Why C3.ai Stock Was Climbing Today

Shares of C3.ai (NYSE: AI), the enterprise artificial intelligence (AI) company, were moving higher today, even though there was no company-specific news. Instead, the company seemed to be benefiting from a strong earnings report from AI software peer Palantir (NYSE: PLTR), which posted yet another quarter of accelerating revenue growth, showing a market for AI-related software.

As of 12:52 p.m. ET, Palantir stock was up 22.7%, while C3.ai was up 6.2%.

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Is Palantir's success a good sign for C3.ai?

Palantir and C3.ai aren't exactly direct competitors, but the two companies have a number of things in common, as both of them sell software based on AI. Palantir does this through its AI Platform, while C3.ai has more than 40 turnkey Enterprise AI applications.

Both companies count the government as a major customer. Palantir got its start helping U.S. intelligence agencies "connect the dots" in their data. In the company's third quarter, revenue from the federal government still made up 45% of its total revenue.

C3.ai also counts governments as a major customer segment and said its federal business represented more than 30% of bookings in its fiscal first quarter -- its most recent quarter -- including bookings from various branches of the military and the U.S. intelligence community.

One key difference between Palantir and C3.ai

For investors, the biggest difference between Palantir and C3.ai is that Palantir is now solidly profitable, with a generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) operating margin of 16% in the third quarter, while C3.ai is still rapidly losing money.

Palantir's success with AI software is a positive sign for the industry overall, but there's still a big gap between it and C3.ai. Don't assume that C3.ai will be the next AI stock to break out as it still has a long way to go to turn profitable.