Latest news with #SoundHound
Yahoo
6 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
2 Growth Stocks That Could 10x Your Money
SoundHound AI's proprietary voice technology is tapping into a rapidly growing market. Duolingo is well-positioned to capitalize on the booming online learning market. 10 stocks we like better than SoundHound AI › If you're looking for stocks with huge return potential, you can increase your chances of success by focusing on companies that operate in a rapidly expanding industry. Great investments are usually made by jumping early on fast-growing companies that have enormous expansion potential for their particular sector. Here are two promising candidates that could potentially grow their share prices 10-fold in the coming years. Share prices of SoundHound AI (NASDAQ: SOUN) have been volatile, At the time of this writing, the stock is up 342% since the end of 2023. This follows growing demand for the company's conversational voice technology powered by artificial intelligence (AI). SoundHound's revenue more than doubled year over year in the first quarter. This comes after last year's acquisition of Amelia, which expanded SoundHound's technology to customer services across multiple industries, including retail and healthcare. AI is having a major impact on how people order at restaurants and interact with in-car services -- two of SoundHound's biggest markets. As AI's capabilities grow exponentially, demand is surging for SoundHound's voice AI. Over 1,000 new restaurant locations went live with SoundHound in Q1 -- a 10-fold increase over a year ago. The main negative for the company is that it is not earning a profit. In Q1, it reported a non-GAAP (generally accepted accounting principles) loss of $22 million, which is quite large on just $29 million of quarterly revenue. SoundHound generates revenue from product royalties, service subscriptions, and ads on its music identification app. These can be profitable revenue streams, so I wouldn't be too concerned about SoundHound's profitability at this early stage of growth. Keep in mind that SoundHound is not using off-the-shelf AI. Its AI is proprietary, based on 20 years of investment using data from real user interactions. SoundHound also has a strong balance sheet, with $246 million of cash and no debt. The company's growth shows huge market potential for its technology. The AI voice generator market is growing exponentially, expected to increase from $3 billion in 2024 to over $20 billion by 2030, according to MarketsandMarkets. SoundHound's market cap is currently $3.76 billion, with its share price around $9.40. Its market cap has to increase to $37.6 billion to deliver a 10-fold return to investors. This is possible within the next 10 years, considering SoundHound's rapid growth and the long-term trends supporting more AI integration across the economy. Online language learning is another fast-growing market that is benefiting from the use of AI. Duolingo (NASDAQ: DUOL) started in 2012 and is currently the top-grossing mobile learning app in Alphabet's Google Play and the Apple App Store. The company's rapid growth has sent the stock up 241% since its initial public offering in 2021. Duolingo makes it easy and fun to learn new languages, and it's attracting a lot of people. It had 130 million monthly active users in Q1, representing a 33% year-over-year increase. A high percentage of these users are engaging with the app every day, with the company reporting 46.6 million daily actives last quarter, for an increase of 49% year over year. The company uses the standard mobile app business model. Users can download the app for free and then pay for premium content. Duolingo had over 10 million paying users last quarter. This generated $230 million of revenue last quarter, up 38% year over year, while also reporting a healthy profit of $35 million. The online language learning market is expected to grow at an annualized rate of 21% through 2030 to reach $44 billion, according to Mordor Intelligence. AI will be a catalyst for growth, given the added personalization and other enhancements AI brings to the table. Duolingo says its Max subscription service, which brings AI-powered features to the learning experience, is one of its biggest opportunities. However, Duolingo also offers courses in math and music, indicating its long-term opportunity extends well beyond language learning. Content expansion, including the recent launch of chess, is a key part of the company's growth strategy. Duolingo's market cap is currently $21.8 billion at the current $480 share price. For the company to be worth $210 billion and deliver a 10-fold return to investors in 10 years, Duolingo needs to maintain annualized revenue growth of 25% and trade at the same 28x price-to-sales multiple. This implies growth that is marginally higher than the online language learning market. Duolingo's 40%-plus current revenue growth already puts it ahead of the curve. Moreover, its content expansion strategy positions it to grow faster than the market, making it a compelling growth stock to hold for multibagger returns. Before you buy stock in SoundHound AI, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the for investors to buy now… and SoundHound AI wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $659,171!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $891,722!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor's total average return is 995% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 172% for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join . See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of June 9, 2025 Suzanne Frey, an executive at Alphabet, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. John Ballard has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet and Apple. The Motley Fool recommends Duolingo. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. 2 Growth Stocks That Could 10x Your Money was originally published by The Motley Fool
