The Motley Fool·2025-12-06 00:30Core Viewpoint - SoundHound AI is positioned to outperform BigBear.ai in 2026 despite its stock underperformance in 2025, due to strong operational performance and revenue growth [2][12][13] Summary by Sections SoundHound AI - SoundHound AI's stock decreased by 37% in 2025, while its revenue more than doubled in the first nine months of the year, with a year-over-year growth of 68% in Q3 [2] - The company improved its gross margin from 39% in Q2 to 42.6% in Q3, with adjusted gross margin rising from 58.4% to 59.2% [3] - SoundHound is focusing on agentic AI, leveraging its acquisition of Amelia to create voice-powered AI agents, which is expected to drive growth in 2026 [5][6] - The company is nearing EBITDA profitability and has a market cap of $5 billion, with a current stock price of $12.76 [4][5] BigBear.ai - BigBear.ai's stock increased by 53% in 2025, but it has seen a revenue decline, with a 20% drop in sales last quarter [2][11] - The company is pursuing growth through its pending acquisition of Ask Sage, which offers a rapidly growing AI platform for secure AI model deployment [10] - BigBear.ai's gross margin is low at 22.4%, down from 25.9% a year ago, primarily due to the need for on-site engineers for government projects [3][8] - The company has a market cap of $3 billion, with a current stock price of $6.82, and trades at about 15 times 2026 analyst estimates on a forward price-to-sales ratio [9][11] Comparative Analysis - SoundHound has shown better operational performance and revenue growth compared to BigBear.ai, which is struggling with declining revenue [2][12] - Despite BigBear.ai's stock performing better in 2025, SoundHound is considered to have a larger growth opportunity in the agentic AI space due to its voice-first approach [12][13]