SoundHound trading explodes as retail favorite rises
It was the second-most-active stock on Thursday.
Activity in SoundHound AI, a small-cap voice AI company that’s become of a favorite for some retail traders this year, is flaring up again, as it rose to become the second-most-traded asset in the markets Thursday, behind market-cap behemoth Nvidia. (Though, given the size of Nvidia, the value of its trading dwarfed SoundHound.)
It’s hard to say exactly what lit a fire under SoundHound traders. The company did announce another deal to provide voice-interaction AI software to regional restaurant chain Torchy’s Tacos and its 130 locations, but that hardly seems enough to justify a surge in market value of more than $1 billion on Thursday alone.
After all, the company continues to lose money, as we saw in its most recent earnings results. Its sales are growing, but the stock is trading at more than 70x sales over the last year, which is a remarkably high level. That either means the market is predicting explosive sales growth over the coming years, or traders are just way too excited about the stock. Time will tell.
But as we’ve said, there’s a lot of excitement-slash-euphoria at play in the markets broadly at the moment, with bullish sentiment clearly running rampant.
Sherwood reached out to SoundHound AI to see if they had anything to add regarding the upsurge. They sent over a prepared statement from Chief Executive Keyvan Mohajer:
“This year has been pivotal for SoundHound AI, with a number of incredible new partners and customers added to our expanding roster. Conversational and agentic AI are emerging as a massive opportunity from the generative AI disruption, and we are excited to be entering 2025 with strength and momentum.”
The stock is up again on Friday, pushing its market value above $5 billion for the first time. The shares are up more than 50% this week.
Oh, and if you’re interested in a deeper discussion of the company, check out our Q&A with SoundHound’s CEO.