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Even $200 in These Stocks Could Mint a Fortune
With explosive U.S. commercial growth and an 83% Rule of 40 score, Palantir Technologies is positioned to grow even more in the coming years. SoundHound is well positioned to become a dominant force in the conversational AI space. 10 stocks we like better than Palantir Technologies › After a strong market rebound since April, some of the market's most attractive artificial intelligence (AI) stocks are no longer cheap. However, that doesn't mean that they have no upside potential. In fact, for long-term investors who can tolerate short-term volatility and premium valuations, there are still a few attractive picks that can help them build wealth, especially as AI adoption has accelerated across all walks of business and life. You also would not need boatloads of cash to build this fortune. Even with $200 to invest today (which is not required for paying bills or contingencies), picking a stake in Palantir Technologies (NASDAQ: PLTR) and SoundHound AI (NASDAQ: SOUN) can prove to be quite brilliant. Here's why. Data analytics giant Palantir has delivered an impressive financial performance in its recent first-quarter fiscal 2025 results (ending March 31), and the growth trajectory is likely to remain strong in the long run. The company's revenues jumped 39% year over year to $884 million. The growth rate is nearly double the 21% top-line growth rate achieved in the same quarter of the previous year, indicating that the company is on an accelerated growth trajectory. The U.S. commercial business has emerged as a significant growth catalyst, with year-over-year growth of 71%, crossing the $1 billion annual run rate threshold in the first quarter. Palantir also posted a Rule of 40 score of 83%, a two-percentage-point increase compared to the previous quarter. It is a critical metric for evaluating the performance of software-as-a-service (SaaS) and other high-growth technology companies, stating that the combination of revenue growth and profit margins should be at least 40%. With Palantir operating at approximately double the cutoff, it underscores the quality growth of this AI giant. The company also generated $370 million in free cash flow, demonstrating that it has sufficient funds to support its growth initiatives. Palantir differentiates itself from other AI players with its "Warp Speed" manufacturing operating system, built atop the Artificial Intelligence Platform (AIP), to streamline various industrial operations. Furthermore, instead of focusing on building newer and more advanced AI models, which eventually lose their competitive advantage, the company has developed a solid ontological framework that helps it relate the assets and relationships within an organization to its digital counterparts. This data advantage is leading to huge switching costs for customers, as replacing it becomes not only expensive but also disruptive for the overall business. Palantir trades at 208.3 times forward earnings, which is very expensive. However, profitable and practically debt-free AI companies with accelerating top-line growth and a huge $5.4 billion cash balance are not easy to come by. Hence, the stock is a smart buy for long-term investors who are ready to ride some volatility, even at elevated valuation levels. Amidst multiple AI stocks with unproven technologies, SoundHound AI (NASDAQ: SOUN) stands out with its voice AI platform, which is already seeing strong traction in the enterprise world. This is evident considering that the company's revenues soared a dramatic 151% year over year in the first quarter of fiscal 2025 to $29.1 million. Additionally, the company has also built a $1.2 billion backlog of cumulative subscriptions and bookings. This implies that the company has impressive revenue visibility for several more years to come. SoundHound is leveraging its multimodal and multilingual proprietary Polaris foundational model to power its conversational AI solutions. However, what makes SoundHound's technology stand out is its ability to directly process voice commands to understand the underlying meaning. On the other hand, traditional voice systems first convert the voice to text and then to a meaningful representation. This "speech-to-meaning technology" has helped dramatically reduce latency in real time, thereby making voice communications four times faster than competitors, while also improving accuracy to twice the level of competitors, even in noisy environments. The superior technology has helped the company build a sticky customer base. Although previously geared mainly toward the restaurant industry, SoundHound is now actively diversifying its customer base into healthcare, automotive, and financial services. Furthermore, no single customer accounted for more than 10% of its revenue in the first quarter. SoundHound has also been focusing on strategic acquisitions to build a comprehensive voice ecosystem. The acquisition of SYNQ3 has dramatically expanded its market reach in the restaurant industry. The Amelia acquisition has also strengthened the company's position in the massive enterprise AI market. Recently, SoundHound launched Amelia 7.0, powered by a proprietary multiprocess agentic framework called "Agentic Plus." This platform will enable businesses to deploy fleets of AI agents that can understand, reason, and autonomously complete actions. Finally, the Allset acquisition has positioned SoundHound as a key player in the voice commerce space. The company is developing technology that allows drivers to order food while driving, thereby enabling SoundHound to leverage its automotive partnerships with restaurant networks. It is indisputable that the stock looks expensive at 36.7 times sales, but that misses the bigger picture. With $245.8 million in cash and just $4.6 million in debt, SoundHound has the financial flexibility to focus on several growth initiatives. Management also expects to reach adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) profitability by the end of 2025. Considering the company's cutting-edge conversational AI technology, robust financial trajectory, and focused inorganic growth strategy, SoundHound seems an attractive buy now. Before you buy stock in Palantir Technologies, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the for investors to buy now… and Palantir Technologies wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $659,171!