, you'd be best advised to make it a relatively small position.
A big challenge for SoundHound AI (SOUN +3.93%) may be keeping up with larger players in the tech sector as it looks to expand its business. There's considerable competition in artificial intelligence (AI) and in the voice AI services that SoundHound offers. And those concerns may be part of the reason why the stock has struggled to rally this year; it's down around 10% thus far in 2026.
But SoundHound's management remains confident about its opportunities, and its CEO believes that, unlike larger tech companies, it doesn't need to spend excessively and waste money on AI. Here's why.
Image source: Getty Images.
SoundHound's CEO is confident that the company will not be as wasteful as other tech giants On SoundHound's most recent earnings call, its CEO Keyvan Mohajer suggested that the AI company may not be as wasteful as hyperscalers and big tech because it isn't looking to overcomplicate the task at hand.
"Unlike some companies that are throwing billions to avoid missing out, we know what we are doing. We know our training recipe. We have the data, and our models will be specialized for what they will be used for. Importantly, we believe that models that handle a customer service inquiry do not need to also solve quantum physics problems or answer history questions in haiku."
By having a narrower approach in its AI strategy, SoundHound believes it can help keep its costs lower, thus potentially putting it on a stronger path to profitability. And that's important because while the business has generated strong growth in recent quarters, the challenge is in being efficient and reducing unnecessary spend, in order to get to profitability. In each of the past four quarters, the company's operating expenses have totaled more than $60 million -- exceeding its revenue.
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The company, however, still has a lot to prove While management may be confident of its approach, SoundHound's financials remain underwhelming. Acquisitions have helped the business grow and diversify, but they also add complexity and costs, making it challenging for the company to improve its bottom line.
And during the first three months of the year, the company burned through $26.3 million from its day-to-day operating activities, which is more than the $19.2 million it used up during the same period last year. That's a concerning sign for a company that's still in the midst of its early growth and that needs to generate strong positive cash flow to show growth investors that it's on the right path.
Investors should take a CEO's confidence with a grain of salt, however, because ultimately it's the financials and the numbers that matter most. And until they improve for SoundHound and show significant improvement, the stock is going to remain a risky buy, which is why I'd continue to take a wait-and-see approach with it.
Finding a dirt-cheap stock, loading up on shares, and having a meager investment transform into $1 million is a dream of many investors. While many stocks promise to fulfill this lofty goal, I think there's one $8 stock that could make it happen: SoundHound AI (SOUN +3.93%).
SoundHound AI trades for a little more than $8, but I believe it could lead to phenomenal returns over the next few years as its vision takes shape.
Image source: Getty Images.
SoundHound AI could be a major player in AI SoundHound AI combines audio recognition technology with AI, allowing it to automate several tasks that humans normally do. It has already successfully deployed its technology in a few key areas, such as restaurant automation. If you've had an order taken by an AI agent at a drive-thru, chances are high that it was SoundHound AI's technology powering that interaction. While the fast food market isn't a huge space, there are much larger industries with armies of customer service agents that SoundHound AI could automate.
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Finance, healthcare, and insurance are some of the major targets, and SoundHound AI already has deals with several of them to explore integrating its product into its clients' systems. To support this, it rolled out OASYS, which helps the AI interact with itself and improve in real time to tackle new situations it's encountering. That's a major development, and could be a piece of the puzzle that SoundHound AI needs to become a millionaire-maker stock.
What exactly needs to happen to turn this $8 stock into a $800 stock? The biggest thing is to continue growing its business at a steady pace. In Q1, its revenue rose at a 52% clip. That's a solid growth rate for SoundHound AI, but it needs to keep that up over several years to deliver 100x returns. Over that time frame, SoundHound AI also needs to generate a profit. It shouldn't surprise investors that it's currently highly unprofitable, as it's spending every penny it can to innovate and develop a platform that can automate several roles. In Q1, its operating loss was nearly $23 million compared to $44 million in revenue. That means it's spending about 50% more than it's bringing in the door, which is unsustainable.
