SoundHound AI and Viking Therapeutics Stock Volatility, Vistra's Growth Potential Emerges
Written by Emily J. Thompson, Senior Investment Analyst
Updated: Jan 25 2026
0mins
Should l Buy SOUN?
Source: Fool
- SoundHound AI Volatility: SoundHound AI's stock surged in 2024 due to the rise of its AI voice platform but fell back in early 2025 amid ongoing losses, although its partnership with OpenTable may support future growth.
- Viking Therapeutics Market Opportunity: Viking Therapeutics' late entry into the weight-loss drug market allows it to learn from first-mover experiences, and its candidate VK2735 is believed to be potentially more effective than existing products, with analysts targeting a price nearly 200% above its current level.
- Vistra's Growth Potential: While Vistra primarily operates in traditional energy, its locations in Texas and California position it to meet the electricity demands of emerging AI data centers, and its nuclear facilities' expansion potential is viewed favorably by the International Atomic Energy Agency.
- Market Environment Analysis: The current market's over-reliance on large tech stocks necessitates a more cautious investment approach, encouraging the search for growth stocks that are not widely recognized to avoid potential market pullback risks.
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Analyst Views on SOUN
Wall Street analysts forecast SOUN stock price to rise over the next 12 months. According to Wall Street analysts, the average 1-year price target for SOUN is 16.60 USD with a low forecast of 11.00 USD and a high forecast of 26.00 USD. However, analyst price targets are subjective and often lag stock prices, so investors should focus on the objective reasons behind analyst rating changes, which better reflect the company's fundamentals.
7 Analyst Rating
5 Buy
2 Hold
0 Sell
Moderate Buy
Current: 7.350
Low
11.00
Averages
16.60
High
26.00
Current: 7.350
Low
11.00
Averages
16.60
High
26.00
About SOUN
SoundHound AI, Inc. is engaged in conversational intelligence, offering voice and conversational artificial intelligence (AI) solutions that let businesses offer experiences to their customers. Through its proprietary technology, its voice AI delivers speed and accuracy in numerous languages to product creators and service providers across retail, financial services, healthcare, automotive, smart devices, and restaurants via AI-driven products, such as Smart Answering, Smart Ordering, Dynamic Drive Thru, and Amelia AI Agents. Along with SoundHound Chat AI, a voice assistant with integrated Generative AI, it powers various products and services, and processes billions of interactions each year for businesses. Its developer platform, Houndify, is an open-access platform that allows developers to leverage its Voice AI technology and a library of over 100 content domains, including commonly used domains for points of interest, weather, flight status, sports and more.
About the author
Emily J. Thompson
Emily J. Thompson, a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) with 12 years in investment research, graduated with honors from the Wharton School. Specializing in industrial and technology stocks, she provides in-depth analysis for Intellectia’s earnings and market brief reports.
SoundHound AI Faces Significant Challenges
- Market Demand Recognition: SoundHound AI's voice AI platform aims to address pain points in customer service, particularly in noisy environments, with its restaurant voice ordering system achieving 32% higher accuracy than human employees, 85% faster service, and annual cost savings of $58,000 per location, showcasing its potential in the food industry.
- Competitive Pressure: Despite some success in the restaurant sector, SoundHound's technology is not unique, facing fierce competition from established AI assistants like Apple's Siri, and the lack of a competitive moat raises concerns about its long-term prospects.
- Data Acquisition Challenges: SoundHound struggles to obtain sufficient customer interaction data to train its AI, as relying on restaurant order transcripts may not meet the demands of broader customer service applications, limiting its market expansion capabilities.
- Poor Financial Health: The company is currently unprofitable with negative cash flow, having doubled its share count over the past three years and relying on capital dilution for funding, which may hinder its future technology development and market competitiveness.
See More
SoundHound AI Faces Data Challenges in Expanding Voice Chatbot
- Technological Advantages and Challenges: SoundHound AI's voice chatbot excels in restaurant order processing, claiming a 32% higher accuracy than human employees and 85% faster service, saving $58,000 per location annually; however, expanding into other industries presents significant hurdles.
- Market Demand and Potential: While its Amelia 7 AI customer service agent has found applications in insurance and finance, SoundHound needs to break free from the restaurant sector to tap into the growing demand and vast untapped market potential for AI customer service agents.
- Data Acquisition Dilemma: SoundHound faces a long-term challenge of lacking sufficient customer interaction data to train its AI, particularly for complex inquiries, as relying solely on restaurant order transcripts is inadequate for developing a cross-industry AI.
- Increased Competitive Pressure: SoundHound's technology is not unique in the AI voice assistant space, facing competition from giants like Amazon, which possesses extensive data and resources, potentially threatening SoundHound's long-term prospects by entering the chatbot market at any time.
