News Details

REDWOOD CITY, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- C3.ai, Inc. (“C3 AI,” “C3,” or the “Company”) (NYSE: AI), the Enterprise AI software company, today announced financial results for its fiscal third quarter ended January 31, 2022.

“Our third quarter results displayed strength in all aspects of our business, including revenue growth of 42% year over year,” said CEO Thomas M. Siebel. “These results were driven by substantially increased sales momentum due to the successful refocusing of our sales organizations, expanded customer count, increased industry diversification for our AI products and the further recognition of our technology leadership in this industry. We believe C3 AI is on track to establish a global leading market position in Enterprise AI.”

Mr. Siebel added, “We remain confident in our long-term prospects based on our accelerating progress and the magnitude of the addressable enterprise AI market opportunity. Given these trends and our progress to date, we have raised our fiscal year 2022 guidance to reflect revenue growth of 38% over fiscal year 2021.”

Fiscal Third Quarter 2022 Financial Highlights

• Revenue: Total revenue for the quarter was $69.8 million, an increase of 42% compared to $49.1 million one year ago.

• Subscription Revenue: Subscription revenue for the quarter was $57.1 million, an increase of 34% compared to $42.7 million one year ago.

• Gross Profit: GAAP gross profit for the quarter was $52.4 million, a 75% gross margin, compared to $36.9 million one year ago. Non-GAAP gross profit for the quarter was $55.8 million, an 80% gross margin, compared to $37.3 million one year ago.

• Remaining Performance Obligations (“RPO”): GAAP RPO increased by 90% to $469.3 million, up from $247.5 million one year ago. Significantly, our GAAP RPO now represents 168% of Q3 annualized sales. Non-GAAP RPO increased by 81% to $536.7 million, up from $295.9 million one year ago.

• Net Loss per Share: GAAP net loss per share was $(0.38), compared to $(0.21) one year ago. Non-GAAP net loss per share was $(0.07), compared to $(0.13) one year ago.

• Raising Guidance: Based on recent results and current outlook, the Company has raised fiscal year 2022 revenue guidance to $252.0 million, a 38% increase over the prior year.

Customer Wins and Expansions

• Shell continues to expand its C3 AI application footprint with over 10,000 devices currently monitored by C3 ML models and 23 large-scale assets in production deployment including Pernis, the largest refinery in Europe, and Nigeria LNG. Shell currently processes 1.3 trillion predictions per month with the C3 AI Suite and applications. Shell again expanded the duration and scale of its contractual relationship with C3 during the quarter.

• The Department of Defense (“DoD”)awarded C3 AI a five-year, $500 million transaction agreement, accelerating the ability for any DoD agency to acquire the Company’s suite of Enterprise AI products and services.

• We achieved a new production deployment with the Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency; and secured additional business with the U.S. Space Force.

• LyondellBasell, one of the world’s largest plastic and chemical companies, signed a five-year, significantly expanded contract to accelerate the deployment of additional Enterprise AI and machine-learning applications across the company with the C3 AI Suite and C3 AI Reliability Suite.

• Royal Philips, a global leader in health technology, closed a new contract on the C3 AI Supply Chain Suite to enhance resiliency, visibility, and agility for Philips’ supply chains across the company’s North American operations.

• Cargill substantially increased and extended its C3 AI contract to expand its deployment of C3 AI Supply Chain Suite of applications.

• ENGIE, our energy-services partner, expanded the use and extended the term of its C3.ai contract to deliver a broader range of AI-enabled, end-to-end energy and sustainability (ESG) solutions to serve both the public and private sectors.

• Swift, the global provider of secure financial messaging services, expanded its relationship with C3 AI, leveraging the C3 AI Financial Services Suite.

• Baker Hughes: Our business activity with our JV alliance partner BakerHughesC3.ai continues to accelerate globally.

• Customer Count increased substantially year over year.

Other Corporate Highlights

• Sales: In the third fiscal quarter, the Company successfully refocused its sales organizations to its traditional strategic accounts engagement model, delivering immediate and positive results.