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $891,722!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor's total average return is 995% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 172% for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join . See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of June 9, 2025 Manali Pradhan has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Palantir Technologies. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Even $200 in These Stocks Could Mint a Fortune was originally published by The Motley Fool Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Is SoundHound Ready to Challenge Big Tech in Automotive AI?
SoundHound AI SOUN is increasingly positioning itself as a real contender in the automotive AI space, traditionally dominated by tech giants. In the first quarter of 2025, the company reported revenue of $29.1 million, up 151% year over year, driven by rapid expansion in its restaurant and automotive voice AI solutions. Its proprietary Polaris platform is central to this growth, offering faster and more accurate voice recognition across multiple languages, which is key for noisy environments like car interiors.A key highlight is SoundHound's push into voice commerce. By enabling drivers to order food, book parking, or make reservations hands-free, SoundHound is expanding its in-car offerings beyond simple commands, and automakers are noticing. Several OEMs, including Tencent's mobility unit, are testing SoundHound's conversational AI as an alternative to big tech over 13,000 restaurant locations already using its system and multiple large OEM pilots underway, SoundHound is building a large and scalable voice ecosystem. The launch of Amelia 7.0, a platform of agentic AI voice assistants, further enhances its edge by letting AI agents perform complex tasks autonomously and a slight miss on revenue expectations and ongoing margin pressure due to recent acquisitions, the company reiterated its full-year guidance of $157–$177 million and aims for profitability by year-end. SoundHound's ability to innovate, execute, and scale across industries suggests it may be more than just a niche player—it could become a serious contender in automotive AI. The road ahead is competitive, but SoundHound is showing it knows how to drive forward. In the race for automotive AI dominance, SoundHound faces stiff competition from well-funded rivals like Alphabet Inc. GOOGL and Aurora Innovation AUR. Google's Android Automotive OS powers infotainment systems in vehicles from Volvo, Ford, and others, offering built-in access to Google Assistant, a dominant player in voice AI with deep ecosystem integration. Its advantage lies in scale, cloud capabilities, and consumer familiarity, making it a formidable Innovation, while more focused on autonomous driving, is also advancing human-machine interaction within self-driving systems. Its emphasis on real-time decision-making and safety-critical voice commands aligns closely with the kind of seamless, in-vehicle voice experiences SoundHound is both GOOGL and AUR have broader resources, SoundHound's strength lies in specialization. Its end-to-end conversational AI stack, freedom from hardware dependencies, and rapid deployment across OEMs give it a differentiated edge, especially as automakers increasingly look for alternatives to big tech. SoundHound plunged 5% in the past three months, underperforming the Zacks Computers - IT Services industry's 3.3% rise. Image Source: Zacks Investment Research In terms of its forward 12-month price-to-sales (P/S) ratio, SOUN is trading at 20.29, higher than the industry's 19.26. Image Source: Zacks Investment Research Over the past 60 days, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for SOUN's 2025 loss per share has remained unchanged at 16 cents per share. Nonetheless, the estimated figure reflects an improvement from the year-ago loss of $1.04 per share. Image Source: Zacks Investment Research SOUN stock currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).You can see the complete list of today's Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here. Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Alphabet Inc. (GOOGL) : Free Stock Analysis Report Aurora Innovation, Inc. (AUR) : Free Stock Analysis Report SoundHound AI, Inc. (SOUN) : Free Stock Analysis Report This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research ( Zacks Investment Research
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Better Artificial Intelligence Stock: C3.ai vs. SoundHound AI
The artificial intelligence market remains resilient amid macroeconomic uncertainty, making AI stocks SoundHound and compelling investments. SoundHound's voice-activated AI is popular, resulting in 151% year-over-year sales growth in the first quarter. partnerships with the likes of Microsoft produced 73% of the agreements closed in its fiscal 2025. 10 stocks we like better than SoundHound AI › Artificial intelligence (AI) stocks remain attractive investments despite the current macroeconomic turmoil exasperated by President Trump's mercurial trade policies. Wall Street analyst Dan Ives explained why, stating, "In 25 years covering tech, I've never seen a bigger theme than the AI revolution." Two newcomers to this hot industry are (NYSE: AI) and SoundHound AI (NASDAQ: SOUN). The former went public in 2020, and the latter in 2022. SoundHound and businesses are already going strong, and as new public companies, they are just getting started. But if you had to choose one, which is the superior AI investment for the long haul? Examining both companies can help to identify the better choice. SoundHound has built an impressive business around AI capable of understanding human speech. Its tech is used by Stellantis and other automakers to provide drivers with voice-activated commands inside cars, as well as by restaurants, such as White Castle, to handle phone and drive-thru orders. Adoption of the company's AI-powered voice platform is growing. In the first quarter, SoundHound activated over 1,000 new restaurant locations, the first time it's achieved so many in a single quarter. As customer adoption has grown, so has revenue. Q1 sales hit a record $29.1 million, representing a 151% year-over-year increase. And the dynamic macroeconomic environment isn't denting the company's sales growth in 2025. SoundHound forecasts this year's revenue will reach between $157 million and $177 million, up from 2024's $84.7 million. This illustrates the company's confidence in its AI platform's continued popularity. SoundHound's excellent sales growth also translated into strong financials as well. It exited Q1 with no debt. Moreover, its balance sheet boasted $587.5 million in total assets, and its cash hoard of $245.8 million alone eclipsed total liabilities of $190.5 million. artificial intelligence offerings cater to a different market from SoundHound's more consumer-facing AI applications. focuses on organizational needs with turnkey AI software for fast deployment, as well as custom solutions. For example, its AI proactively identifies maintenance needs for U.S. Air Force planes. The program proved so successful that the Air Force expanded its agreement with in May. Other customers include the U.S. Navy and the Department of Defense. In fact, contracts with federal, state, and local governments comprised over a third of bookings in its 2025 fiscal year (FY), which ended April 30. The company's other big sector is the oil and gas industry, which represented nearly 20% of bookings in FY 2025. Here, a joint venture with energy giant Baker Hughes played a key role in generating sales. Because of this alliance, gained customers such as Shell and ExxonMobil. At the end of May, renewed its partnership with Baker Hughes through June of 2028. This is one of many partnerships established to capture customers. Its partner network includes tech giants Microsoft and Alphabet-owned Google Cloud. The partnerships contributed 73% of the agreements closed in fiscal 2025. This sales approach resulted in record revenue of $108.7 million, a 26% year-over-year increase, in the company's fiscal Q4. Sales growth is anticipated to continue, with Q1 revenue in FY 2026 forecast to hit at least $100 million, up from $87.2 million in the prior year. In addition, its full-year fiscal 2025 revenue of $389.1 million represented 25% year-over-year growth, and expects to up that in the next fiscal year. It estimated between $447.5 million and $484.5 million in fiscal 2026 sales. Both and SoundHound are successfully expanding their AI businesses. So how do you decide which is the better buy right now? To assess that, here's a look at the price-to-sales (P/S) ratio for both companies, a commonly used metric that measures how much investors are willing to pay for every dollar of revenue. SoundHound's P/S multiple was sky-high at the start of the year but has since dropped. Even so, it remains far higher than indicating is the better value. With its key Baker Hughes partnership renewed, is positioned for years of growth ahead. That's in spite of the current macroeconomic uncertainty, thanks to the secular trend of AI. After all, industry forecasts predict substantial growth in the AI market, from 2024's $184 billion to a remarkable $826 billion by 2030. And as Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang stated, "Countries around the world are recognizing AI as essential infrastructure -- just like electricity and the internet." This suggests government business is likely to remain a growth area as the AI ramp-up extends over the ensuing years. With this factor in its favor and a lower valuation compared to SoundHound, wins out as the better long-term investment in AI. Before you buy stock in SoundHound AI, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the for investors to buy now… and SoundHound AI wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $660,821!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $886,880!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor's total average return is 791% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 174% for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join . See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of June 9, 2025 Suzanne Frey, an executive at Alphabet, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Robert Izquierdo has positions in Alphabet, Microsoft, Nvidia, and SoundHound AI. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet, Microsoft, and Nvidia. The Motley Fool recommends and Stellantis and recommends the following options: long January 2026 $395 calls on Microsoft and short January 2026 $405 calls on Microsoft. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Better Artificial Intelligence Stock: vs. SoundHound AI was originally published by The Motley Fool Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
14-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
SoundHound's Amelia 7.0 Launch: A Turning Point for Voice AI?