If SoundHound AI can grow into a major market opportunity, achieve profitability, and sustain its rapid growth rate over the next decade, it could deliver millionaire-maker returns. However, there's no guarantee of success, as another AI competitor could easily tackle this market sector and be a major competitor. Time will tell where SoundHound AI ends up, but I think it's worth a small investment to see what happens.
Keithen Drury has positions in SoundHound AI. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends SoundHound AI. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
Key Takeaways SOUN launched OASYS to auto-build and improve AI agents, cutting deployment from months to minutes.SoundHound says OASYS will lean on Polaris and in-house models to replace costly third-party AI.SOUN expects LivePerson deal to add vast interaction data to boost training and automation outcomes. SoundHound AI (SOUN - Free Report) is making a significant strategic push toward proprietary artificial intelligence models as it seeks to strengthen its competitive position in the rapidly evolving conversational and agentic AI market. The company believes owning the full AI stack can improve performance, lower costs and create a sustainable competitive advantage.
The clearest example of this strategy is OASYS, SoundHound’s newly launched self-learning agentic AI platform. Management describes OASYS as a system where AI can automatically create, orchestrate, evaluate and improve AI agents, reducing deployment times from months to minutes. The platform is designed to operate across voice, text, web, kiosks, vehicles and other channels, creating a unified AI ecosystem for enterprise customers.
A key reason behind this push is cost efficiency. During the first quarter of 2026 earnings call, SoundHound highlighted that OASYS will increasingly rely on Polaris, its proprietary speech foundation model, along with internally developed specialized large language models and speech synthesis technologies. Management stated that most customer interactions could eventually be powered by SoundHound’s own models rather than expensive third-party frontier models, generating meaningful long-term cost savings.
The company also believes proprietary models can deliver better performance for targeted enterprise use cases. Rather than building general-purpose AI systems, SoundHound is developing specialized models focused on customer service, order processing, financial transactions and workflow automation. According to management, these models can outperform larger frontier models in specific applications while operating at lower costs.
The planned acquisition of LivePerson further strengthens this strategy. By combining SoundHound’s voice AI with LivePerson’s digital messaging platform, the company expects to gain access to tens of billions of annual customer interactions, creating a powerful proprietary data foundation that can improve model training and automation outcomes.
With first-quarter 2026 revenue rising 52% year over year to $44.2 million and demand growing across multiple industries, SoundHound is betting that proprietary AI models will help drive faster innovation, higher margins and stronger long-term growth.
What Sets SoundHound Apart in Enterprise AITwo notable competitors in the enterprise conversational AI space are NICE Ltd. (NICE - Free Report) and Five9, Inc. (FIVN - Free Report) . Both NICE and Five9 have invested heavily in AI-powered customer engagement platforms, but their strategies differ from SoundHound’s growing focus on proprietary AI models.
NICE primarily integrates advanced AI capabilities into its customer experience platform to automate service workflows and improve contact center efficiency. While NICE benefits from a large enterprise customer base and deep industry expertise, it often relies on a broader ecosystem of AI technologies. NICE continues to expand its AI offerings, but its approach is more platform-centric than model-centric.
Five9 has also emerged as a major force in cloud contact center automation. Five9 leverages AI to enhance agent productivity and customer interactions across voice and digital channels. However, Five9’s strategy centers on orchestration and workflow automation rather than building a fully proprietary AI stack.
This is where SoundHound seeks differentiation. By developing its own speech foundation model, specialized AI models and the OASYS platform, SoundHound aims to reduce dependence on third-party AI providers. As enterprises increasingly prioritize cost efficiency, customization and data control, SoundHound believes its vertically integrated AI approach could provide an edge over both NICE and Five9.
SOUN’s Price Performance, Valuation & EstimatesSoundHound shares have lost 7.2% year to date (YTD), outperforming the industry, as shown below:
SOUN’s YTD Price Performance
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
From a valuation standpoint, SOUN trades at a forward price-to-sales (P/S) multiple of 16, above the industry’s average of 13.48.
SOUN’s P/S Ratio (Forward 12-Month) vs. Industry
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
Over the past 30 days, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for SoundHound’s 2026 loss per share has widened to 18 cents, as shown below. The expected loss also remains wider than the previous year’s loss of 13 cents.