• Leadership: C3 AI appointed Lisa A. Davis to its Board of Directors. Ms. Davis is a recognized global leader in the industrial and energy industries, bringing more than 30 years of experience to the Company. She has served in various capacities and leadership positions with several of the world’s largest corporations, including Texaco and Shell, and as CEO of Siemens Gas and Power.

• Federal AI Tailwinds: The FY 2022 National Defense Authorization Act, Section 227, signed into law on December 27, 2021, requires that, “The Secretary of Defense shall ensure that, to the maximum extent practicable, commercial artificial intelligence companies are able to offer platforms, services, applications, and tools to Department of Defense components through processes and under Part 12 of the Federal Acquisitor Regulation.” We believe this represents a secular change in procurement policies for AI solutions for DoD, requiring primacy in the selection and use of commercial off the shelf software solutions from commercial vendors like C3 AI, rather than traditional custom development by custom project-specific developers that have largely proven to be unsuccessful. We believe this will help to accelerate C3 AI’s Federal business in the coming years.

• New AI Application Development Center: C3 AI opened a software development and professional service center in Guadalajara, Mexico. The Company plans to hire as many as 1,000 senior software and service engineers in Mexico over the next few years. C3 AI is making this investment to meet the growing, global demand for Enterprise AI applications and associated services, and because the talent pool in Guadalajara is among the best in the world.

• Cash Reserves: With $1.02 billion in cash, cash equivalents, and investments, C3 AI is well positioned to continue to invest in market leadership through enterprise AI innovation and brand equity and sales expansion.

• Stock Repurchase Program: In December 2021, the Company's board of directors approved a stock repurchase program for the repurchase of up to $100 million of C3 AI’s outstanding shares of class A common stock for the 18 months following the date it was approved.

Financial Outlook:

The Company’s guidance includes GAAP and non-GAAP financial measures.

The following table summarizes C3 AI’s guidance for the full-year fiscal 2022:

A reconciliation of non-GAAP guidance measures to corresponding GAAP measures is not available on a forward-looking basis without unreasonable effort due to the uncertainty regarding, and the potential variability of, expenses that may be incurred in the future. Stock-based compensation expense-related charges, including employer payroll tax-related items on employee stock transactions, are impacted by the timing of employee stock transactions, the future fair market value of our common stock, and our future hiring and retention needs, all of which are difficult to predict and subject to constant change. We have provided a reconciliation of GAAP to non-GAAP financial measures in the financial statement tables for our historical non-GAAP results included in this press release. Our fiscal year ends April 30, and numbers are rounded for presentation purposes.

Conference Call Details

Investor Presentation Details

An investor presentation providing additional information and analysis can be found at our investor relations page at ir.c3.ai.

Statement Regarding Use of Non-GAAP Financial Measures

The Company reports the following non-GAAP financial measures, which have not been prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles in the United States (GAAP), in addition to, and not as a substitute for, or superior to, financial measures calculated in accordance with GAAP.

• Non-GAAP gross profit, non-GAAP gross margin, non-GAAP loss from operations, and non-GAAP net loss per share. Our non-GAAP gross profit, non-GAAP gross margin, non-GAAP loss from operations, and non-GAAP net loss per share exclude the effect of stock-based compensation expense-related charges and employer payroll tax expense related to employee stock-based compensation. We believe the presentation of operating results that exclude these non-cash items provides useful supplemental information to investors and facilitates the analysis of our operating results and comparison of operating results across reporting periods.

• Non-GAAP RPO: Non-GAAP RPO represents our GAAP RPO plus the associated cancellable contracted backlog. We believe the presentation of our RPO inclusive of the cancellable backlog provides useful supplemental information to investors about our aggregate contractual backlog and facilitates the analysis of our operating results and comparison of operating results across reporting periods.

