Can SoundHound's Bengaluru Hub Accelerate Global Agentic AI Growth?

SoundHound AI, Inc. SOUN expanded its global footprint with the opening of a new innovation hub in Bengaluru, India, aimed at accelerating the worldwide rollout of its agentic AI platform. SOUN stock jumped 1.9% during yesterday’s trading hours, reflecting investor optimism around its strategic expansion.

The Bengaluru facility marks an expansion of SoundHound’s global development footprint and is intended to support the next phase of innovation across its agentic AI offerings. Located in one of the world’s largest technology and engineering talent pools, the hub is expected to strengthen research and development efforts while enabling faster iteration of enterprise-grade conversational and workflow-based AI solutions.

SoundHound’s agentic AI platform is designed to manage complex, multi-step interactions across voice and digital channels, including customer service, commerce and in-vehicle systems. The company serves industries such as automotive, restaurants, retail, healthcare, financial services and government, positioning the Bengaluru hub to contribute across multiple verticals.

Moreover, the expansion reinforces SoundHound’s broader strategy to scale enterprise AI globally while deepening its international presence. With operations across North America, Europe and Asia, adding Bengaluru enhances geographic diversification and supports global customer deployments as demand for intelligent automation grows.

While the near-term financial impact of the new hub is likely to be limited, the move strengthens SoundHound’s innovation pipeline and access to specialized talent. Longer-term benefits will depend on the company’s ability to translate expanded development capacity into scalable enterprise adoption and sustained revenue growth.

Competition Intensifies as Rivals Scale Their AI War Chests

In the race to dominate conversational and agentic AI, C3.ai AI and Cerence CRNC remain two of SoundHound’s most persistent competitors, and both are aggressively expanding their capabilities. C3.ai has been pushing deeper into enterprise AI automation, making it a frequent point of comparison as enterprises evaluate large-scale deployments. The expanding product suite keeps it in direct contention with SoundHound for contracts across financial services, energy and government, ensuring C3.ai stays consistent in competitive deal cycles.

Meanwhile, Cerence continues to fortify the automotive AI footprint, making it a recurring competitor in in-vehicle voice systems and OEM partnerships. As EV makers and global automakers modernize infotainment platforms, Cerence often appears alongside SoundHound in shortlists. Moreover, CRNC maintains strong legacy relationships that keep it entrenched in key accounts.

SOUN Stock’s Price Performance & Valuation Trend

Shares of this California-based voice AI company have trended downward 27.6% in the past six months, underperforming the Zacks Computers - IT Services industry, the Zacks Computer and Technology sector and the S&P 500 index.

SOUN stock is currently trading at a premium compared with the industry peers, with a forward 12-month price-to-sales (P/S) ratio of 14.92, as evidenced by the chart below.

EPS Trend of SOUN

SOUN’s earnings estimates for 2026 have remained unchanged over the past 30 days at a loss per share of 6 cents. Even though the company’s earnings estimate for 2026 indicate a loss per share, the estimated values indicate 56.9% year-over-year growth.

SoundHound currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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