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Risk Overview Q1, 2026
Risk Distribution
30% Finance & Corporate
24% Tech & Innovation
17% Legal & Regulatory
17% Ability to Sell
6% Macro & Political
5% Production
Finance & Corporate - Financial and accounting risks. Risks related to the execution of corporate activity and strategy
This chart displays the stock's most recent risk distribution according to category. TipRanks has identified 6 major categories: Finance & corporate, legal & regulatory, macro & political, production, tech & innovation, and ability to sell.
Risk Change Over Time
S&P500 Average
Sector Average
Risks removed
Risks added
Risks changed
C3ai Risk Factors
New Risk (0)
Risk Changed (0)
Risk Removed (0)
No changes from previous report
The chart shows the number of risks a company has disclosed. You can compare this to the sector average or S&P 500 average.
The quarters shown in the chart are according to the calendar year (January to December). Businesses set their own financial calendar, known as a fiscal year. For example, Walmart ends their financial year at the end of January to accommodate the holiday season.
The quarters shown in the chart are according to the calendar year (January to December). Businesses set their own financial calendar, known as a fiscal year. For example, Walmart ends their financial year at the end of January to accommodate the holiday season.
Risk Highlights Q1, 2026
Main Risk Category
Finance & Corporate
With 19 Risks
Finance & Corporate
With 19 Risks
Number of Disclosed Risks
63
+2
From last reportS&P 500 Average: 31
63
+2
From last reportS&P 500 Average: 31
Recent Changes
5Risks added
3Risks removed
6Risks changed
Since Apr 2026
5Risks added
3Risks removed
6Risks changed
Since Apr 2026
Number of Risk Changed
6
+2
From last reportS&P 500 Average: 1
6
+2
From last reportS&P 500 Average: 1
See the risk highlights of C3ai in the last period.
Risk Word Cloud
The most common phrases about risk factors from the most recent report. Larger texts indicate more widely used phrases.
Risk Factors Full Breakdown - Total Risks 63
Finance & Corporate
Total Risks: 19/63 (30%)Below Sector Average
Share Price & Shareholder Rights7 | 11.1%
Share Price & Shareholder Rights - Risk 1
The trading price of our Class A common stock may be volatile, and you could lose all or part of your investment.Share Price & Shareholder Rights - Risk 2
Short sellers may engage in manipulative activity intended to drive down the market price of our Class A common stock, which could also result in related regulatory and governmental scrutiny, among other effects.Short selling is the practice of selling securities that the seller does not own but rather has borrowed or intends to borrow from a third party with the intention of later buying lower priced identical securities to return to the lender. Accordingly, it is in the interest of a short seller of our Class A common stock for the price to decline. At any time, short sellers may publish, or arrange for the publication of, opinions or characterizations that are intended to create negative market momentum. Issuers, like us, whose securities have historically had limited trading history or volumes and/or have been susceptible to relatively high volatility levels can be vulnerable to such short seller attacks. Short selling reports can cause increased volatility in an issuer's stock price, and result in regulatory and governmental inquiries. Any inquiry or formal investigation from a governmental organization or other regulatory body, including any inquiry from the SEC or the U.S. Department of Justice, could result in a material diversion of our management's time and could have a material adverse effect on our business and results of operations.
Share Price & Shareholder Rights - Risk 3
The dual class structure of our common stock has the effect of concentrating voting control with the holders of our Class B common stock, limiting your ability to influence corporate matters.Our Class B common stock has 50 votes per share, and our Class A common stock has one vote per share. As of June 10, 2026, Mr. Siebel and related entities beneficially owned approximately 87.8% of our Class B common stock and approximately 14.9% of our outstanding Class A common stock, resulting in beneficial ownership of capital stock representing approximately 49.6% of the voting power of our outstanding capital stock. Therefore, Mr. Siebel has significant control over our management and affairs and over certain matters requiring stockholder approval, including election of directors and significant corporate transactions, such as a merger or other sale of us or our assets. This concentrated control will limit your ability to influence corporate matters for the foreseeable future, and, as a result, the market price of our Class A common stock could be adversely affected.
Each share of Class B common stock will be automatically converted into one share of Class A common stock upon the earliest of (1) the date that is six months following the death or incapacity of Mr. Siebel, (2) the date that is six months following the date that Mr. Siebel is no longer providing services to us as an officer, employee, director, or consultant, (3) December 11, 2040, and (4) the date specified by the holders of a majority of the then outstanding shares of Class B common stock, voting as a separate class. Future transfers by holders of Class B common stock will generally result in those shares converting to Class A common stock, which will have the effect, over time, of increasing the relative voting power of those holders of Class B common stock who retain their shares in the long term. If, for example, Mr. Siebel retains a significant portion of his holdings of Class B common stock for an extended period of time, he could, in the future, control a majority of the combined voting power of our Class A and Class B common stock. As a board member, Mr. Siebel owes a fiduciary duty to our stockholders and must act in good faith in a manner he reasonably believes to be in the best interests of our stockholders. As a stockholder, even a controlling stockholder, Mr. Siebel is entitled to vote his shares in his own interests, which may not always be in the interests of our stockholders generally.
FTSE Russell and Standard & Poor's do not allow most newly public companies utilizing dual or multi-class capital structures to be included in their indices. Affected indices include the Russell 2000 and the S&P 500, S&P MidCap 400 and S&P SmallCap 600, which together make up the S&P Composite 1500. Also in 2017, MSCI, a leading stock index provider, opened public consultations on their treatment of no-vote and multi-class structures and temporarily barred new multi-class listings from certain of its indices; however, in October 2018, MSCI announced its decision to include equity securities "with unequal voting structures" in its indices and to launch a new index that specifically includes voting rights in its eligibility criteria. Under the announced policies, our dual class capital structure would make us ineligible for inclusion in certain indices, and as a result, mutual funds, exchange-traded funds and other investment vehicles that attempt to passively track these indices will not be investing in our stock. In addition, other stock indices may take similar actions. Given the sustained flow of investment funds into passive strategies that seek to track certain indices, exclusion from certain stock indices would likely preclude investment by many of these funds and would make our Class A common stock less attractive to other investors. As a result, the trading price and volume of our Class A common stock could be adversely affected.
Share Price & Shareholder Rights - Risk 4
Substantial future sales of shares of our Class A common stock and Class B common stock by existing holders in the public market could cause the market price of our Class A common stock to decline.Sales of a substantial number of shares of our Class A common stock and Class B common stock (after automatically converting to Class A common stock) in the public market, particularly sales by our directors, executive officers, and principal stockholders, or the perception that these sales might occur, could depress the market price of our Class A common stock.
As of April 30, 2026, there were outstanding options to purchase an aggregate of approximately 32,419,000 shares of our Class A common stock, and approximately 19,414,000 shares of our Class A common stock subject to restricted stock unit awards. We have registered all of the shares of Class A common stock issuable upon exercise of outstanding options and upon exercise or settlement of any options or other equity incentives we may grant in the future for public resale under the Securities Act. Accordingly, these shares will become eligible for sale in the public market to the extent any such equity awards are exercised or settled for shares of Class A common stock, subject to compliance with applicable securities laws. In addition, certain of our stockholders have registration rights that would require us to register shares owned by them for public sale in the United States.
Sales of our shares could also impair our ability to raise capital through the sale of additional equity securities in the future and at a price we deem appropriate. These sales could also cause the trading price of our Class A common stock to fall and make it more difficult for you to sell shares of our Class A common stock.
Share Price & Shareholder Rights - Risk 5
Provisions in our constituent documents and Delaware law may prevent or frustrate attempts by our stockholders to change our management or hinder efforts to acquire a controlling interest in us, and the market price of our Class A common stock may be lower as a result.There are provisions in our certificate of incorporation and bylaws that may make it difficult for a third party to acquire, or attempt to acquire, control of our company, even if a change in control was considered favorable by our stockholders. These include provisions:
- establishing a classified board of directors so that not all members of our board of directors are elected at one time;- permitting our board of directors to establish the number of directors and fill any vacancies and newly created directorships;- providing that directors may only be removed for cause;- prohibiting cumulative voting for directors;- requiring super-majority voting to amend some provisions in our certificate of incorporation and bylaws;- authorizing the issuance of "blank check" preferred stock that our board of directors could use to implement a stockholder rights plan;- eliminating the ability of stockholders to call special meetings of stockholders;- prohibiting stockholder action by written consent, which requires all stockholder actions to be taken at a meeting of our stockholders; and - our dual class common stock structure as described above.
Moreover, because we are incorporated in Delaware, we are governed by the provisions of Section 203 of the Delaware General Corporation Law, which prohibit a person who owns 15% or more of our outstanding voting stock from merging or combining with us for a period of three years after the date of the transaction in which the person acquired in excess of 15% of our outstanding voting stock, unless the merger or combination is approved in a prescribed manner. Any provision in our certificate of incorporation or our bylaws or Delaware law that has the effect of delaying or deterring a change in control could limit the opportunity for our stockholders to receive a premium for their shares of our Class A common stock and could also affect the price that some investors are willing to pay for our Class A common stock.
