Why SoundHound AI Stock Soared on Thursday

Source The Motley Fool

Shares of SoundHound AI (NASDAQ: SOUN) started Thursday's trading with a modest gain and kept climbing nearly all day long. When the closing bell rang, the stock had jumped 22.1% higher.

Meme stock frenzy

The company had no news to report today. It's earnings season, but SoundHound AI will publish its third-quarter results next Tuesday. The company didn't file any documents with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) today, nor did it send out any press releases.

It was a generally strong market day for several reasons, but SoundHound AI's stock shouldn't outperform the rest of the market for that reason.

But there are other forces at work. The provider of artificial intelligence (AI) tools for audio interpretation and voice controls is acting like a meme stock today.

The ticker was trending on the popular r/wallstreetbets stock-trading channel on Reddit (NYSE: RDDT) today as several influencers suggested heavy buying ahead of the upcoming-earnings report. Many posts also highlighted SoundHound AI's substantial short-sales interest at 24% of the total share count, setting it up for a sudden short-squeeze jump.

This is a relatively small stock with a market cap of $2.5 billion today and $2 billion at Wednesday's market close. A dedicated group of social media users have the power to move the price of stocks with this profile -- small, lightly traded, and with large short-selling interests.

About 69 million SoundHound AI shares changed hands today, more than triple the average trading volume over the last month.

SoundHound AI's fundamentals are the real deal -- but you shouldn't buy it today

I like SoundHound AI for its long-term business prospects, not for its potential to deliver quick profits with the help of social media campaigns.

After building an unparalleled audio-interpretation platform for decades, the company has entered a new era of big-time business plans. The client list is long and growing, with many leading carmakers, restaurants, and consumer-electronics giants. The backlog of unfilled orders and subscription-style contracts stood at $723 million in the latest-earnings report and will probably be significantly larger in next week's report.

So yeah, I agree with the meme stock crowd that SoundHound AI is a good investment, but I wouldn't buy it today. These skyrocketing price spikes usually fade out in a matter of days, often reversing into negative territory. And they do absolutely nothing to help the company run its business or find more customers.

In other words, I would put SoundHound AI on the back burner while this online media frenzy lasts. The upcoming Q3 report will have my undivided attention, and I'm particularly interested in how the order backlog is growing. This is not the right time to buy SoundHound AI stock.

Should you invest $1,000 in SoundHound AI right now?

Before you buy stock in SoundHound AI, consider this:

The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and SoundHound AI wasn’t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years.

Consider when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $892,313!*

Stock Advisor provides investors with an easy-to-follow blueprint for success, including guidance on building a portfolio, regular updates from analysts, and two new stock picks each month. The Stock Advisor service has more than quadrupled the return of S&P 500 since 2002*.

See the 10 stocks »

*Stock Advisor returns as of November 4, 2024

Anders Bylund has positions in SoundHound AI. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Disclaimer: For information purposes only. Past performance is not indicative of future results.
placeholder
Dollar presses 102 as the 10-year yield sits at 5.14% — and October hike odds are only 17%The dollar index closed at 101.99 (+0.20%) on Monday after briefly topping 102.07, while the 10-year Treasury yield rose to 5.14% and the 2-year hit 4.774% — yet futures price only about a 17% chance of a hike at the October 27-28 FOMC, versus roughly 90% for December. The driver is a global bond selloff, not a Fed repricing: France's 10-year OAT jumped to 4.84% ~ 4.94% and the OAT-Bund spread widened to 140 ~ 146bp. Here are the levels, the cross-asset read-through and what to watch.
Author  Irene Q.
Oct 20, Tue
The dollar index closed at 101.99 (+0.20%) on Monday after briefly topping 102.07, while the 10-year Treasury yield rose to 5.14% and the 2-year hit 4.774% — yet futures price only about a 17% chance of a hike at the October 27-28 FOMC, versus roughly 90% for December. The driver is a global bond selloff, not a Fed repricing: France's 10-year OAT jumped to 4.84% ~ 4.94% and the OAT-Bund spread widened to 140 ~ 146bp. Here are the levels, the cross-asset read-through and what to watch.
placeholder
Meta's AI bill just hit $145 billion — and it issued a new share class to pay for itMeta reported record third-quarter revenue of $64.60 billion, up 26% from a year earlier, and raised full-year 2026 capital expenditure guidance to $135-145 billion from $130-145 billion. To fund that build-out without touching Mark Zuckerberg's voting control, the company announced a 2-for-1 stock split that hands every Class A holder a new non-voting Class C share. Here are the four lines that matter, the peer group that is being re-rated alongside it, and the bull and bear cases.
Author  Irene Q.
Oct 22, Thu
Meta reported record third-quarter revenue of $64.60 billion, up 26% from a year earlier, and raised full-year 2026 capital expenditure guidance to $135-145 billion from $130-145 billion. To fund that build-out without touching Mark Zuckerberg's voting control, the company announced a 2-for-1 stock split that hands every Class A holder a new non-voting Class C share. Here are the four lines that matter, the peer group that is being re-rated alongside it, and the bull and bear cases.
placeholder
The Fed will sit still on October 28 — but 100 of 100 economists now expect a December hikeA Reuters poll run October 16-20 found 94 of 100 economists expecting the Fed to hold at 3.75-4.00% on October 28 — and all 100 expecting a hike in December, against less than half a month earlier. The market is close to the same price, with CME FedWatch at roughly 17% for October and 82.8% for December. With the Fed in blackout since October 17, here are the five dates that decide the rest of the year, what each one is priced for, and the two directions each can take.
Author  Irene Q.
Oct 22, Thu
A Reuters poll run October 16-20 found 94 of 100 economists expecting the Fed to hold at 3.75-4.00% on October 28 — and all 100 expecting a hike in December, against less than half a month earlier. The market is close to the same price, with CME FedWatch at roughly 17% for October and 82.8% for December. With the Fed in blackout since October 17, here are the five dates that decide the rest of the year, what each one is priced for, and the two directions each can take.
placeholder
Gold Price Analysis Today | Forex Gold Analysis | XAU/USD Analysis - October 23, 2026Get the latest gold price analysis, forex gold insights, and XAU/USD analysis for October 23, 2026. Read on for the details.
Author  Mitrade
Yesterday 02: 56
Get the latest gold price analysis, forex gold insights, and XAU/USD analysis for October 23, 2026. Read on for the details.
placeholder
Nasdaq closes at 26,008.86 — 8.9 points above 26,000, and the credit market never blinkedThe Nasdaq Composite fell 2.60% to 26,008.86 on October 22, its worst session since June, as Meta sank 6.98% on 2026 capex guidance of $135–145 billion. But the equal-weight S&P 500 rose 0.73%, high-yield credit was flat and 10-year yields fell 20 basis points. This was an AI de-rating, not a risk-off event — here is the transmission chain, the 29,000 / 28,200 levels and what would prove it wrong.
Author  Irene Q.
Yesterday 06: 39
The Nasdaq Composite fell 2.60% to 26,008.86 on October 22, its worst session since June, as Meta sank 6.98% on 2026 capex guidance of $135–145 billion. But the equal-weight S&P 500 rose 0.73%, high-yield credit was flat and 10-year yields fell 20 basis points. This was an AI de-rating, not a risk-off event — here is the transmission chain, the 29,000 / 28,200 levels and what would prove it wrong.
goTop
quote