If you’ve been watching the tickers lately, you know the vibe around SoundHound AI (SOUN) has been, well, chaotic. One minute it’s the darling of the Nvidia era, and the next, it’s being dragged for its "acquisition-heavy" growth strategy. But let's get into the weeds of the sound hound stock price today because, honestly, the numbers on your screen right now tell a story that goes way beyond a simple green or red percentage.
As of Friday’s close on January 16, 2026, SoundHound AI shares are sitting at $11.10.
That’s a 1.65% bump for the day. It’s not a moonshot, but in a week where the broader tech sector felt a little shaky, SoundHound held its ground. The stock opened at $10.99 and hit a high of $11.48 during the session. People are paying attention again. Trading volume topped 24 million shares, which is pretty wild for a company with a market cap of around $4.66 billion. It suggests that while the "hype" of 2024 has cooled, the "utility" phase of 2026 is starting to kick in.
Is the SoundHound AI rally for real this time?
You can’t talk about SoundHound without mentioning the ghost of Nvidia. Remember back in 2024 when that 13-F filing showed Nvidia owned 1.7 million shares? The stock exploded. Then Nvidia sold, and the floor fell out. Fast forward to now, and we’re seeing a much different animal.
SoundHound isn't just a "song recognition" app anymore. They’ve pivoted hard into "Agentic AI"—basically AI that doesn’t just chat with you but actually does stuff. Think about ordering a burger at a White Castle drive-thru or asking your Jeep to find a parking spot via their new Parkopedia partnership. This isn't theoretical; it’s deployed.
The Financials: A Mixed Bag of "Whoa" and "Wait"
The growth is undeniably massive. In their most recent Q3 report (ending late 2025), revenue jumped 68% to $42.1 million. That sounds incredible until you see the operating loss: **$115.9 million**. Yeah, they’re still burning cash like it’s going out of style.
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But there’s a nuance here that most casual traders miss. A huge chunk of those losses stems from their "acquisition binge." They bought Amelia (the enterprise AI firm) and Allset. CFO Nitesh Sharan has been pretty vocal about the fact that they’re expecting roughly $20 million in annual cost synergies to start hitting the books right about now—in early 2026.
If you look at the non-GAAP numbers, which strip out the one-time acquisition costs, the loss narrows significantly to about $13 million. Management is still promising they’ll hit Adjusted EBITDA profitability by the end of 2026. Whether you believe them or not usually determines whether you’re buying at $11 or waiting for $8.
What Wall Street thinks about SOUN right now
The analyst community is all over the map, which is usually a sign of a high-volatility "battleground" stock. You’ve got the bulls at H.C. Wainwright reiterating a massive $26.00 price target after seeing their demos at CES 2026 last week. They see a 120% upside.
On the other side, you have more conservative folks like Piper Sandler setting targets closer to $11.00, basically saying the stock is "fairly valued" right where it is.
- Strong Buy/Buy: 83% of analysts (mostly focused on the $1.2 billion backlog).
- Hold: 17% (concerned about the 14% shareholder dilution over the last year).
- Sell: 0% (interestingly, no one is officially telling people to dump it yet).
The sound hound stock price today reflects this tug-of-war. The stock is down about 38% over the last 12 months, yet it's still up over 900% if you zoom out three years. It’s a classic high-risk, high-reward tech play.
The CES 2026 Factor
The recent 9% jump we saw earlier this month wasn't an accident. At CES 2026 in Las Vegas, SoundHound showed off its "Vision AI." This is a big deal. Instead of just talking to an AI, you can show it something—like a car engine or a complex medical form—and it "reasons" through what it’s seeing.
They also deepened their tie-ins with European auto brands. If you're driving a Stellantis vehicle (Jeep, Peugeot, etc.) in Europe, there’s a high chance SoundHound is the brain behind your voice commands. This "sticky" revenue is what creates that $1.2 billion backlog.
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However, a backlog isn't cash in the bank. It's a promise of future revenue. The big test for the stock in 2026 will be how fast they can turn those contracts into actual checks.
Key Risks to Watch
It’s not all sunshine and voice-activated burgers. There are three things that could send this stock back into the single digits fast:
- Customer Concentration: One single customer still accounts for a large chunk of their revenue (though this dropped from 72% down to about 12% recently—a massive improvement, but still a risk).
- Profitability Timeline: If the Q1 or Q2 2026 earnings reports show that the "path to profitability" is getting longer, investors will lose patience.
- The "Ambarella" Threat: Competitors like Ambarella are pivoting toward "Edge AI" chips and software, trying to eat SoundHound’s lunch in the automotive sector.
Honestly, SoundHound feels like a company that is finally growing into its valuation. It was a meme stock in 2024. Now, in 2026, it’s a legitimate enterprise software player with real-world deployments in seven of the top ten global financial institutions.
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If you’re holding, you’re betting that the voice-first revolution is actually happening. If you’re sitting on the sidelines, you’re likely waiting to see if they can actually stop the bleeding and report a profit.
Actionable Next Steps
To keep a pulse on your investment, keep a close eye on the next earnings date, which is tentatively scheduled for February 26, 2026. This will be the first look at how those "acquisition synergies" are actually affecting the bottom line.
You should also set a price alert for the $15.00 level. Breaking that resistance would signal that the market is finally pricing in the long-term backlog as a reality rather than a "maybe." Conversely, if the stock dips below the 52-week low of $6.52, the "path to profitability" thesis might be broken. Monitor the company's "Agentic AI" expansion into new verticals like healthcare and retail, as these will be the primary drivers for the next leg of growth.