Share Price & Shareholder Rights - Risk 6
Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation designates the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware and, to the extent enforceable, the federal district courts of the United States of America as the exclusive forums for substantially all disputes between us and our stockholders, which could limit our stockholders' ability to choose the judicial forum for disputes with us or our directors, officers or employees.Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides that, unless we consent in writing to the selection of an alternative forum, the sole and exclusive forum for the following types of actions or proceedings under Delaware statutory or common law: (1) any derivative action or proceeding brought on our behalf, (2) any action asserting a claim of breach of a fiduciary duty owed by any of our directors, officers, or other employees to us or our stockholders, (3) any action asserting a claim against us arising under any provision of the Delaware General Corporation Law, or the certificate of incorporation or the amended and restated bylaws or (4) any other action asserting a claim that is governed by the internal affairs doctrine shall be the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware (or, if the Court of Chancery does not have jurisdiction, the federal district court for the District of Delaware), in all cases subject to the court having jurisdiction over indispensable parties named as defendants. This provision would not apply to suits brought to enforce a duty or liability created by the Exchange Act. In addition, to prevent having to litigate claims in multiple jurisdictions and the threat of inconsistent or contrary rulings by different courts, among other considerations, our amended and restated certificate of incorporation further provides that the U.S. federal district courts will be the exclusive forum for resolving any complaint asserting a cause of action arising under the Securities Act. Furthermore, Section 22 of the Securities Act creates concurrent jurisdiction for federal and state courts over all suits brought to enforce any duty or liability created by the Securities Act. Accordingly, both state and federal courts have jurisdiction to entertain such claims. While the Delaware courts have determined that such choice of forum provisions are facially valid and several state trial courts have enforced such provisions and required that suits asserting Securities Act claims be filed in federal court, there is no guarantee that courts of appeal will affirm the enforceability of such provisions and a stockholder may nevertheless seek to bring a claim in a venue other than those designated in the exclusive forum provisions. In such instance, we would expect to vigorously assert the validity and enforceability of the exclusive forum provisions of our amended and restated certificate of incorporation. This may require significant additional costs associated with resolving such action in other jurisdictions and there can be no assurance that the provisions will be enforced by a court in those other jurisdictions. If a court were to find either exclusive forum provision in our amended and restated certificate of incorporation to be inapplicable or unenforceable in an action, we may incur further significant additional costs associated with litigating Securities Act claims in state court, or both state and federal court, which could seriously harm our business, financial condition, results of operations, and prospects.
These exclusive forum provisions may limit a stockholder's ability to bring a claim in a judicial forum that it finds favorable for disputes with us or our directors, officers, or other employees, which may discourage lawsuits against us and our directors, officers and other employees. If a court were to find either exclusive-forum provision in our amended and restated certificate of incorporation to be inapplicable or unenforceable in an action, we may incur further significant additional costs associated with resolving the dispute in other jurisdictions, all of which could seriously harm our business.
Share Price & Shareholder Rights - Risk 7
Our Class A common stock market price and trading volume could decline if securities or industry analysts do not publish research or publish inaccurate or unfavorable research about our business.The trading market for our Class A common stock depends in part on the research and reports that securities or industry analysts publish about us or our business. The analysts' estimates are based upon their own opinions and are often different from our estimates or expectations. If one or more of the analysts who cover us downgrade our Class A common stock or publish inaccurate or unfavorable research about our business, the price of our securities would likely decline. If few securities analysts commence coverage of us, or if one or more of these analysts cease coverage of us or fail to publish reports on us regularly, demand for our securities could decrease, which might cause the price and trading volume of our Class A common stock to decline.
Accounting & Financial Operations6 | 9.5%
Accounting & Financial Operations - Risk 1
If we fail to maintain an effective system of disclosure controls and internal control over financial reporting, our ability to produce timely and accurate financial statements or comply with applicable regulations could be impaired.Accounting & Financial Operations - Risk 2
Changes in accounting standards and subjective assumptions, estimates and judgments by management related to complex accounting matters could adversely affect our financial results or financial condition.GAAP and related accounting pronouncements, implementation guidelines and interpretations with regard to a wide range of matters that are relevant to our business, such as revenue recognition, impairment of intangible assets, lease obligations, vendor allowances, tax matters and litigation, are complex and involve many subjective assumptions, estimates and judgments. Changes in accounting standards or their interpretation or changes in underlying assumptions, estimates or judgments could significantly change our reported or expected financial performance or financial condition. The implementation of new accounting standards could also require certain systems, internal process and other changes that could increase our operating costs.
Accounting & Financial Operations - Risk 3
We do not intend to pay dividends for the foreseeable future and, as a result, the ability of the holders of our Class A common stock to achieve a return on their investment will depend on appreciation in the price of our common stock.Added
We have never declared or paid any cash dividends on our capital stock, and we do not intend to pay any cash dividends in the foreseeable future. Any determination to pay dividends in the future will be at the discretion of our board of directors. Accordingly, holders of our Class A common stock may need to rely on sales of our Class A common stock after price appreciation, which may never occur, as the only way to realize any future gains on their investment.
Accounting & Financial Operations - Risk 4
We have a history of losses, we anticipate our operating expenses will continue to increase, and we may not be able to achieve or maintain profitability in the future.Changed
We incurred net losses in each period since our founding in 2009. We generated net losses of approximately $470.4 million, $288.7 million, and $279.7 million for the fiscal years ended April 30, 2026, 2025, and 2024 respectively. As a result, we had an accumulated deficit of $1.8 billion as of April 30, 2026. We expect to continue to incur net losses for the foreseeable future. These losses and accumulated deficit reflect the substantial investments we made to acquire new customers, commercialize our C3 AI Software, and continue to develop our C3 AI Software. We do not know whether or when we will generate sufficient revenue to achieve or maintain profitability in the future. We also expect our costs and expenses to increase in future periods, which could negatively affect our future results of operations if our revenue does not increase or declines. In particular, we intend to continue to expend significant funds to further develop our C3 AI Software and business, including:
- investments in our research and development team and in the development of new features and enhancements of our C3 AI Software, including the hiring of additional development staff, and fees paid to third parties for related enhancements;- investments in sales, marketing, and services, including investments in our sales force and our customer service team, increasing our customer base, increasing market awareness of our C3 AI Software, and development of new technologies;- investments in our operations and infrastructure; and - hiring additional employees.
We also face increased compliance costs associated with growth, the expansion of our customer base, and being a public company. Our efforts to grow our business may be costlier than we expect, our revenue may continue to decline or growth may be slower than we expect, and we may not be able to increase our revenue enough to offset our increased operating expenses. We may incur significant losses in the future for a number of reasons, such as the other risks described herein, unforeseen expenses, difficulties, complications or delays, and other unknown events. If we are unable to achieve and sustain profitability, the value of our business and Class A common stock may significantly decrease.
Further, in future periods, our revenue may be adversely impacted due to a number of factors, including a reduction in demand for our C3 AI Software, reduction in consumption of our C3 AI Software, increased competition, contraction of our overall market, our inability to accurately forecast demand for our C3 AI Software, or our failure, for any reason, to capitalize on growth opportunities. We experienced a decline in revenue and an increase in operating losses in the fiscal year 2026 as compared to the prior fiscal year. The results were attributed, in part, to disruption from a comprehensive restructuring of our global sales and services organizations, our Chief Executive Officer ("CEO") and Chairman's unanticipated health limitations and unsatisfactory execution by our global sales and services organizations. We have encountered and will encounter risks and uncertainties frequently experienced by growing companies in rapidly changing industries, such as the risks and uncertainties described herein. If our assumptions regarding these risks and uncertainties, which we use to plan our business, are incorrect or change, or if we do not address these risks successfully, our business will be harmed.
Accounting & Financial Operations - Risk 5
Our annual and quarterly results and key metrics are likely to fluctuate significantly and may not fully reflect the underlying performance of our business.Our annual and quarterly results of operations and key metrics may vary significantly in the future as they have in the past, particularly in light of our dependence on a limited number of high-value customer contracts, and period-to-period comparisons of our results of operations and key metrics may not be meaningful. Accordingly, the results of any one year or quarter should not be relied upon as an indication of future performance. Our results of operations and key metrics may fluctuate as a result of a variety of factors, many of which are outside of our control, and as a result, may not fully reflect the underlying performance of our business. Fluctuation in our annual or quarterly results may negatively impact the value of our securities. Factors that may cause fluctuations in our annual or quarterly results of operations and key metrics include, without limitation, the risk factors listed elsewhere in this section and the factors listed below:
- our ability to generate significant revenue from new offerings;- our ability to expand our number of partners and distribution of our C3 AI Software;- our ability to hire and retain employees, in particular those responsible for the selling or marketing of our C3 AI Software;- our ability to develop and retain talented sales personnel who are able to achieve desired productivity levels in a reasonable period of time and provide sales leadership in areas in which we are expanding our sales and marketing efforts;- changes in the way we organize and compensate our sales teams;- the timing of expenses and recognition of revenue;- our ability to increase sales to large organizations as well as increase sales to a larger number of smaller customers;- the length of sales cycles and seasonal purchasing or consumption patterns of our customers;- the amount and timing of operating expenses related to the maintenance and expansion of our business, operations, and infrastructure, as well as international expansion and entry into operating leases;- timing and effectiveness of new sales and marketing initiatives;- changes in our pricing policies or those of our competitors;- the timing and success of new platforms, applications, features, and functionality by us or our competitors;- failures or breaches of security or privacy by us or our suppliers and business partners, and the costs associated with remediating any such failures or breaches;- changes in the competitive dynamics of our industry, including consolidation among competitors;- changes in laws and regulations that impact our business;- any large indemnification payments to our users or other third parties;- the timing of expenses related to any future acquisitions;- the impact of any applicable changes in accounting standards or management assumptions, estimates or judgments on complex accounting matters;- civil unrest and geopolitical instability; and - general political, economic, and market conditions.