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Shareholders should contact the firm immediately as there may be limited time to enforce your rights.
, /PRNewswire/ -- Halper Sadeh LLC, an investor rights law firm, is investigating whether certain officers and directors of SoundHound AI, Inc. (NASDAQ: SOUN) breached their fiduciary duties to shareholders.
If you currently own SoundHound stock and are a long-term shareholder, you may be able to seek corporate governance reforms, the return of funds back to the company, a court-approved financial incentive award, or other relief and benefits. Please click here to learn more about your legal rights and options or contact Daniel Sadeh or Zachary Halper at (212) 763-0060 or [email protected] or [email protected].
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I always thought Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? was a silly name for a game show. Of course everyone who isn't already a millionaire (or billionaire) wants to be one!
The good news is, the stock market has made far more people into millionaires than the TV game show, and right now, AI stocks are outperforming the broader market.
Here are three AI stocks that have serious millionaire-maker potential, and you don't even have to phone a friend to ask for the answers.
1. Nvidia
Image source: Nvidia.
Yes, it already has a $5 trillion market cap. Yes, it's already up more than 1,250% in the past five years. But the thing about winners is that they tend to keep on winning unless something comes along to dislodge them from their perch. And right now, when it comes to AI processors, Nvidia (NVDA +2.30%) is the undisputed leader in the industry. No other company has even come close to mounting a serious challenge.
Normally, once a company reaches megacap size, its growth tends to plateau. But you'd never know that from Nvidia's recently released fiscal 2027 Q1 financials. Revenue was up 85% from the year-ago quarter, and non-GAAP net income grew by a jaw-dropping 139%, with further growth expected. That's the kind of growth that tiny tech start-ups dream of. In spite of all that, the stock is down 6% from its highs, giving Nvidia serious millionaire-making potential from here.
2. Alphabet Alphabet (GOOGL +0.60%) (GOOG +0.92%) isn't so much an AI company as an everything company, but its AI bona fides go back to 2016, when its AlphaGo AI defeated a top-ranked player at the Chinese board game Go, a feat considered more impressive than Deep Blue's 1997 chess victory over international grandmaster Garry Kasparov.
Since then, Alphabet has rolled out a number of AI-focused improvements across its ecosystem, including the Google Gemini AI chatbot, AI-powered Google Search, and its Waymo self-driving car initiative.
A few years ago, many onlookers believed that Alphabet's core Google Search business would be hurt by diminishing ad revenue as AI chatbots grew in popularity, but the company has overcome those concerns. Instead, thanks to its moves to enhance Google Search with AI features, that business has continued to thrive, with ad revenue climbing 19% to $60.4 billion in Q1 2026 alone. Meanwhile, Google Cloud revenue increased 63% to $20 billion, largely due to growth in enterprise AI solutions and AI infrastructure.
As one of the largest companies in the world, with a market capitalization of $4.7 trillion, Alphabet, like Nvidia, might seem too big to be a growth stock, but it continues to assert itself as a dominant force in the AI world. Alphabet's stock should continue to produce market-crushing returns worthy of a millionaire-maker portfolio.
Image source: Getty Images.
3. SoundHound AI To explain why AI voice chat specialist SoundHound AI (SOUN +3.93%) could make you a millionaire, we need to revisit the story of AlphaGo's victory at the board game Go.
Go's 19x19 board is much larger than chess's 8x8 board, and it has an exponentially higher number of possible moves, which is why it took almost 20 years longer for an AI to beat a top-ranked human player at Go than at chess.
To win at chess, Deep Blue -- after executing some preprogrammed opening moves -- compared every possible series of moves and selected the path with the best probability of winning. But the number of possible Go moves is too high for even an advanced AI to compare them all, so AlphaGo didn't even try. Instead, AlphaGo played tens of millions of games against itself, and it drew on the outcomes of those games to make its decisions.
Any customer service interaction has infinitely more possibilities than a game of Go. All those possibilities make it very difficult to train an AI customer service agent to human-level capability. But SoundHound AI is taking a leaf out of AlphaGo's playbook. It has just released a new agentic AI platform called OASYS, which not only deploys AI agents to perform specific tasks, but also coordinates multiple agents, evaluates them, and automatically improves those agents based on their past interactions. It's the equivalent of AlphaGo training itself to become more efficient.
SoundHound AI is still struggling to achieve consistent profitability, and its stock is 66% off its high.
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But its revenue keeps growing, and it seems to be successfully making inroads into industries beyond its core restaurant and automotive customers. If SoundHound's OASYS AI agents can beat larger AI companies to the punch in delivering human-level customer service interactions, it could easily become a millionaire-maker stock.
SoundHound AI, Inc. (SOUN - Free Report) has been one of the most searched-for stocks on Zacks.com lately. So, you might want to look at some of the facts that could shape the stock's performance in the near term.
Over the past month, shares of this company have returned -16.8%, compared to the Zacks S&P 500 composite's +5.5% change. During this period, the Zacks Computers - IT Services industry, which SoundHound AI falls in, has gained 4.5%. The key question now is: What could be the stock's future direction?
Although media reports or rumors about a significant change in a company's business prospects usually cause its stock to trend and lead to an immediate price change, there are always certain fundamental factors that ultimately drive the buy-and-hold decision.
Revisions to Earnings EstimatesHere at Zacks, we prioritize appraising the change in the projection of a company's future earnings over anything else. That's because we believe the present value of its future stream of earnings is what determines the fair value for its stock.
We essentially look at how sell-side analysts covering the stock are revising their earnings estimates to reflect the impact of the latest business trends. And if earnings estimates go up for a company, the fair value for its stock goes up. A higher fair value than the current market price drives investors' interest in buying the stock, leading to its price moving higher. This is why empirical research shows a strong correlation between trends in earnings estimate revisions and near-term stock price movements.
SoundHound AI is expected to post a loss of $0.05 per share for the current quarter, representing a year-over-year change of -66.7%. Over the last 30 days, the Zacks Consensus Estimate has changed -31%.
For the current fiscal year, the consensus earnings estimate of -$0.18 points to a change of -38.5% from the prior year. Over the last 30 days, this estimate has changed -22.3%.
For the next fiscal year, the consensus earnings estimate of $0.17 indicates a change of +6.7% from what SoundHound AI is expected to report a year ago. Over the past month, the estimate has changed +240%.
Having a strong externally audited track record, our proprietary stock rating tool, the Zacks Rank, offers a more conclusive picture of a stock's price direction in the near term, since it effectively harnesses the power of earnings estimate revisions. Due to the size of the recent change in the consensus estimate, along with three other factors related to earnings estimates, SoundHound AI is rated Zacks Rank #4 (Sell).
The chart below shows the evolution of the company's forward 12-month consensus EPS estimate:
12 Month EPS
Projected Revenue GrowthWhile earnings growth is arguably the most superior indicator of a company's financial health, nothing happens as such if a business isn't able to grow its revenues. After all, it's nearly impossible for a company to increase its earnings for an extended period without increasing its revenues. So, it's important to know a company's potential revenue growth.
In the case of SoundHound AI, the consensus sales estimate of $52.61 million for the current quarter points to a year-over-year change of +23.3%. The $233.14 million and $270.1 million estimates for the current and next fiscal years indicate changes of +38% and +15.9%, respectively.
Last Reported Results and Surprise HistorySoundHound AI reported revenues of $44.19 million in the last reported quarter, representing a year-over-year change of +51.7%. EPS of -$0.06 for the same period compares with -$0.06 a year ago.
Compared to the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $42.71 million, the reported revenues represent a surprise of +3.48%. The EPS surprise was -20%.
Over the last four quarters, SoundHound AI surpassed consensus EPS estimates two times. The company topped consensus revenue estimates each time over this period.
ValuationWithout considering a stock's valuation, no investment decision can be efficient. In predicting a stock's future price performance, it's crucial to determine whether its current price correctly reflects the intrinsic value of the underlying business and the company's growth prospects.
While comparing the current values of a company's valuation multiples, such as price-to-earnings (P/E), price-to-sales (P/S), and price-to-cash flow (P/CF), with its own historical values helps determine whether its stock is fairly valued, overvalued, or undervalued, comparing the company relative to its peers on these parameters gives a good sense of the reasonability of the stock's price.
The Zacks Value Style Score (part of the Zacks Style Scores system), which pays close attention to both traditional and unconventional valuation metrics to grade stocks from A to F (an A is better than a B; a B is better than a C; and so on), is pretty helpful in identifying whether a stock is overvalued, rightly valued, or temporarily undervalued.
SoundHound AI is graded F on this front, indicating that it is trading at a premium to its peers. Click here to see the values of some of the valuation metrics that have driven this grade.
Bottom LineThe facts discussed here and much other information on Zacks.com might help determine whether or not it's worthwhile paying attention to the market buzz about SoundHound AI. However, its Zacks Rank #4 does suggest that it may underperform the broader market in the near term.
An easy way for a company to get bigger and add market share is to acquire other businesses. And many businesses rely on mergers & acquisitions (M&A) as a core part of their long-term growth strategy. But it isn't always easy to pull off, and it includes adding more employees and costs along the way.
SoundHound AI (SOUN +3.93%) is an example of a company that's leaned heavily on M&A. It's a small player in the voice artificial intelligence (AI) market, but it has acquired multiple companies in recent years. And in doing so, it's gotten a whole lot bigger. Its CEO believes it has things figured out when it comes to M&A. But is that really the case? After all, the stock is down more than 20% over the past year, despite the company achieving some impressive growth. Let's take a look at the numbers to see if M&A has been working well for SoundHound AI.
Image source: Getty Images.
SoundHound's CEO believes the company has a winning formula Integrating acquired businesses effectively and efficiently can be a challenge, as there needs to be synergies for the integration to pay off, and there's the uncomfortable part of eliminating redundancies and employees along the way. It can be a costly and time-consuming process. However, on SoundHound's recent earnings call, CEO Keyvan Mohajer was confident the company has things figured out when it comes to taking on struggling businesses and helping them grow.
We now have a proven track record when it comes to M&A--a repeatable formula of turning pre-merger decline to post-merger growth by taking complementary business models and technology stacks and integrating them with SoundHound AI, Inc.'s own, emerging together as a formidable force in conversational and agentic AI.
SoundHound recently announced its planned acquisition of LivePerson, a company involved in conversational AI. It has acquired multiple companies in recent years to grow its top line, including Amelia, which helped it drastically diversify and grow its customer base.
In 2023, the company's revenue totaled just under $46 million, and its business is almost at that level today, but on a quarterly basis. During the first three months of 2026, SoundHound's revenue topped $44 million. It's impressive how far SoundHound has come, as acquisitions have clearly helped.
But where the tech company has fallen short is on the bottom line. Its operating expenses this past quarter totaled more than $106 million, when excluding changes in the fair value of contingent acquisitions. That's more than twice its top line. And that's worse than a year ago, when it would have reported operating expenses of around $77 million, excluding changes in fair value. While acquisitions have helped it grow, they haven't made SoundHound a better, more financially sound business to invest in.
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Investors remain unconvinced of SoundHound's strategy, and rightfully so While there is a lot of excitement around AI these days, SoundHound's stock isn't taking off. And a big part of the reason is likely because investors aren't convinced of its strategy. While M&A can help grow revenue, it can also weigh down the bottom line with additional costs, which is what's happened with SoundHound.
This is why, despite the CEO's positive spin, SoundHound arguably hasn't shown that it has a winning strategy with respect to AI when considering all the numbers. Investors should continue to tread carefully with the stock as cash burn remains a problem, and continual stock offerings and dilution are an inevitable risk with this investment.
SoundHound AI is a speculative buy for risk-tolerant investors, given its unique position in enterprise voice AI and automation trends. SOUN's rapid revenue growth and strategic LivePerson acquisition offer significant upside, but deep operating losses, governance concerns, and heavy dilution temper conviction. The LivePerson deal could be transformative, unlocking access to 18,000 enterprise customers and potentially $100M+ in incremental revenue by FY27 if integration succeeds.
