Key Points
SoundHound AI stock rose 17% without any company-specific news.
Twilio's earnings report highlighted surging demand for voice AI services.
SoundHound AI reports its own Q1 2026 results next Thursday.
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Shares of SoundHound AI (NASDAQ: SOUN) were up 17% at 2 p.m. ET, revisiting prices last seen in late January. Investors are preparing for the company's earnings report next Thursday, and Twilio (NYSE: TWLO) is drawing investor attention to the voice-powered AI space today.
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A rising tide in voice AI
SoundHound AI has been sharing plenty of news recently, like the $43 million LivePerson buyout and the rollout of voice AI ordering tools across 90% of Casey's General Stores (NASDAQ: CASY) locations. But those announcements were last week's news, and the company didn't have much to say today. The Q1 2026 earnings report is coming up next Thursday, but market positioning trades rarely drive double-digit stock moves a week in advance.
I would pin SoundHound AI's big jump on the Twilio report. The cloud-based communications development expert reported its own earnings last night, and there was much rejoicing. Twilio crushed Wall Street's earnings and revenue targets, set bullish guidance targets for fiscal year 2026, and the stock is up by 22% as a result.
And voice-powered AI systems played a major part in Twilio's success story. Voice revenues rose 20% year over year, accelerating consistently over the last six reports.
"We expect voice AI use cases will continue to evolve to be more conversational and cross-channel over time," said CEO Khozema Shipchandler.
SoundHound AI's voice controls don't compete directly with Twilio's communications services, but the two companies overlap in some ways. Both promote conversational AI tools in large letters. Strong demand for Twilio's voice services suggests a huge and healthy market for other voice AI solutions, including SoundHound AI's platforms.
And that's why SoundHound AI is following Twilio up today.
The bull case for SoundHound AI
Many investors dismiss SoundHound AI at first glance because the company is unprofitable and its stock trades at a lofty 23 times trailing sales. By comparison, market darling Twilio trades at 5.2 times sales.
But it has a massive backlog of long-term contracts that are now generating actual revenue, and top-line sales doubled in fiscal year 2025.
So it makes sense to me when SoundHound AI investors get excited about success stories in neighboring parts of the voice AI sector. Next week's report should reveal another round of fresh contracts, another surge of revenue growth, and another step toward profitable operations in the long run.
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Anders Bylund has positions in SoundHound AI and Twilio. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends SoundHound AI and Twilio. The Motley Fool recommends Casey's General Stores. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