Accounting & Financial Operations - Risk 6
We generally recognize revenue from subscriptions to our C3 AI Software over the terms of such subscriptions. Consequently, increases or decreases in new sales may not be immediately reflected in our results of operations and may be difficult to discern.We generally recognize revenue from subscriptions to our C3 AI Software over the terms of these subscriptions. As a result, a portion of the revenue we report in each year and each quarter is derived from the recognition of deferred revenue relating to subscriptions entered into during prior periods. Consequently, a decline in new or renewed subscriptions in any single year or quarter may only have a small impact on the revenue that we recognize for that period. However, such a decline will negatively affect our revenue in future periods. Accordingly, the effect of significant downturns in sales and potential changes in our pricing policies or rate of customer expansion or retention may not be fully reflected in our results of operations until future periods. In addition, a significant portion of our costs are expensed as incurred. As a result, growth in the number of new customers could continue to result in our recognition of higher costs and lower revenue in the earlier periods of our subscriptions. Finally, our subscription-based revenue model also makes it difficult for us to rapidly increase our revenue through additional subscription sales in any period, as revenue from new customers or from existing customers that increase their use of our C3 AI Software must be recognized over the applicable subscription term. These risks are further exacerbated by our dependence on high-value customer contracts.
Debt & Financing3 | 4.8%
Debt & Financing - Risk 1
The terms and conditions of certain multi-year, non-cancellable agreements could result in significant payments or penalties that could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations.Added
Debt & Financing - Risk 2
If we are unable to achieve and sustain a level of liquidity sufficient to support our operations and fulfill our obligations, our business, operating results and financial position could be adversely affected.We actively monitor and manage our cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities so that sufficient liquidity is available to fund our operations and other corporate purposes. In the future, increased levels of liquidity may be required to adequately support our operations and initiatives and to mitigate the effects of business challenges or unforeseen circumstances. If we are unable to achieve and sustain such increased levels of liquidity, we may suffer adverse consequences including reduced investment in our C3 AI Software, difficulties in executing our business plan and fulfilling our obligations, and other operational challenges. Any of these developments could adversely affect our business, operating results and financial position.
Debt & Financing - Risk 3
We may need additional capital, and we cannot be certain that additional financing will be available on favorable terms, or at all.Historically, we have funded our operations and capital expenditures primarily through equity issuances and cash generated from our operations. Although we currently anticipate that our existing cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities and cash flow from operations will be sufficient to meet our cash needs for the foreseeable future, we may require additional financing. We evaluate financing opportunities from time to time, and our ability to obtain financing will depend, among other things, on our development efforts, business plans, operating performance, and condition of the capital markets at the time we seek financing. Future sales and issuances of our capital stock or rights to purchase our capital stock could result in substantial dilution to our existing stockholders. We may sell Class A common stock, convertible securities, and other equity securities in one or more transactions at prices and in a manner as we may determine from time to time. If we sell any such securities in subsequent transactions, investors may be materially diluted. New investors in such subsequent transactions could gain rights, preferences, and privileges senior to those of holders of our Class A common stock. Any debt financing that we may secure in the future could involve restrictive covenants relating to our capital raising activities and other financial and operational matters, which may make it more difficult for us to obtain additional capital and to pursue business opportunities. We cannot assure you that additional financing will be available to us on favorable terms when required, or at all. If we are unable to obtain adequate financing or financing on terms satisfactory to us when we require it, our ability to continue to support our business growth, development efforts and to respond to business challenges could be significantly impaired, and our business, operating results and financial condition may be adversely affected.
Corporate Activity and Growth3 | 4.8%
Corporate Activity and Growth - Risk 1
We may acquire other businesses or receive offers to be acquired, which could require significant management attention, disrupt our business or dilute stockholder value.Corporate Activity and Growth - Risk 2
We may not successfully execute or achieve the expected benefits of our restructuring plan and other measures we may take in the future, and our efforts may adversely affect our business.Added
On February 24, 2026, the Company's board of directors approved a restructuring plan (the "Plan"), intended to fundamentally improve our operating efficiency and reposition our company for long term success. In connection with the Plan, we have restructured our sales organization, realigned proved personnel directly under our Chief Executive Officer to increase accountability and execution, and reengineered our product design and delivery framework to increase development speed and enhance our competitive positioning. These measures are intended to address our short and long-term objectives and are based on our current estimates, assumptions, and forecasts, which are subject to known and unknown risks and uncertainties. Implementation of these and any other initiatives may not achieve our expected benefits, may be disruptive to our business, the expected costs and charges may be greater than we have forecasted, and the estimated cost savings may be lower than we have forecasted. In addition, the Plan could result in personnel attrition beyond our planned reduction in headcount or could reduce employee morale, which could in turn adversely impact productivity, including through a loss of continuity, loss of accumulated knowledge and/or inefficiency during transitional periods, could affect our ability to attract highly skilled employees, or may otherwise adversely affect our business.
Corporate Activity and Growth - Risk 3
Our revenue depends in part on the success of our strategic relationships with third parties, including channel partners, and if we are unable to establish and maintain successful relationships with them, our business, operating results, and financial condition could be adversely affected.Changed
We seek to grow our partner ecosystem as a way to grow our business. We anticipate that we will continue to establish and maintain relationships with third parties, such as channel partners, resellers, OEMs, system integrators, independent software and hardware vendors, and platform and cloud service providers. For example, in June 2019, we entered into a strategic collaboration with Baker Hughes whereby Baker Hughes operates as the exclusive channel partner and reseller of our C3 AI Software in the oil and gas industry and a non-exclusive reseller in other industries. This arrangement was most recently revised in January 2023 and again in April 2025. Baker Hughes is no longer C3 AI's exclusive reseller. We also have strategic relationships with Microsoft, AWS, McKinsey & Company, Google Cloud, and Raytheon.
We plan to continue to establish and maintain similar strategic relationships in certain industry verticals and otherwise, and we expect our channel partners to become an increasingly important aspect of our business. However, these strategic relationships could limit our ability in the future to compete in certain industry verticals and, depending on the success of our third-party partners and the industries that those partners operate in generally, may negatively impact our business because of the nature of strategic alliances, exclusivity provisions, or otherwise. We work closely with select vendors to design solutions to specifically address the needs of certain industry verticals or use cases within those verticals. As our agreements with strategic partners terminate or expire, we may be unable to renew or replace these agreements on comparable terms, or at all.
Our future growth in revenue and ability to achieve and sustain profitability depends in part on our ability to identify, establish, and retain successful strategic partner relationships in the United States and internationally, which will take significant time and resources and involve significant risk. To the extent we do identify such partners, we will need to negotiate the terms of a commercial agreement with them under which the partner would distribute our C3 AI Software. We cannot be certain that we will be able to negotiate commercially attractive terms with any strategic partner, if at all. In addition, all channel partners must be trained to distribute our C3 AI Software. In order to develop and expand our distribution channel, we must develop and improve our processes for channel partner introduction and training. If we do not succeed in identifying suitable strategic partners or maintain our relationships with such partners, our business, operating results, and financial condition may be adversely affected.
Moreover, we cannot guarantee that the partners with whom we have strategic relationships will continue to devote the resources necessary to expand our reach and increase our distribution. In addition, customer satisfaction with services and other support from our strategic partners may be less than anticipated, negatively impacting anticipated revenue and results of operations. We cannot be certain that these partners will prioritize or provide adequate resources to selling our C3 AI Software. Further, some of our strategic partners offer competing platforms and applications or also work with our competitors. As a result of these factors, many of the companies with whom we have strategic alliances may choose to pursue alternative technologies and develop alternative platforms and applications in addition to or in lieu of our C3 AI Software, either on their own or in collaboration with others, including our competitors. We cannot assure you that our strategic partners will continue to cooperate with us. In addition, actions taken or omitted to be taken by such parties may adversely affect us. Moreover, we rely on our channel partners to operate in accordance with the terms of their contractual agreements with us. For example, our agreements with our channel partners limit the terms and conditions pursuant to which they are authorized to resell or distribute our C3 AI Software and offer technical support and related services. If we are unsuccessful in establishing or maintaining our relationships with third parties, or if our strategic partners do not comply with their contractual obligations to us, our business, operating results, and financial condition may be adversely affected. Even if we are successful in establishing and maintaining these relationships with third parties, we cannot assure you that these relationships will result in increased customer usage of our C3 AI Software or increased revenue to us.
In addition, some of our sales to government entities have been made, and in the future may be made, indirectly through our channel partners. Government entities may have statutory, contractual, or other legal rights to terminate contracts with our channel partners for convenience or due to a default, and, in the future, if the portion of government contracts that are subject to renegotiation or termination at the election of the government entity are material, any such termination or renegotiation may adversely impact our future operating results. In the event of such termination, it may be difficult for us to arrange for another channel partner to sell our C3 AI Software to these government entities in a timely manner, and we could lose sales opportunities during the transition. Government entities routinely investigate and audit government contractors' administrative processes, and any unfavorable audit could result in the government entity refusing to renew its subscription to our C3 AI Software, a reduction of revenue, or fines or civil or criminal liability if the audit uncovers improper or illegal activities.
Tech & Innovation
Total Risks: 15/63 (24%)Above Sector Average
Innovation / R&D1 | 1.6%
Innovation / R&D - Risk 1
The failure to effectively develop and invest in our marketing and sales capabilities could harm our ability to increase our customer base and achieve broader market acceptance of our C3 AI Software.Changed
Trade Secrets4 | 6.3%
Trade Secrets - Risk 1
We are currently, and may be in the future, party to intellectual property rights claims and other litigation matters, which, if resolved adversely, could harm our business.Trade Secrets - Risk 2
Indemnity provisions in various agreements potentially expose us to substantial liability for intellectual property infringement and other losses.Our agreements with customers and other third parties generally include indemnification provisions under which we agree to indemnify them for losses suffered or incurred as a result of claims of intellectual property infringement, or other liabilities relating to or arising from our software, services, or other contractual obligations. Large indemnity payments could harm our business, results of operations, and financial condition. Although we normally contractually limit our liability with respect to such indemnity obligations, generally, those limitations may not be fully enforceable in all situations, and we may still incur substantial liability under those agreements. Any dispute with a customer with respect to such obligations could have adverse effects on our relationship with that customer and other existing customers and new customers and harm our business and results of operations.
