Quarterly performance exceeded expectations, strategic cooperation reached with Microsoft, C3.ai surged 16% in after-hours trading | Earnings report insights

AI software company C3.ai's quarterly performance exceeded market expectations, while also announcing a strategic partnership with Microsoft. The company's stock price surged over 16% in after-hours trading, currently retreating to 5%.

On Monday after the market closed, C3.ai released its latest quarterly results. The data showed that for the quarter ending in October, the company achieved revenue of $94.3 million, a year-on-year increase of 29%, surpassing the market expectation of $91 million, marking the seventh consecutive quarter of revenue growth acceleration. The company's quarterly EPS loss was 6 cents, better than the market expectation of a loss of 16 cents.

For the current quarter's revenue guidance, C3.ai expects revenue to be between $95.5 million and $100.5 million, roughly in line with the analysts' average expectation of $97.6 million.

As a company focused on enterprise-level AI applications, C3.ai offers over 40 AI applications, serving various sectors including manufacturing, financial services, government, utilities, oil and gas, chemicals, and defense.

C3.ai also announced a global strategic alliance with Microsoft. According to the agreement, C3.ai's software solutions will be sold through the entire Microsoft Azure sales team, and Microsoft sales personnel will earn commissions from this. Additionally, Microsoft will provide subsidies for C3.ai pilot projects during the agreement period. The agreement will last until March 2030.

C3.ai CEO Thomas Siebel stated:

By establishing C3 AI as the preferred AI application provider on Azure and creating a Microsoft sales channel, we are paving the way for enterprises to easily adopt and deploy C3 AI applications. This is a turning point for enterprise AI that will drive growth.

The market reacted positively, with C3.ai's stock price rising 16% in after-hours trading due to the earnings report and the news of the partnership with Microsoft, currently retreating to 5%. Year-to-date, C3.ai's stock price has risen approximately 45%, significantly outperforming the Nasdaq Composite Index's 32% increase.

Analysts believe that C3.ai will benefit from growing investor confidence in the AI software industry. As an industry leader, Palantir also reported better-than-expected earnings last month, further boosting market sentiment