NEW YORK, June 5, 2026, 09:04 EDT
C3.ai founder and CEO Thomas Siebel spent almost $69 million buying 6.17 million Class A shares at $11.16 a share as the company tries to restart growth after another steep revenue drop. The SEC filing comes as C3.ai announced that Shell is expanding its worldwide use of the company’s reliability software.
C3.ai is looking to bring investors back after a tough year with sales trouble, layoffs, and executive turnover. Back in February, Reuters said C3.ai cut 26% of its global workforce under then-CEO Stephen Ehikian as it tried to cut costs following weak performance and a softer-than-expected forecast.
C3.ai posted a fiscal fourth-quarter revenue drop to $51.6 million from $108.7 million last year. Net loss widened to $115.6 million, or 79 cents per share. For the full year, revenue fell to $250.3 million, down from $389.1 million in fiscal 2025.
C3 AI guided fiscal 2027 revenue to a range of $210 million to $240 million, with a projected non-GAAP operating loss of $128 million to $160 million. The company uses non-GAAP numbers to back out certain items, like restructuring charges and stock-based pay. CEO Siebel called the company’s recent sales “entirely unacceptable” and said, “We are here to fix it.” C3 AI
Siebel’s stock move isn’t just a regular open-market buy. The Form 4 showed he exercised a fully vested option for 6,166,667 shares at $11.16, sold 17,350 shares at a weighted-average price of $11.32 to cover RSU tax withholding, and recorded gifts totaling 12.36 million shares.
Shell’s new agreement with C3.ai simplifies C3.ai’s business story. Shell has used C3.ai since 2018 for predictive maintenance to spot equipment problems early. The companies’ expanded multi-year deal now covers over 13,000 machines and brings in agentic AI, adding software agents that spot issues and offer fixes.
C3.ai president Stephen Ehikian said the Shell project proved enterprise AI can run globally and deliver “hundreds of millions of dollars in economic value.” Microsoft’s Sandy Gupta said the Shell rollout on Azure showed “real applications, running in production”—a public boost for Microsoft as it looks to move beyond AI talk and into real customer deals. C3 AI
UBS lifted its price target on C3.ai to $12 from $9 and kept its Neutral call. The firm said the fiscal 2027 revenue outlook was better than what investors were expecting at the midpoint, but warned the year could be “noisy” given restructuring moves, go-to-market changes, and Siebel coming back as CEO. Investing.com
Analysts are divided. Dan Ives at Wedbush kept his Outperform and $15 price target, saying the restructuring is “largely behind it.” DA Davidson’s Lucky Schreiner stayed Underperform, holding to a $7 target and saying Siebel’s buying was meant to “convey confidence” about what’s next. Benzinga
Canaccord Genuity lifted its price target on C3.ai to $10 from $8 and kept its Hold call. The move comes as the firm pointed to lower costs and a drop in headcount to about 700 from around 1,075. Canaccord said issues with C3.ai’s sales execution look fixable, calling it a thesis at this point, not something proven yet.
C3.ai shares were indicated at $10.58 before the U.S. open, off 1.3% from the last close, putting its market cap near $1.5 billion. The stock is still trading well below where it stood during earlier AI rallies.
The competition is tough. Microsoft is already in the Shell rollout with Azure. Palantir says its software runs AI decisions for government and business clients. Palantir’s market cap stood near $364 billion, showing what investors are paying up for in enterprise AI bets.
Risks are still front and center. C3.ai said results could fall short if it runs into issues like ongoing losses, customer concentration, long sales cycles, holding on to execs, or if its reorganized sales and services teams don’t hit the right productivity. The immediate hurdle: halt the revenue decline and prove the revamped salesforce actually brings in deals.