We use these non-GAAP financial measures internally for financial and operational decision-making purposes and as a means to evaluate period-to-period comparisons. Non-GAAP financial measures are not meant to be considered in isolation or as a substitute for comparable GAAP financial measures and should be read only in conjunction with our condensed consolidated financial statements prepared in accordance with GAAP. Our presentation of non-GAAP financial measures may not be comparable to similar measures used by other companies. We encourage investors to carefully consider our results under GAAP, as well as our supplemental non-GAAP information and the reconciliation between these presentations, to more fully understand our business. Please see the tables included at the end of this release for the reconciliation of GAAP to non-GAAP financial measures.

Other Metrics

Customer-Entity and Customer.

We define a Customer-Entity as each entity that is the ultimate parent of a party contracting with us.

We commonly enter into enterprise-wide agreements with Customer-Entities that include multiple operating units or divisions. We count as a Customer each distinct division, department, business unit, or group within a Customer-Entity that uses our product(s). In situations where our Customer (or Customer-Entity) has developed software using our C3 AI Suite or developed derivative works of our C3 AI Applications and has sold that software or service to its end customer(s), we also include such end customers in our Customer count. In addition, where our software is sold to a third-party under a reseller arrangement, we include the end customer of such arrangement in our Customer count. We only count Customers and Customer-Entities for which there is revenue in the period through a Customer-Entity contract. We exclude free trials from both our Customer-Entity and Customer counts.

During the period ending January 31, 2022, we performed an analysis of our Customer-Entity usage. We found that despite the definition our previous Customer count did not capture all the distinct divisions, departments, business units, or groups that were using our software or services. We also identified that while our previous Customer count included situations where (i) our Customer (or Customer-Entity) had developed software using our C3 AI Suite or derivative works of our C3 AI Applications and had sold that software or service to its end customer(s), and (ii) our software or services were sold to a third-party under a reseller arrangement, our previously stated definition did not explicitly include those scenarios.

For clarity, we have provided our customer count historically using both the prior and current methodology. We intend to only present the revised calculation of Customer on a go-forward basis, as we believe it is a more accurate representation. Please see the tables included at the end of this release for these calculations in Other Metrics.

Use of Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All statements contained in this press release other than statements of historical facts, including our market leadership position, anticipated benefits from our partnerships and investments, financial outlook, our business strategies, plans, and objectives for future operations, are forward-looking statements. The words “anticipate,” “believe,” “continue,” “estimate,” “expect,” “intend,” “may,” “will” and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. We have based these forward-looking statements largely on our current expectations and projections about future events and trends that we believe may affect our financial condition, results of operations, business strategy, short-term and long-term business operations and objectives, and financial needs. These forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties. Some of these risks are described in greater detail in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including our Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q for the fiscal quarters ended July 31, 2021 and October 31, 2021 and, when available, January 31, 2022, although new and unanticipated risks may arise. The future events and trends discussed in this press release may not occur and actual results could differ materially and adversely from those anticipated or implied in the forward-looking statements. Although we believe that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking statements are reasonable, we cannot guarantee future results, levels of activity, performance, achievements, or events and circumstances reflected in the forward-looking statements will occur. Except to the extent required by law, we do not undertake to update any of these forward-looking statements after the date of this press release to conform these statements to actual results or revised expectations.

About C3.ai, Inc.

C3.ai, Inc. (NYSE:AI) is the Enterprise AI application software company. C3 AI delivers a family of fully integrated products including the C3 AI Suite, an end-to-end platform for developing, deploying, and operating enterprise AI applications and C3 AI Applications, a portfolio of industry-specific SaaS enterprise AI applications that enable the digital transformation of organizations globally.

Reconciliation of remaining performance obligations (“RPO”) to Non-GAAP RPO:

The following table presents a reconciliation of RPO to Non-GAAP RPO:

C3.AI, INC.
OTHER METRICS
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Customer-Entity and Customer.

Our Customer-Entity count is as follows:

Based on the revised approach, our best estimate of our Customer count is as follows:

Based on the prior calculation, our prior Customer count is as follows: