NEW YORK, May 4, 2026, 07:02 (EDT)
- SoundHound AI finished Friday at $9.56, up 20.1%. Trading was heavy—67.6 million shares swapped hands, far outpacing typical volume.
- That shift landed ahead of SoundHound’s May 7 earnings release—and followed Twilio boosting its 2026 revenue-growth target, citing heightened appetite for AI-powered communications.
- SoundHound’s first-quarter revenue is pegged at around $43 million by published estimates, though loss-per-share predictions differ depending on the data source.
SoundHound AI heads into the new week carrying Friday’s 20.1% jump, with traders piling in on hopes that the voice-AI specialist can show real first-quarter demand for conversational artificial intelligence.
At 7:01 a.m. Eastern, SoundHound slipped to $9.39 in premarket trading on MarketBeat, after ending Friday at $9.56. Friday’s session saw shares touch $9.60 before settling lower.
Timing’s key here. SoundHound is set to report after markets shut on Thursday, May 7, with investors zeroed in on whether fresh customer wins and acquisitions will finally translate into real profit, not just top-line growth. The earnings call kicks off at 5 p.m. ET that day.
Part of the lift came from Twilio. The cloud communications player, adjacent to the sector, posted quarterly revenue of $1.41 billion—a 20% rise—and bumped up its 2026 revenue-growth outlook to 14%-15%, compared with its previous 11.5%-12.5% range. Shares in Twilio rallied 18% in late trading after the update, according to Reuters.
Twilio CEO Khozema Shipchandler labeled it a “milestone quarter,” pointing to the company’s strongest revenue and gross-profit growth rates in over three years. That was enough to refocus attention on firms offering automation for customer calls, ordering, and service desks. Twilio Inc.
SoundHound’s numbers paint a mixed picture. Back in February, the company said 2025 revenue hit $168.9 million, a jump of 99% from the previous year. For 2026, the forecast stands at $225 million to $260 million. Cash and equivalents totaled $248 million at the end of 2025, with no debt on the books. Still, SoundHound posted a GAAP net loss of $14.0 million, and on a non-GAAP basis, losses were deeper at $53.9 million.
Estimates from analysts diverge. According to TipRanks, the first quarter loss is pegged at 10 cents per share, with revenue landing near $42.8 million. MarketBeat, though, lists consensus numbers at a 5-cent loss and $42.56 million in revenue. Both highlight the underlying story here: investors are still betting on SoundHound’s growth, even before consistent profits are in sight.
Scott Buck at H.C. Wainwright has the highest SoundHound price target on the Street—$20—per TipRanks. He flagged the company’s push to hit adjusted EBITDA break-even by late 2026. Adjusted EBITDA, for reference, removes interest, taxes, depreciation, amortization and select other costs.
Bulls just caught a new headline to chew on. SoundHound announced April 23 that Casey’s is rolling out its AI ordering agents to another 2,600 locations, after the tech handled 21 million-plus guest interactions. “Quality and convenience” during rushes—those are the goals, according to Sanjeev Satturu, Casey’s Chief Information Officer. SoundHound AI
Back in April, SoundHound struck a deal to buy LivePerson, valuing the acquisition at $43 million in equity. According to the company, snapping up LivePerson will fold digital messaging into SoundHound’s voice tech—a combination it says could unlock up to $500 million in revenue potential with the current customer base. “The boundaries between ‘talking’ and ‘typing’ are disappearing,” LivePerson CEO John Sabino said. SoundHound AI
This week, the closest public-market peer appears to be BigBear.ai, another small-cap AI player. Unlike some competitors, BigBear.ai leans into defense, national security, and clients in travel and trade. The company is scheduled to post its first-quarter numbers Tuesday, May 5. According to TipRanks, analysts project a loss of 8 cents per share alongside revenue hitting roughly $33.6 million.
But there’s a wrinkle. TipRanks shows SoundHound trading at a trailing price-to-sales multiple near 23—double BigBear.ai’s 11.63. That ratio measures market cap against revenue. Any earnings miss, softer outlook, rising cash burn, or hiccups bringing LivePerson into the fold could easily drag the shares back down, especially after such a single-session pop fueled in part by outside sentiment.
Friday’s surge sends a signal, but it’s hardly a final word. The focus shifts to Thursday’s report: investors want evidence that voice AI demand is translating into real contracts, not just chatter. SoundHound also has to prove it can cover its growth bills—and won’t keep shareholders hanging on profitability.