Trade Secrets - Risk 3
Our failure to protect our intellectual property rights and proprietary information could diminish our brand and other intangible assets.As of April 30, 2026, our technology is currently protected by a broad patent portfolio, with 33 issued patents in the United States, 30 issued counterpart patents in a number of international jurisdictions, over 31 patent applications pending in the United States, and 74 patent applications pending internationally. Our issued patents expire beginning in 2031 through 2043. We continually review our development efforts to assess the existence and patentability of new intellectual property. The pending patent applications are presently undergoing examination or expected to undergo examination in the near future. These patents and patent applications seek to protect our proprietary inventions relevant to our business and not otherwise maintained as trade secrets. We intend to pursue additional intellectual property protection to the extent we believe it would be beneficial and cost-effective. We make business decisions about when to seek patent protection for a particular technology and when to rely upon copyright or trade secret protection, and the approach we select may ultimately prove to be inadequate. We also make financial decisions about which issued patents to maintain and which pending patent applications to continue prosecuting, which may result in abandonment of issued patents and pending patent applications and loss of the protection that those patents and patent applications might have provided. Even in cases where we seek and maintain patent protection, there is no assurance that the resulting patents will effectively protect our ability to use or prevent unauthorized third parties from using every significant feature of our C3 AI Software. In addition, we believe that the protection of our trademark rights is an important factor in AI platform and application recognition, protecting our brand and maintaining goodwill. If we do not adequately protect our rights in our trademarks from infringement and unauthorized use, any goodwill that we have developed in those trademarks could be lost or impaired, which could harm our brand and our business. Third parties may knowingly or unknowingly infringe our proprietary rights, third parties may challenge our proprietary rights, pending and future patent, trademark and copyright applications may not be approved, and we may not be able to defend against or prevent infringement without incurring substantial expense. We have also devoted substantial resources to the development of our proprietary technologies and related processes. In order to protect our proprietary technologies and processes, we rely in part on trade secret laws and confidentiality agreements with our employees, consultants, and third parties. These agreements may not effectively prevent unauthorized disclosure of confidential information and may not provide an adequate remedy in the event of unauthorized disclosure of confidential information.
In addition, others may independently discover our trade secrets, in which case we would not be able to assert trade secret rights or develop similar technologies and processes. Further, laws in certain jurisdictions may afford little or no trade secret protection, and any changes in, or unexpected interpretations of, the intellectual property laws in any country in which we operate may compromise our ability to enforce our intellectual property rights. Our patents, copyrights, trademarks, or other intellectual property rights could be challenged or invalidated by others through administrative processes or litigation. Costly and time-consuming litigation could be necessary to enforce and determine the scope of our proprietary rights with risks of possible counterclaims from suspected infringers. If the protection of our proprietary rights is inadequate to prevent use or appropriation by third parties, the value of our C3 AI Software, brand, and other intangible assets may be diminished, and competitors may be able to replicate our C3 AI Software more effectively. Any of these events would harm our business.
Trade Secrets - Risk 4
Our software development and licensing model could be negatively impacted if the Apache License, Version 2.0 is not enforceable or is modified so as to become incompatible with other open-source licenses.Components of our C3 AI Software have been provided under the Apache License 2.0. This license states that any work of authorship licensed under it, and any derivative work thereof, may be reproduced and distributed provided that certain conditions are met. It is possible that a court would hold this license to be unenforceable or that someone could assert a claim for proprietary rights in a program developed and distributed under it. Any ruling by a court that this license is not enforceable, or that we may not reproduce or distribute those open-source software components as part of our C3 AI Software, may negatively impact our distribution or development of all or a portion of our solutions. In addition, at some time in the future it is possible that the license terms under which important components of the open-source projects in our C3 AI Software are distributed may be modified, which could, among other consequences, negatively impact our continuing development or distribution of the software code subject to the new or modified license.
Further, full utilization of our C3 AI Software may depend on software, applications, hardware and services from various third parties, and these items may not be compatible with our C3 AI Software and its development or may not be available to us or our customers on commercially reasonable terms, or at all, which could harm our business.
Cyber Security1 | 1.6%
Cyber Security - Risk 1
If our information technology systems or data, or those of third parties with whom we work, are or were compromised, we could experience adverse consequences resulting from such compromise, including, but not limited to, regulatory investigations or actions; litigation; fines and penalties; disruptions of our business operations; reputational harm; loss of revenue or profits; loss of customers or sales; and other adverse consequences.Technology9 | 14.3%
Technology - Risk 1
We could suffer disruptions, outages, defects, and other performance and quality problems with our C3 AI Software or with the public cloud and internet infrastructure on which it relies.Technology - Risk 2
Issues raised by the use of AI, including ML, in our C3 Agentic AI Platform may result in reputational harm or liability or otherwise adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.AI is enabled by or integrated into some of the C3 Agentic AI Platform, including C3 Generative AI, and is a significant and growing element of our business. As with many developing technologies, AI presents risks and challenges that could affect its further development, adoption, and use, and therefore our business. AI algorithms may be flawed. Datasets in AI training, development, or operations may be insufficient, of poor quality, or reflect unwanted forms of bias. Inappropriate or controversial data practices by, or practices reflecting inherent biases of, data scientists, engineers, and end users of our systems could impair the acceptance of AI solutions. Third-party AI capabilities that can be integrated with our platforms could also produce false or "hallucinatory" inferences about customer data or enterprises, or other information or subject matter. If the recommendations, forecasts, or analyses that AI applications assist in producing are deficient or inaccurate, we could be subjected to competitive harm, potential legal liability, and brand or reputational harm. Some AI scenarios present ethical issues, and the enablement or integration of AI into our platforms may subject us to new or heightened legal, regulatory, ethical, or other challenges.
Our use of artificial intelligence, or AI, and machine learning, or ML, technologies, collectively, AI/ML technologies, may also subject us or our customers to certain privacy and data security laws, as well as increasing regulation and scrutiny. There is increasing U.S. and foreign activity in the regulation of AI and other similar uses of technology. In Europe, the EU AI Act entered into force on August 1, 2024 and will become fully applicable on August 2, 2026, with some provisions already applying from February 2025. We do not engage in developing or providing AI systems or general-purpose AI models that would qualify as "prohibited AI practices". However, if we or our customers are classified as developing or using "high-risk" AI systems, or general-purpose AI models, including general-purpose AI models with systemic risk, the EU AI Act could impose more restrictions and obligations. This could increase the costs and burdens to us and our customers, delay or halt deployment of new products and services, and may reduce the number of new customers, negatively impacting our business and financial results. Under the EU AI Act, non-compliant companies may be subject to administrative fines of up to 35 million Euros or 7% of a company's total worldwide annual turnover for the preceding financial year, whichever is the higher. Moreover, in the United Kingdom, the government has confirmed its position that existing regulators are to implement certain specific principles (safety, security and robustness; transparency and explainability; fairness; accountability and governance; contestability and redress), within those regulators' existing remits, to guide and inform the responsible development and use of AI/ML within their relevant sectors/competences. We expect other jurisdictions will adopt similar laws. In the United States, several states and localities have enacted measures related to the use of AI and ML in products and services. We may have to change our business practices to comply with such obligations. For example, our employees and personnel use generative AI technologies to perform their work. Our use of this technology could result in additional compliance costs, regulatory investigations and actions, and lawsuits. If we are unable to use generative AI, it could make our business less efficient and result in competitive disadvantages.
We also use AI and ML technologies in our products and services. Our use of this technology could result in additional compliance costs, regulatory investigations and actions, and consumer lawsuits. Depending on how these AI laws and regulations are interpreted, we may have to make changes to our business practices and products, including our C3 AI Software, to comply with such obligations. These obligations may increase the cost of research and development in AI/ML, make it harder for us to conduct our business using AI/ML, lead to regulatory fines or penalties, require us retrain our AI/ML, or prevent or limit our use of AI/ML. Additionally, certain privacy laws extend rights to consumers (such as the right to delete certain personal data) and regulate automated decision making, which may be incompatible with our use of AI/ML. Further, under privacy and data security laws as well as other obligations, we may be required to obtain certain consents to process personal data and our inability or failure to do so could result in adverse consequences. For example, the FTC has required other companies to turn over (or disgorge) valuable insights or trainings generated through the use of AI/ML where they allege the company has violated privacy and consumer protection laws. If we cannot use AI/ML or that use is restricted, our business may be less efficient, or we may be at a competitive disadvantage.
With the rise of agentic AI, there is an increased risk that use of this form of AI technology could result in violations of data privacy laws to the extent an AI agent processes personal data autonomously without providing appropriate notice or obtaining requisite consent or in circumstances where data privacy laws impose restrictions on or disclosures related to the use of AI tools or automated decision-making tools that are unable to be met based on how the AI agent operates. There is also a risk that agentic AI's interaction with systems, data, external websites, APIs and platforms may violate restrictions on access, privacy regulations, computer fraud and abuse laws, third-party contracts and terms of service. Agentic AI tools may also make decisions or take actions that may lead to the disclosure of personal data in violation of data privacy laws.
Furthermore, there is increasing regulation and scrutiny over the outputs of AI/ML tools and their potential impacts on end-users. In particular, California Senate Bill 243 requires operators of companion chatbots to take certain measures to bolster transparency and user safety, including ensuring end-users know that the companion chatbot is artificially generated and not human and maintaining a protocol for preventing the production of suicidal ideation, suicide, or self-harm content to the user. Even to the extent such laws may not be directly applicable to us, they may be applicable to our customers, and we may in turn face contractual obligations that require us to take measures to ensure our AI/ML tools are capable of complying with requirements under the laws. These obligations could increase the cost of research and development in AI/ML, make it harder for us to conduct our business using AI/ML, or require us retrain our AI/ML.