SoundHound AI's SOUN rollout of Amelia 7.0, unveiled on May 8, marks a significant milestone, shifting its voice AI suite from reactive assistants to fully agentic, voice-enabled AI agents that understand, reason and act autonomously. Built on the proprietary Agentic+ framework, these agents offer a hybrid of deterministic flows and generative AI. This enables them to complete multi-step tasks, like reordering prescriptions or resetting passwords, without human Amelia 7.0 integrates Polaris ASR, delivering low latency and 99% intent recognition accuracy, alongside seamless LLM interoperability and enterprise-grade guardrails. This positions SoundHound not just as a voice AI player, but as a leader in agentic AI, a rapidly emergent category poised for exponential adoption across timing is strategic. During the first quarter of 2025, SoundHound's revenue jumped 151% year over year to $29.1 million, supported by expanded voice commerce in restaurants and automotive integrations. Though slightly below expectations, the company maintained strong guidance ($157–177 million for 2025), backed by a record pipeline and $246 million in cash with no 7.0 could be a catalyst, offering defenses against commoditization in speech-to-text markets and unlocking new revenue streams via autonomous agents in healthcare, finance, customer service, and more. Still, SoundHound must convert technological leadership into clear monetization, maintain competitive gross margins, and scale enterprise adoption amid macroeconomic 7.0 is a transformative leap. If SoundHound can translate this tech into scale, the stock could enjoy a strong re-rating. However, execution is key, especially in proving ROI and driving profitable growth across diverse verticals. As SoundHound pushes forward with Amelia 7.0, it faces mounting competition from both established tech giants and specialized AI players, who are also sculpting the voice AI Corporation MSFT, through its Azure OpenAI integrations and Nuance Communications unit, remains a formidable force. Nuance's deep roots in healthcare voice automation and conversational AI give Microsoft a strong enterprise footprint. By embedding large language models into voice-enabled workflows, Microsoft is targeting the same high-value verticals, like finance and call centers, that SoundHound seeks to Inc.'s GOOGL Google, with its Assistant and Vertex AI platforms, is another heavyweight rival. Google Assistant is already embedded in millions of devices, and Vertex AI provides developers with customizable voice agents powered by Google's advanced speech-to-text and LLM models. Its scalability and ecosystem—spanning Android, Smart Home, and Workspace—present a serious challenge to SoundHound's adoption in consumer and enterprise environments. SoundHound plunged 52.1% year to date, underperforming the Zacks Computers - IT Services industry's 6.7% decline. Image Source: Zacks Investment Research In terms of its forward 12-month price-to-sales (P/S) ratio, SOUN is trading at 20.65, higher than the industry's 19.32. Image Source: Zacks Investment Research Over the past 60 days, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for SOUN's 2025 loss per share has remained unchanged at 16 cents per share. Nonetheless, the estimated figure reflects an improvement from the year-ago loss of $1.04 per share. Image Source: Zacks Investment Research SOUN stock currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).You can see the complete list of today's Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here. Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Microsoft Corporation (MSFT) : Free Stock Analysis Report Alphabet Inc. (GOOGL) : Free Stock Analysis Report SoundHound AI, Inc. (SOUN) : Free Stock Analysis Report This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research ( Zacks Investment Research Sign in to access your portfolio
