Why C3.ai Stock Is Skyrocketing Today

Shares of C3.ai (NYSE: AI) are flying higher on Thursday. The company's stock had jumped 26.8% as of 11:57 a.m. ET and had been up as much as 31.4% earlier in the day. The move comes as the S&P 500 gained 0.2% and the Nasdaq Composite jumped 0.6%.

The enterprise AI company reported earnings after the market closed yesterday, and announced the expansion of a key partnership this morning. This fueled investor optimism.

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C3.ai beats Wall Street's targets

C3.ai released strong Q4 2025 earnings on Wednesday. The company posted a loss of $0.16 per share on $108.7 million in sales, beating an expected loss of $0.20 per share on $107.8 million in sales. Full-year 2025 revenue was $389.1 million, up 25% from 2024.

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The company greatly increased its customer count, closing 193 agreements, up 68% from 2024. CEO Thomas Siebel said in a company press release: "This was a momentum-building year for C3.ai, achieving 25% revenue growth year-over-year. We delivered breakthrough innovations in agentic AI and dramatically expanded our strategic alliances, including with Microsoft, AWS, Google Cloud" and others.

An expanded Air Force partnership

The company announced that the ceiling for its contract with the U.S. Air Force's Rapid Sustainment Office (RSO) was raised significantly. Originally $100 million, the RSO has raised the maximum to $450 million in order to "support the scaling of C3 AI's predictive analytics and aircraft maintenance platform across the service's fleet and systems." This was good news for investors.

I think C3.ai is a good pick for investors with a higher risk tolerance. The company is a leader in the space, and although it has yet to turn a profit, I believe it's a matter of time before the company is operating in the black. Yesterday's earnings report and today's Air Force announcement helped build confidence in the company.

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John Mackey, former CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool’s board of directors. Suzanne Frey, an executive at Alphabet, is a member of The Motley Fool’s board of directors. Johnny Rice has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet, Amazon, and Microsoft. The Motley Fool recommends C3.ai and recommends the following options: long January 2026 $395 calls on Microsoft and short January 2026 $405 calls on Microsoft. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.