Technology - Risk 3
Our current C3 AI Software, as well as applications, features, and functionality that we may introduce in the future, may not be widely accepted by our customers, may receive negative attention or may require us to compensate or reimburse third parties, any of which may lower our margins and harm our business.Our ability to engage, retain, and increase our base of customers and to increase our revenue will depend on our ability to successfully create new applications, features, and functionality, both independently and together with third parties. We may introduce significant changes to our existing C3 AI Software or develop and introduce new and unproven applications, including technologies with which we have little or no prior development or operating experience. These new applications and updates may fail to engage, retain, and increase our base of customers or may suffer from lag in adoption. New applications may initially suffer from performance and quality issues that may negatively impact our ability to market and sell such applications to new and existing customers. The short- and long-term impact of any major change to our C3 AI Software, or the introduction of new applications, is particularly difficult to predict. If new or enhanced applications fail to engage, retain, and increase our base of customers, we may fail to generate sufficient revenue, operating margin, or other value to justify our investments in such applications, any of which may harm our business.
In addition, we are required to compensate or reimburse third parties in connection with certain sales of our current C3 AI Software as part of our partner relationships. New applications, features and functionality that we introduce in the future or new partner relationships may increase the amount of compensation or reimbursement we pay to third parties. Any future requirement or increase in the rate that we compensate or reimburse third parties would lower our profit margins and harm our business.
Technology - Risk 4
If we are unable to ensure that our C3 AI Software interoperates with a variety of software applications that are developed by others, including our partners, we may become less competitive and our business may be harmed.Our C3 AI Software must integrate with a variety of hardware and software platforms, and we need to continuously modify and enhance our C3 AI Software to adapt to changes in hardware and software technologies. In particular, we have developed our C3 AI Software to be able to easily integrate with key third-party applications, including the applications of software providers that compete with us as well as our partners. We are typically subject to standard terms and conditions of such providers, which govern the distribution, operation, and fees of such software systems, and which are subject to change by such providers from time to time. Our business will be harmed if any provider of such software systems:
- discontinues or limits our access to its software;- modifies its terms of service or other policies, including fees charged to, or other restrictions on us, or other platform and application developers;- changes how information is accessed by us or our customers;- establishes more favorable relationships with one or more of our competitors; or - develops or otherwise favors its own competitive offerings over our C3 AI Software.
Third-party services and products are constantly evolving, and we may not be able to modify our C3 AI Software to assure their compatibility with that of other third parties as they continue to develop or emerge in the future or we may not be able to make such modifications in a timely and cost-effective manner. In addition, some of our competitors may be able to disrupt the operations or compatibility of our C3 AI Software with their products or services, or exert strong business influence on our ability to, and terms on which we, operate our C3 AI Software. Should any of our competitors modify their products or standards in a manner that degrades the functionality of our C3 AI Software or gives preferential treatment to our competitors or competitive products, whether to enhance their competitive position or for any other reason, the interoperability of our C3 AI Software with these products could decrease and our business, results of operations, and financial condition would be harmed. If we are not permitted or able to integrate with these and other third-party applications in the future, our business, results of operations, and financial condition would be harmed.
Technology - Risk 5
Our ability to sell subscriptions to our C3 AI Software could be harmed by real or perceived material defects or errors in our C3 AI Software.The technology underlying our C3 AI Software is inherently complex and may contain material defects or errors, particularly when new applications are first introduced, when new features or capabilities are released, or when integrated with new or updated third-party hardware or software. There can be no assurance that our existing C3 AI Software and new applications will not contain defects or errors. Any real or perceived errors, failures, vulnerabilities, or bugs in our C3 AI Software could result in negative publicity or lead to data security, access, retention, or other performance issues, all of which could harm our business. Correcting such defects or errors may be costly and time-consuming and could harm our business. Moreover, the harm to our reputation and legal liability related to such defects or errors may be substantial and would harm our business.
Technology - Risk 6
Our performance metrics and certain operational data may not provide an accurate indication of our future or expected results.Changed
Our performance metrics and other operational data may involve judgment and therefore may not accurately reflect our actual performance. Our methodologies for tracking these metrics may change over time, which could result in unexpected changes to our reported metrics, and our metrics may differ from similarly titled metrics presented by other companies and may not be comparable to such metrics. We regularly review and may adjust our processes for calculating metrics to improve their accuracy. If our metrics are not accurate representations of our business, if we discover material inaccuracies, or if the metrics we rely on do not provide an accurate measurement of our business, our reputation may be harmed, we may be subject to legal or regulatory actions, and our operating and financial results could be adversely affected.
Certain metrics commonly reported by subscription-based software companies, such as net dollar-based revenue retention rate and annual recurring revenue, are particularly limited indicators of our future financial results. Due to our dependence on a relatively small number of high-value customer contracts, the gain or loss of even a single contract could cause significant volatility in these metrics, rendering them unreliable predictors of revenue for any given period. Investors and analysts should not place undue reliance on these metrics as indicators of our future or expected results, as doing so could adversely affect the trading price of our Class A common stock.
Technology - Risk 7
If we fail to respond to rapid technological changes, extend our C3 AI Software, or develop new features and functionality, our ability to remain competitive could be impaired.The market for our C3 AI Software is characterized by rapid technological change and frequent new platform and application introductions and enhancements, changing customer demands, and evolving industry standards. The introduction of platforms and applications embodying new technologies can quickly make existing platforms and applications obsolete and unmarketable. Data management, ML, and analytics platforms and applications are inherently complex, and it can take a long time and require significant research and development expenditures to develop and test new or enhanced platforms and applications. The success of any enhancements or improvements to our existing C3 AI Software or any new applications depends on several factors, including timely completion, competitive pricing, adequate quality testing, integration with existing technologies, and overall market acceptance.
Our ability to grow our customer base and generate revenue from customers will depend heavily on our ability to enhance and improve our C3 AI Software, to develop additional functionality and use cases, introduce new features and applications and interoperate across an increasing range of devices, operating systems, and third-party applications. Our customers may require features and capabilities that our current C3 AI Software does not have or may face use cases that our current C3 AI Software does not address. We invest significantly in research and development, and our goal is to focus our spending on measures that improve quality and ease of adoption and create organic customer demand for our C3 AI Software. When we develop a new enhancement or improvement to our C3 AI Software, we typically incur expenses and expend resources upfront to develop, market and promote the new enhancement and improvement. Therefore, when we develop and introduce new enhancements and improvements to our C3 AI Software, they must achieve high levels of market acceptance in order to justify the amount of our investment in developing and bringing them to market. There is no assurance that our enhancements to our C3 AI Software or our new application experiences, functionality, use cases, features, or capabilities will be compelling to our customers or gain market acceptance. If our research and development investments do not accurately anticipate customer demand, or if we fail to develop our C3 AI Software in a manner that satisfies customer preferences in a secure, timely and cost-effective manner, we may fail to retain our existing customers or increase demand for our C3 AI Software.
Moreover, even if we introduce new capabilities in our C3 AI Software, we may experience a decline in revenue from sales of our existing C3 AI Software that is not offset by revenue from the new C3 AI Software capabilities and applications. For example, customers may delay ordering subscriptions of new C3 AI Software capabilities or applications to permit them to make a more thorough evaluation of the C3 AI Software or until industry and marketplace reviews become widely available. Some customers may hesitate to migrate to new C3 AI Software due to concerns regarding the complexity of migration and suite or application infancy issues on performance. In addition, we may lose existing customers who choose a competitor's AI platforms and applications rather than migrate to our new C3 AI Software capabilities and applications. This could result in a temporary or permanent revenue shortfall and adversely affect our business.
Any failure of our C3 AI Software to operate effectively with future infrastructure platforms and technologies could reduce the demand for our C3 AI Software. If we are unable to respond to these changes in a timely and cost-effective manner, our C3 AI Software may become less marketable, less competitive, or obsolete, and our business may be adversely affected.
The introduction of new AI platforms and applications by competitors or the development of entirely new technologies to replace existing offerings could make our C3 AI Software obsolete or adversely affect our business, results of operations, and financial condition. We may experience difficulties with software development, design, or marketing that could delay or prevent our development, introduction, or implementation of new C3 AI Software experiences, features, or capabilities. We have in the past experienced delays in our internally planned release dates of new features and capabilities, and there can be no assurance that new C3 AI Software features or capabilities will be released according to schedule. Any delays could result in adverse publicity, loss of revenue or market acceptance, or claims by customers brought against us, all of which could harm our business. Moreover, new productivity features for our C3 AI Software may require substantial investment, and we have no assurance that such investments will be successful. If customers do not widely adopt our new C3 AI Software features and capabilities, we may not be able to realize a return on our investment. If we are unable to develop, license, or acquire new features and capabilities to our C3 AI Software on a timely and cost-effective basis, or if such enhancements do not achieve market acceptance, our business could be harmed.
