Most people bailed on SoundHound AI the second the AI hype cycle cooled off. And honestly? That was fair. It came out of a SPAC (strike one), pumped with the 2023 AI rally (strike two), and now it’s down 51% year-to-date (that’s strike three in Wall Street’s playbook… even if you’re still standing at the plate). And let’s be real… the market’s attention span lately makes goldfish look focused. Once the AI glow faded, SoundHound got dumped like a rock.

But while the chart screams “avoid,” to all you technical analysis nerds… the actual business is doing the one thing most of its competitors can’t: growing. That might be why Kevin Buck at H.C. Wainwright just initiated coverage with a $7.50 price target, calling for 80%+ upside. And yes, it does sound like cope… but there’s more substance behind the call than you’d expect.

Unlike 90% of the AI market chasing consumer toys that’ll get replaced by an iOS update, SoundHound builds voice AI for businesses that need it… restaurants and car manufacturers.

Let’s start with restaurants. Their tech is already running in 13,000+ locations, taking voice-based orders without a human involved. That’s not a beta test. That’s real-world revenue. And in an industry that’s been short-staffed since the dawn of the combo meal, that’s a win (fewer “I didn’t hear you, can you repeat that?” moments too).

Now let’s talk cars. The software helps drivers handle everything from navigation to food orders… all hands-free. Automakers are desperate to modernize the in-dash experience, but they also don’t want to hand the entire cockpit over to Apple or Google (because surprise… Big Tech loves data like Wall Street loves buybacks).

SoundHound’s white-label solution means car brands can keep control of the experience and their data… while still offering drivers a slick, voice-enabled setup. That pitch carries weight, especially when car companies are looking for ways to differentiate… without becoming another Android dashboard with wheels.

Powering all of this is Polaris, SoundHound’s proprietary voice AI engine. It’s built for the real world… like, actually. It works in loud, chaotic environments (think drive-thru traffic + crying baby + someone in the back yelling for fries). Most assistants fall apart in that setting. That’s where Polaris thrives.

And then of course, layered on top is Amelia 7.0, the newer release that adds natural language understanding and context-awareness. It knows the difference between “take me home” and “find a burger near home”... which might sound basic, but trust me, most systems fail that test miserably. So yeah… they’re not reinventing the universe. But they are shipping useful, battle-tested tech that’s already deployed and scaling. (Again, shocking.)

The numbers are surprising too… In Q1 2025, SoundHound reported $11.6 million in revenue, up 151% YoY. That means they’re actually landing deals and expanding footprint. While they did slightly miss expectations… they didn’t revise guidance. Instead, they reaffirmed full-year revenue targets of $157M to $177M. Which usually means one thing: the pipeline is real, and they’re not worried about the short-term noise. (Which is more than you can say for half the companies faking AI demos on LinkedIn.)

Gross margins came in at 73%... impressive for a firm this size. They’ve also got $94 million in cash, so they’re not in emergency fundraising mode. And no customer made up more than 10% of revenue, which tells me they’re not just propped up by one sugar daddy client (looking at you, Palantir). They’re also making the shift toward recurring revenue… meaning more predictable cash flow and fewer lumpy licensing deals. Wall Street eats that up like a 2-for-1 share repurchase.

Don’t get me wrong… this is still a small-cap, unprofitable, SPAC-baggage-carrying AI company trying to scale in two of the slowest-moving sectors on Earth: automotive and QSR (Quick Service Restaurant). So it’s gonna be volatile. It’s gonna get ignored. And it might still blow up if execution slips. But they’re actually executing. They’re not pitching AI dreams. They’re delivering actual product, growing revenue, and stealing just enough oxygen from Big Tech to stay alive. Yet the stock trades like they’re about to pivot to NFTs and pray.

So yeah, my whole point is that SoundHound’s quietly building stuff that works… and that’s more than you can say for 90% of the AI sector right now. If they keep executing and hit full-year guidance, this stock could go from “SPAC trash” to “hey wait, this thing’s alive?” real fast.

At the time of publishing this article, Stocks.News holds positions in Apple and Google as mentioned in the article.