See More
Traditional Companies Emerge in AI Wave
- Data Center Sales Surge: Texas Instruments reported a 70% increase in sales within the data center segment in 2025, indicating a rapid expansion in data center construction that boosts demand for its analog chips, thereby enhancing its competitive position in the AI market.
- Importance of Power Management: Texas Instruments' analog chips convert real-world signals into digital signals and manage power, ensuring reliable operation of data centers, which highlights their critical role in AI infrastructure.
- Hydrogen Solutions Advantage: Bloom Energy offers hydrogen power cells and electrolyzers that can deliver power to data centers faster than traditional electric utilities can build infrastructure, having already signed agreements with American Electric Power and Brookfield Asset Management to expand its sales channels in the AI sector.
- Attractiveness of Renewable Energy: Brookfield Renewable, a globally diversified clean energy company, collaborates with clients like Microsoft and Google to provide electricity, and its 5.2% dividend yield appeals to many investors, indicating potential growth in the AI industry.
See More
SoundHound AI Poised for Major Gains in 2025
- Significant Revenue Growth: SoundHound AI's revenue more than doubled in the first nine months of 2025, indicating strong performance in the rapidly growing AI market, with projections nearing break-even profitability by 2026, suggesting a maturing business model.
- Successful Technology Transformation: The company has successfully transformed into a voice AI leader with its 'speech-to-meaning' and 'deep meaning understanding' technologies, which can understand user intent even before they finish speaking, enhancing user experience and competitive positioning.
- Accelerated Industry Expansion: SoundHound expanded its partnership with burger chain Five Guys to provide AI ordering and menu inquiry services, further solidifying its market position in the automotive and restaurant sectors, showcasing the broad applicability of its technology.
- Acquisition-Driven Growth: By acquiring virtual agent provider Amelia, SoundHound has not only offered voice solutions but has also pivoted to a comprehensive agentic AI platform, addressing the needs of clients across various industries, including highly regulated sectors, thereby enhancing its competitive edge.
See More
SoundHound AI's Transformation and Revenue Growth
- Rapid Revenue Growth: SoundHound's revenue more than doubled in the first nine months of 2025, indicating significant financial progress during its transformation, which lays a solid foundation for future profitability despite poor stock performance.
- Strategic Transformation: By acquiring virtual agent provider Amelia, the company has successfully pivoted to a voice-first agentic AI platform, enhancing its competitiveness in customer service by leveraging Amelia's customer base alongside its voice technology.
- Market Expansion: SoundHound has made significant inroads in the automotive and restaurant sectors, particularly through its partnership with Five Guys, which solidifies its market position in AI ordering and customer interaction, showcasing the broad applicability of its technology.
- Future Outlook: The company is projected to approach break-even profitability by 2026, trading at a forward price-to-sales ratio of 12.5 times, indicating a reasonable valuation in the context of its hypergrowth, with potential to emerge as a winner in the AI space.
See More
Palantir Technologies Shows Strong Growth Potential
- Significant Revenue Growth: Palantir's Q3 revenue increased by 63% year-over-year, driving a 51% rise in operating income, indicating strong growth momentum in the AI sector, with expectations for this trend to continue through 2029, further solidifying its market position.
- Diverse Customer Base: With clients including the Department of Defense, CDC, and IRS, over half of Palantir's revenue comes from government customers, highlighting its unique position and strong demand in the decision intelligence industry.
- Broad Market Outlook: According to Precedence Research, the global decision intelligence platform market is projected to grow at an average annual rate of over 15% through 2035, positioning Palantir as the leader best suited to capture market share.
- Enhanced Profitability: By reusing a basic coding framework to lower client development costs, Palantir is expected to achieve higher profit margins, which will further increase as its customer base expands, attracting more investor interest.
See More
SoundHound AI Faces Significant Challenges
- Market Demand Recognition: SoundHound AI's voice AI platform aims to address pain points in customer service, particularly in noisy environments, with its restaurant voice ordering system achieving 32% higher accuracy than human employees, 85% faster service, and annual cost savings of $58,000 per location, showcasing its potential in the food industry.
- Competitive Pressure: Despite some success in the restaurant sector, SoundHound's technology is not unique, facing fierce competition from established AI assistants like Apple's Siri, and the lack of a competitive moat raises concerns about its long-term prospects.
- Data Acquisition Challenges: SoundHound struggles to obtain sufficient customer interaction data to train its AI, as relying on restaurant order transcripts may not meet the demands of broader customer service applications, limiting its market expansion capabilities.
- Poor Financial Health: The company is currently unprofitable with negative cash flow, having doubled its share count over the past three years and relying on capital dilution for funding, which may hinder its future technology development and market competitiveness.