Technology - Risk 8
If open-source software programmers, many of whom we do not employ, or our own internal programmers do not continue to develop and enhance open-source technologies, we may be unable to develop new technologies, adequately enhance our existing technologies or meet customer requirements for innovation, quality and price.We rely to a significant degree on a number of open-source software programmers, or committers and contributors, to develop and enhance components of our C3 AI Software. Additionally, members of the corresponding Apache Software Foundation Project Management Committees, or PMCs, many of whom are not employed by us, are primarily responsible for the oversight and evolution of the codebases of important components of the open-source data management ecosystem. If the open-source data management committees and contributors fail to adequately further develop and enhance open-source technologies, or if the PMCs fail to oversee and guide the evolution of open-source data management technologies in the manner that we believe is appropriate to maximize the market potential of our solutions, then we would have to rely on other parties, or we would need to expend additional resources, to develop and enhance our C3 AI Software. We also must devote adequate resources to our own internal programmers to support their continued development and enhancement of open-source technologies, and if we do not do so, we may have to turn to third parties or experience delays in developing or enhancing open-source technologies. We cannot predict whether further developments and enhancements to these technologies would be available from reliable alternative sources. In either event, we may incur additional development expenses and experience delays in technology release and upgrade. Delays in developing, completing, or delivering new or enhanced components to our C3 AI Software could cause our offerings to be less competitive, impair customer acceptance of our solutions, and result in delayed or reduced revenue for our solutions.
Technology - Risk 9
Our use of third-party open-source software could negatively affect our ability to offer and sell subscriptions to our C3 AI Software and subject us to possible litigation.A portion of the technologies we use incorporates third-party open-source software, and we may incorporate third-party open-source software in our solutions in the future. Open-source software is generally licensed by its authors or other third parties under open-source licenses. From time to time, companies that use third-party open-source software have faced claims challenging the use of such open-source software and requesting compliance with the open-source software license terms. Accordingly, we may be subject to suits by parties claiming ownership of what we believe to be open-source software or claiming non-compliance with the applicable open-source licensing terms. Some open-source software licenses require end users who use, distribute or make available across a network software and services that include open-source software to offer aspects of the technology that incorporates the open-source software for no cost. We may also be required to make publicly available source code (which in some circumstances could include valuable proprietary code) for modifications or derivative works we create based upon, incorporating or using the open-source software and/or to license such modifications or derivative works under the terms of the particular open-source license. Additionally, if a third-party software provider has incorporated open-source software into software that we license from such provider, we could be required to disclose any of our source code that incorporates or is a modification of our licensed software. While we employ practices designed to monitor our compliance with the licenses of third-party open-source software and protect our valuable proprietary source code, we may inadvertently use third-party open-source software in a manner that exposes us to claims of non-compliance with the terms of their licenses, including claims of intellectual property rights infringement or for breach of contract. Furthermore, there exists today an increasing number of types of open-source software licenses, almost none of which have been tested in courts of law to provide guidance of their proper legal interpretations. If we were to receive a claim of non-compliance with the terms of any of these open-source licenses, we could be required to incur significant legal expenses defending against those allegations and could be subject to significant damages, enjoined from offering or selling our solutions that contained the open-source software, and required to comply with the foregoing conditions, and we may be required to publicly release certain portions of our proprietary source code. We could also be required to expend substantial time and resources to re-engineer some of our software. Any of the foregoing could disrupt and harm our business.
In addition, the use of third-party open-source software typically exposes us to greater risks than the use of third-party commercial software because open-source licensors generally do not provide warranties or controls on the functionality or origin of the software. Use of open-source software may also present additional security risks because the public availability of such software may make it easier for hackers and other third parties to determine how to compromise our C3 AI Software. Any of the foregoing could harm our business and could help our competitors develop platforms and applications that are similar to or better than ours.
Legal & Regulatory
Total Risks: 11/63 (17%)Above Sector Average
Regulation4 | 6.3%
Regulation - Risk 1
We and the third parties with whom we work are subject to stringent and evolving U.S. and foreign laws, regulations and rules, contractual obligations, industry standards, policies, self-regulatory schemes, standards and other obligations related to data privacy and security. Our actual or perceived failure to comply with such obligations could lead to regulatory investigations or actions, litigation (including class claims) and mass arbitration demands, as well as potential fines and penalties, disruptions of our business operations, reputational harm; loss of revenue or profits, loss of customers or sales, and other adverse business consequences.Regulation - Risk 2
We are subject to governmental export and import controls that could impair our ability to compete in international markets or subject us to liability if we are not in compliance with applicable laws.Certain of our C3 AI Software is subject to various restrictions under U.S. export control and trade and economic sanctions laws and regulations, including the U.S. Department of Commerce's Export Administration Regulations, or EAR, and various economic and trade sanctions regulations administered by the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control, or OFAC. U.S. export control and economic sanctions laws and regulations include restrictions or prohibitions on the sale or supply of certain AI platform and applications, services and technologies to U.S. embargoed or sanctioned countries, governments, persons, and entities. Further, U.S. export laws and regulations include broad licensing requirements, including requiring authorization for the export of certain items. In addition, various countries regulate the import of certain items, including through import permitting and licensing requirements and have enacted or could enact laws that could limit our ability to distribute our C3 AI Software or could limit our customers' ability to implement our C3 AI Software in those countries.
Changes in our C3 AI Software and, if required, obtaining the necessary export license or other authorization for a particular sale, or changes in export, sanctions, and import laws, may result in the delay or loss of sales opportunities, delay the introduction and sale of subscriptions to our C3 AI Software in international markets, prevent our customers with international operations from using our C3 AI Software or, in some cases, prevent the access or use of our C3 AI Software to and from certain countries, governments, persons, or entities altogether. Further, any change in export or import regulations, economic sanctions or related laws, shift in the enforcement or scope of existing regulations or change in the countries, governments, persons, or technologies targeted by such regulations could result in decreased use of our C3 AI Software or in our decreased ability to export or sell our C3 AI Software to existing or potential customers with international operations. Any decreased use of our C3 AI Software or limitation on our ability to export or sell our C3 AI Software would likely harm our business.
In addition, if our channel partners fail to obtain appropriate import, export, or re-export licenses or permits, we may also be adversely affected through reputational harm, as well as other negative consequences, including government investigations and penalties.
Even though we take precautions to ensure that we and our channel partners comply with all relevant regulations, any failure by us or our channel partners to comply with U.S. export control and economic sanctions laws and regulations or other laws could have negative consequences, including reputational harm, government investigations and substantial civil and criminal penalties (e.g., fines, incarceration for responsible employees and managers, and the possible loss of export or import privileges).
Regulation - Risk 3
We will continue to incur costs and demands upon management as a result of complying with the laws and regulations affecting public companies in the United States, which may harm our business.As a public company listed in the United States, we have incurred and expect to continue to incur significant additional legal, accounting, and other expenses. In addition, changing laws, regulations, and standards relating to corporate governance and public disclosure, including regulations implemented by the SEC and the New York Stock Exchange, may increase legal and financial compliance costs and make some activities more time consuming. These laws, regulations and standards are subject to varying interpretations, and as a result, their application in practice may evolve over time as new guidance is provided by regulatory and governing bodies. We intend to invest resources to comply with evolving laws, regulations, and standards, and this investment may result in increased general and administrative expenses and a diversion of management's time and attention from revenue-generating activities to compliance activities. If, notwithstanding our efforts, we fail to comply with new laws, regulations, and standards, regulatory authorities may initiate legal proceedings against us and our business may be harmed.
Failure to comply with these rules might also make it more difficult for us to obtain certain types of insurance, including director and officer liability insurance, and we might be forced to accept reduced policy limits and coverage or incur substantially higher costs to obtain the same or similar coverage. The impact of these events would also make it more difficult for us to attract and retain qualified persons to serve on our board of directors, on committees of our board of directors, or as members of senior management.
Regulation - Risk 4
Sales to government entities and highly regulated organizations are subject to a number of challenges and risks, including U.S. federal government shutdowns.Changed
We sell to U.S. federal, state, local, and foreign governmental agency customers, as well as to customers in highly regulated industries such as financial services, telecommunications, and healthcare. Sales to such entities are subject to a number of challenges and risks. Selling to such entities can be highly competitive, expensive, and time consuming, often requiring significant upfront time and expense without any assurance that these efforts will generate a sale. Government demand and payment for our products and services have been and may be impacted by public sector budgetary cycles and funding reductions or delays, such as an extended federal government shutdown, which have and may adversely affect public sector demand for our products and services and the timing of payment of our products and services. Government contracting requirements may change and restrict our ability to sell into the government sector. Government demand and payment for our C3 AI Software is affected by public sector budgetary cycles and funding authorizations, with funding reductions or delays adversely affecting public sector demand for our C3 AI Software.
Further, governmental and highly regulated entities may demand contract terms that differ from our standard arrangements and may be less favorable than terms agreed with other customers. In our experience, government entities often require shorter term subscriptions than our private sector customers due to budget cycles, making one-year subscriptions not uncommon. Government entities and highly regulated organizations typically have longer implementation cycles, sometimes require acceptance provisions that can lead to a delay in revenue recognition, can have more complex IT and data environments, and may expect greater payment flexibility from vendors.
Contracts with governmental entities may also include preferential pricing terms, such as "most favored customer" pricing. In the event that we are successful in being awarded a government contract, the award may be subject to appeals, disputes, or litigation, including but not limited to bid protests by unsuccessful bidders.
As a government contractor or subcontractor, we must comply with laws, regulations, and contractual provisions relating to the formation, administration, and performance of government contracts and inclusion on government contract vehicles, which affect how we and our partners do business with government agencies. As a result of actual or perceived noncompliance with government contracting laws, regulations, or contractual provisions, we may be subject to non-ordinary course audits and internal investigations, which may prove costly to our business, divert management time, or limit our ability to continue selling our products and services to our government customers. These laws and regulations may impose other added costs on our business, and failure to comply with these or other applicable regulations and requirements, including non-compliance in the past, could lead to claims for damages from our partners, downward contract price adjustments or refund obligations, civil or criminal penalties, and termination of contracts and suspension or debarment from government contracting for a period of time with government agencies. Any such damages, penalties, disruption, or limitation in our ability to do business with a government would adversely impact, and could have a material adverse effect on, our business, results of operations, financial condition, public perception and growth prospects.
Governmental and highly regulated entities may have statutory, contractual, or other legal rights to terminate contracts with us or our partners for convenience or for other reasons. Any such termination may adversely affect our ability to contract with other government customers as well as our reputation, business, financial condition, and results of operations. All these factors can add further risk to business conducted with these customers. If sales expected from a government entity or highly regulated organization for a particular period are not realized in that period or at all, our business, financial condition, results of operations, and growth prospects could be materially and adversely affected.
Litigation & Legal Liabilities2 | 3.2%
Litigation & Legal Liabilities - Risk 1
We may be involved in legal proceedings that have a negative impact on our business.Litigation & Legal Liabilities - Risk 2
We are subject to the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, or FCPA, and similar anti-corruption, anti-bribery, and similar laws, and non-compliance with such laws can subject us to criminal or civil liability and harm our business, financial condition and results of operations.We are subject to the FCPA, U.S. domestic bribery laws, the UK Bribery Act, and other anti-corruption and similar laws in the countries in which we conduct activities. Anti-corruption and anti-bribery laws have been enforced aggressively in recent years and are interpreted broadly to generally prohibit companies, their employees, and their third-party business partners or intermediaries, representatives, and agents from authorizing, offering, or providing, directly or indirectly, improper payments or other benefits to government officials or others in the private sector in order to influence official action, direct business to any person, gain any improper advantage, or obtain or retain business. As we increase our international sales and business, our risks under these laws may increase.
As we increase our international sales and business and sales to the public sector, we may engage with third-party business partners and intermediaries to market our C3 AI Software and to obtain necessary permits, licenses, and other regulatory approvals. In addition, we or our third-party business partners or intermediaries may have direct or indirect interactions with officials and employees of government agencies or state-owned or affiliated entities. We can be held liable for the corrupt or other illegal activities of our third-party business partners or intermediaries, our employees, representatives, contractors, and agents, even if we do not explicitly authorize such activities.
These laws also require that we keep accurate books and records and maintain internal controls and compliance procedures designed to prevent any such actions. While we have policies and procedures to address compliance with such laws, our third-party business partners or intermediaries, employees, representatives, contractors, and agents may take actions in violation of our policies and applicable law, for which we may be ultimately held responsible.
Detecting, investigating, and resolving actual or alleged violations of anti-corruption laws can require a significant diversion of time, resources, and attention from senior management, as well as significant defense costs and other professional fees. In addition, noncompliance with anti-corruption, or anti-bribery laws could subject us to whistleblower complaints, investigations, sanctions, settlements, prosecution, enforcement actions, fines, damages, other civil or criminal penalties or injunctions against us, our officers, or our employees, disgorgement of profits, suspension or debarment from contracting with the U.S. government or other persons, reputational harm, adverse media coverage, and other collateral consequences. If any subpoenas or investigations are launched, or governmental or other sanctions are imposed, or if we do not prevail in any possible civil or criminal proceeding, our reputation, business, stock price, financial condition, prospects and results of operations could be harmed.
Taxation & Government Incentives3 | 4.8%
Taxation & Government Incentives - Risk 1
We may be subject to liabilities on past sales for taxes, surcharges, and fees.Taxation & Government Incentives - Risk 2
We may have exposure to greater than anticipated tax liabilities, which could harm our business.While to date we have not incurred significant income taxes in operating our business, we are subject to income taxes in the United States and various jurisdictions outside of the United States. Our effective tax rate could fluctuate due to changes in the proportion of our earnings and losses in countries with differing statutory tax rates. Our tax expense could also be impacted by changes in non-deductible expenses, changes in excess tax benefits of stock-based or other compensation, changes in the valuation of, or our ability to use, deferred tax assets and liabilities, the applicability of withholding taxes, and effects from acquisitions.
The provision for taxes on our financial statements could also be impacted by changes in accounting principles, changes in U.S. federal, state, local, or international tax laws applicable to corporate multinationals such as the U.S. federal income tax legislation enacted on July 4, 2025, titled the One Big Beautiful Bill Act ("OBBBA"), other fundamental changes in law currently being considered by many countries and changes in taxing jurisdictions' administrative interpretations, decisions, policies and positions.
We are subject to review and audit by U.S. federal, state, local, and foreign tax authorities. Such tax authorities may disagree with tax positions we take, and if any such tax authority were to successfully challenge any such position, our business could be harmed. We may also be subject to additional tax liabilities due to changes in non-income based taxes resulting from changes in U.S. federal, state, local, or international tax laws, changes in taxing jurisdictions' administrative interpretations, decisions, policies, and positions, results of tax examinations, settlements, or judicial decisions, changes in accounting principles, changes to our business operations, including acquisitions, as well as the evaluation of new information that results in a change to a tax position taken in a prior period.
Taxation & Government Incentives - Risk 3
Our ability to use our net operating losses and certain other tax attributes to offset future taxable income or taxes may be subject to certain limitations.As of April 30, 2026, we had net operating loss carryforwards, or NOLs, for U.S. federal and state purposes of $1,044.5 million and $400.4 million, respectively, which may be available to offset taxable income in the future, and portions of which expire in various years beginning in 2029. A lack of future taxable income would adversely affect our ability to utilize these NOLs before they expire. Federal NOLs incurred in tax years beginning after December 31, 2017 may be carried forward indefinitely, but the deductibility of such federal NOLs in tax years beginning after December 31, 2020 is limited to 80% of taxable income. In addition, under Section 382 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended, or the Code, a corporation that undergoes an "ownership change" (as defined under Sections 382 and 383 of the Code and applicable Treasury Regulations) is subject to limitations on its ability to utilize its pre-change NOLs and certain other tax attributes to offset post-change taxable income or taxes. We may experience a future ownership change under Section 382 of the Code that could affect our ability to utilize our NOLs to offset our income. Furthermore, our ability to utilize NOLs of companies that we have acquired or may acquire in the future may be subject to limitations. In addition, at the state level, there may be periods during which the use of NOLs is suspended or otherwise limited, which could accelerate or permanently increase state taxes owed. For example, in California, legislation had temporarily suspended the utilization of NOLs and limited the utilization of credits to $5.0 million annually for 2024, 2025, and 2026 for certain taxpayers. For these reasons, we may not be able to utilize a material portion of the NOLs reflected on our balance sheet, even if we attain profitability, which could potentially result in increased future tax liability to us and could adversely affect our operating results and financial condition.
Environmental / Social2 | 3.2%
Environmental / Social - Risk 1
Increased scrutiny regarding environmental, employment, social, and governance matters could adversely impact our reputation, our ability to retain employees, and the willingness of customers and others to do business with us.Environmental / Social - Risk 2
Our business could be adversely affected if our employees cannot obtain and maintain required security clearances, we cannot obtain and maintain a required facility security clearance, or we do not comply with legal and regulatory obligations regarding the safeguarding of classified information.One of our U.S. government contracts requires our employees to maintain security clearances, and also requires us to comply with the U.S Department of War, or DoW, security rules and regulations. The DoW has strict security clearance requirements for personnel who perform work in support of classified programs. In general, access to classified information, technology, facilities, or programs are subject to additional contract oversight and potential liability. In the event of a security incident involving classified information, technology, facilities, or programs, or personnel holding clearances, we may be subject to legal, financial, operational and reputational harm. Obtaining and maintaining security clearances for employees involves a lengthy process, and it is difficult to identify, recruit, and retain employees who already hold security clearances. If our employees are unable to obtain security clearances in a timely manner, or at all, or if our employees who hold security clearances are unable to maintain their clearances or terminate employment with us, then a customer requiring classified work could terminate an existing contract or decide not to renew the contract upon its expiration. To the extent we are not able to obtain or maintain a facility security clearance, we may not be able to bid on or win new classified contracts, and our existing contract (and any future contracts we may subsequently obtain) requiring a facility security clearance could be terminated.
Ability to Sell
Total Risks: 11/63 (17%)Above Sector Average
Competition2 | 3.2%
Competition - Risk 1
We face intense competition and could lose market share to our competitors, which could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.Competition - Risk 2
Because of the characteristics of open-source software, there may be fewer technology barriers to entry by new competitors and it may be relatively easy for new and existing competitors with greater resources than we have to compete with us.One of the characteristics of open-source software is that the governing license terms generally allow liberal modifications of the code and distribution thereof to a wide group of companies and/or individuals. As a result, others could easily develop new platforms and applications based upon those open-source programs that compete with existing open-source software that we support and incorporate into our C3 AI Software. Such competition with use of the open-source projects that we utilize can materialize without the same degree of overhead and lead time required by us, particularly if the customers do not value the differentiation of our proprietary components. It is possible for new and existing competitors with greater resources than ours to develop their own open-source software or hybrid proprietary and open-source software offerings, potentially reducing the demand for, and putting price pressure on, our C3 AI Software. In addition, some competitors make open-source software available for free download and use or may position competing open-source software as a loss leader. We cannot guarantee that we will be able to compete successfully against current and future competitors or that competitive pressure and/or the availability of open-source software will not result in price reductions, reduced operating margins and loss of market share, any one of which could seriously harm our business.
Demand2 | 3.2%
Demand - Risk 1
If the market for our C3 AI Software fails to grow as we expect, or if businesses fail to adopt our C3 AI Software, our business, operating results, and financial condition could be adversely affected.Demand - Risk 2
Historically, a limited number of customers have accounted for a substantial portion of our revenue. If existing customers do not renew their contracts with us, or if our relationships with our largest customers are impaired or terminated, our revenue and remaining performance obligations could decline, and our results of operations would be adversely impacted.Certain of our customers, including customers that, at the time, represented a significant portion of our business, have in the past reduced their spend with us or decided to not renew their subscriptions with us, which has reduced our anticipated future payments or revenue from these customers. It is not possible for us to predict the future level of demand from our larger customers for our C3 AI Software. In addition, our average total subscription contract value is decreasing, and we expect it to continue to decrease as we expand our customer base beyond a small number of large customers to a larger number of smaller customers.