See More
SoundHound AI Faces Data Challenges in Expanding Voice Chatbot
- Technological Advantages and Challenges: SoundHound AI's voice chatbot excels in restaurant order processing, claiming a 32% higher accuracy than human employees and 85% faster service, saving $58,000 per location annually; however, expanding into other industries presents significant hurdles.
- Market Demand and Potential: While its Amelia 7 AI customer service agent has found applications in insurance and finance, SoundHound needs to break free from the restaurant sector to tap into the growing demand and vast untapped market potential for AI customer service agents.
- Data Acquisition Dilemma: SoundHound faces a long-term challenge of lacking sufficient customer interaction data to train its AI, particularly for complex inquiries, as relying solely on restaurant order transcripts is inadequate for developing a cross-industry AI.
- Increased Competitive Pressure: SoundHound's technology is not unique in the AI voice assistant space, facing competition from giants like Amazon, which possesses extensive data and resources, potentially threatening SoundHound's long-term prospects by entering the chatbot market at any time.
See More
Traditional Companies Emerge in AI Wave
- Data Center Sales Surge: Texas Instruments reported a 70% increase in sales within the data center segment in 2025, indicating a rapid expansion in data center construction that boosts demand for its analog chips, thereby enhancing its competitive position in the AI market.
- Importance of Power Management: Texas Instruments' analog chips convert real-world signals into digital signals and manage power, ensuring reliable operation of data centers, which highlights their critical role in AI infrastructure.
- Hydrogen Solutions Advantage: Bloom Energy offers hydrogen power cells and electrolyzers that can deliver power to data centers faster than traditional electric utilities can build infrastructure, having already signed agreements with American Electric Power and Brookfield Asset Management to expand its sales channels in the AI sector.
- Attractiveness of Renewable Energy: Brookfield Renewable, a globally diversified clean energy company, collaborates with clients like Microsoft and Google to provide electricity, and its 5.2% dividend yield appeals to many investors, indicating potential growth in the AI industry.
See More
SoundHound AI Poised for Major Gains in 2025
- Significant Revenue Growth: SoundHound AI's revenue more than doubled in the first nine months of 2025, indicating strong performance in the rapidly growing AI market, with projections nearing break-even profitability by 2026, suggesting a maturing business model.
- Successful Technology Transformation: The company has successfully transformed into a voice AI leader with its 'speech-to-meaning' and 'deep meaning understanding' technologies, which can understand user intent even before they finish speaking, enhancing user experience and competitive positioning.
- Accelerated Industry Expansion: SoundHound expanded its partnership with burger chain Five Guys to provide AI ordering and menu inquiry services, further solidifying its market position in the automotive and restaurant sectors, showcasing the broad applicability of its technology.
- Acquisition-Driven Growth: By acquiring virtual agent provider Amelia, SoundHound has not only offered voice solutions but has also pivoted to a comprehensive agentic AI platform, addressing the needs of clients across various industries, including highly regulated sectors, thereby enhancing its competitive edge.
See More
SoundHound AI's Transformation and Revenue Growth
- Rapid Revenue Growth: SoundHound's revenue more than doubled in the first nine months of 2025, indicating significant financial progress during its transformation, which lays a solid foundation for future profitability despite poor stock performance.
- Strategic Transformation: By acquiring virtual agent provider Amelia, the company has successfully pivoted to a voice-first agentic AI platform, enhancing its competitiveness in customer service by leveraging Amelia's customer base alongside its voice technology.
- Market Expansion: SoundHound has made significant inroads in the automotive and restaurant sectors, particularly through its partnership with Five Guys, which solidifies its market position in AI ordering and customer interaction, showcasing the broad applicability of its technology.
- Future Outlook: The company is projected to approach break-even profitability by 2026, trading at a forward price-to-sales ratio of 12.5 times, indicating a reasonable valuation in the context of its hypergrowth, with potential to emerge as a winner in the AI space.
See More
Palantir Technologies Shows Strong Growth Potential
- Significant Revenue Growth: Palantir's Q3 revenue increased by 63% year-over-year, driving a 51% rise in operating income, indicating strong growth momentum in the AI sector, with expectations for this trend to continue through 2029, further solidifying its market position.
- Diverse Customer Base: With clients including the Department of Defense, CDC, and IRS, over half of Palantir's revenue comes from government customers, highlighting its unique position and strong demand in the decision intelligence industry.
- Broad Market Outlook: According to Precedence Research, the global decision intelligence platform market is projected to grow at an average annual rate of over 15% through 2035, positioning Palantir as the leader best suited to capture market share.
- Enhanced Profitability: By reusing a basic coding framework to lower client development costs, Palantir is expected to achieve higher profit margins, which will further increase as its customer base expands, attracting more investor interest.
See More