Our customers generally have no obligation to renew, upgrade, or expand their subscriptions with us after the terms of their existing subscriptions expire. In addition, our customers may opt to decrease their usage of our C3 AI Software. As a result, we cannot provide assurance that our customers will renew, upgrade, or expand their subscriptions with us, if they renew at all. If one or more of our customers elect not to renew their subscriptions with us, or if our customers renew their subscriptions with us for shorter time periods, or if our customers decrease their usage of our C3 AI Software, or if our customers otherwise seek to renegotiate terms of their existing agreements on terms less favorable to us, our business and results of operations would be adversely affected and our revenue and remaining performance obligations could decline. This adverse impact would be even more pronounced for customers that represent a material portion of our revenue or business operations.
Sales & Marketing6 | 9.5%
Sales & Marketing - Risk 1
Our business depends on our ability to attract new customers and on our existing customers purchasing additional subscriptions from us and renewing their existing subscriptions.Sales & Marketing - Risk 2
Because we derive substantially all of our revenue from subscriptions to our C3 AI Software and Center of Excellence support services, failure of Enterprise AI solutions in general and our C3 AI Software in particular to satisfy customer demands or to achieve increased market acceptance would adversely affect our business, results of operations, financial condition, and growth prospects.We derive and expect to continue for the foreseeable future to derive substantially all of our revenue from subscriptions to our C3 AI Software and Center of Excellence support services. As such, the market acceptance of Enterprise AI solutions in general, and our C3 AI Software in particular, are critical to our continued success. Market acceptance of an Enterprise AI solution depends in part on market awareness of the benefits that Enterprise AI can provide over legacy products, emerging point products, and manual processes. In addition, in order for cloud-based Enterprise AI solutions to be widely accepted, organizations must overcome any concerns with placing sensitive information on a cloud-based platform. Demand for our C3 AI Software in particular is affected by a number of other factors, some of which are beyond our control. These factors include continued market acceptance of our C3 AI Software, the pace at which existing customers realize benefits from the use of our C3 AI Software and decide to expand deployment of our C3 AI Software across their business, the timing of development and release of new products by our competitors, technological change, reliability and security, the pace at which enterprises undergo digital transformation, and developments in data privacy regulations. We expect that the needs of our customers will continue to rapidly change and increase in complexity. We will need to improve the functionality and performance of our C3 AI Software continually to meet those rapidly changing, complex demands. If we are unable to continue to meet customer demands or to achieve more widespread market acceptance of Enterprise AI solutions in general or our C3 AI Software in particular, our business operations, financial results, and growth prospects will be materially and adversely affected.
Sales & Marketing - Risk 3
If we fail to meet our service-level commitments under our customer agreements, we could be obligated to provide credits or face contract terminations, which could adversely affect our revenue, reputation, results of operations.Added
Our customer agreements typically include commitments regarding the availability and performance of our C3 AI Software. If we are unable to meet these service-level commitments, we may be contractually obligated to provide affected customers with service credits or other remedies, which could significantly impact our revenue in the periods in which any such failure occurs. In certain cases, customers may have the right to terminate their agreements and receive refunds of prepaid amounts, which could result in accelerated revenue loss and reduced renewal rates.
Sales & Marketing - Risk 4
Our sales cycles can be long and unpredictable, particularly with respect to large subscriptions, and our sales efforts require considerable time and expense.Our results of operations may fluctuate, in part, because of the complexity of customer problems that our C3 AI Software addresses, the resource-intensive nature of our sales efforts, the length and variability of the sales cycle for our C3 AI Software, and the difficulty in making short-term adjustments to our operating expenses. The timing of our sales is difficult to predict. The length of our sales cycle can vary substantially from customer to customer and can extend over a number of years for some customers. Our sales efforts involve educating our customers about the use, technical capabilities, and benefits of our C3 AI Software. Customers often undertake a prolonged evaluation process, which frequently involves not only our C3 AI Software but also those of other companies. In addition, the size of potential customers may lead to longer sales cycles. For instance, we invest resources into sales to large organizations and large organizations typically undertake a significant evaluation and negotiation process due to their leverage, size, organizational structure and approval requirements, all of which can lengthen our sales cycle. We may also face unexpected deployment challenges with large organizations or more complicated deployment of our C3 AI Software. Large organizations may demand additional features, support services, and pricing concessions or require additional security management or control features. Some organizations may also require an on-premise solution rather than a cloud solution, which potentially requires additional implementation time and potentially a longer sales cycle. We may spend substantial time, effort and money on sales efforts to large organizations without any assurance that our efforts will produce any sales or that these customers will deploy our C3 AI Software widely enough across their organization to justify our substantial upfront investment. As a result, it is difficult to predict exactly when, or even if, we will make a sale to a potential customer or if we can increase sales to our existing customers.
Individual sales have historically and may in the future represent a large proportion of our overall sales during any given period, which impacts our ability to plan and manage cash flows and margins. These large individual sales have, in some cases, occurred in quarters or years subsequent to those we anticipated, or have not occurred at all. If our sales cycle lengthens or our substantial upfront investments do not result in sufficient revenue to justify our investments, our operating results could be adversely affected. In addition, within each quarter or year, it is difficult to project when a deal will close. Therefore, it is difficult to determine whether we are achieving our quarterly or annual expectations until near the end of the applicable quarter or year. Most of our expenses are relatively fixed or require time to adjust. Therefore, if expectations for our business are not accurate, we may not be able to adjust our cost structure on a timely basis, and our margins and cash flows may differ from expectations.
Sales & Marketing - Risk 5
Changes in our subscription or pricing models could adversely affect our operating results.As the markets for our subscriptions grow, as new competitors introduce new products or services that compete with ours, or as we enter into new international markets, we may be unable to attract new customers at the same price or based on the same pricing model as we have historically used. Regardless of pricing model used, large customers may demand higher price discounts than in the past. Our competitors may also introduce new products that compete with ours or reduce their prices, or we may be unable to attract new customers or retain existing customers based on our historical subscription and pricing models. As a result, we may be required to reduce our prices, offer shorter contract durations or offer alternative pricing models, any of which could adversely affect our business.
We have limited experience with respect to determining the optimal prices for subscriptions for our C3 AI Software. In the past, we have been able to increase our prices for our C3 AI Software, but we may choose not to introduce or be unsuccessful in implementing future price increases or changes in our pricing models. In the second quarter of fiscal year 2023, we announced a change to our go-to-market strategy. This change includes a way for new customers to utilize our products at a smaller initial contract size and pay for services based on their monthly consumption of vCPU hours, rather than payment pursuant to a purely subscription-based payment option. Unlike customers utilizing our subscription-based option, in which revenue is recognized ratably over the term of the subscription, for customers utilizing our new consumption-based payment option, we will recognize revenue on consumption. Because such customers will have flexibility in the timing of their consumption, we do not have the same visibility into the timing of revenue recognition for such customers that we have with our subscription-based customers. There is a risk that customers using the consumption-based option will consume our platform more slowly than we expect, and our actual results may differ from our forecasts. Further, investors and securities analysts may not understand how our consumption-based option differs from our subscription-based option, or the intersection of our consumption-based option and our subscription-based option. If our results of operations fall below the expectations of investors and securities analysts who follow our stock, the price of our Class A common stock could decline substantially, and we could face costly lawsuits, including securities class actions.
Given our limited experience with our current pricing models, we may not be able to accurately predict customer renewal or retention rates. As a result, we may be required or choose to reduce our prices or change our pricing model, which could harm our business, results of operations, and financial condition.
Sales & Marketing - Risk 6
Any failure to offer high-quality maintenance and support services for our customers may harm our relationships with our customers and, consequently, our business.Once our C3 AI Software is deployed, our customers depend on our maintenance and support teams to resolve technical and operational issues and provide critical updates relating to our C3 AI Software. Our ability to provide effective customer maintenance and support is largely dependent on our ability to attract, train, and retain qualified personnel with experience in supporting customers with software such as ours and maintaining the same. The number of our customers has grown significantly and that has and will continue to put additional pressure on our customer maintenance and support teams. We may be unable to respond quickly enough to accommodate short-term increases in customer demand for technical support. We also may be unable to modify the scope and delivery of our maintenance services and technical support to compete with changes in the technical services provided by our competitors. Increased customer demand for maintenance and support services, without corresponding revenue, could increase costs and negatively affect our operating results. In addition, if we experience increased customer demand for support and maintenance, we may face increased costs that may harm our results of operations. Further, as we continue to grow our operations and support our global customer base, we need to be able to continue to provide efficient support and effective maintenance that meets our customers' needs globally. If we are unable to provide efficient customer maintenance and support globally or if we need to hire additional maintenance and support personnel, our business may be harmed. Our ability to attract new customers is highly dependent on our business reputation and on positive recommendations from our existing customers. Any failure to maintain high-quality maintenance and support services, a failure of channel parties to maintain high-quality maintenance and support services or a market perception that we do not maintain high-quality maintenance and support services for our customers, would harm our business.
Brand / Reputation1 | 1.6%
Brand / Reputation - Risk 1
If we fail to develop, maintain, and enhance our brand and reputation cost-effectively, our business and financial condition may be adversely affected.Macro & Political
Total Risks: 4/63 (6%)Below Sector Average
Economy & Political Environment1 | 1.6%
Economy & Political Environment - Risk 1
Macroeconomic uncertainties have had, and could continue to have, an adverse impact on our business, our operations, and the markets and communities in which we, our partners, and users operate.International Operations1 | 1.6%
International Operations - Risk 1
We are continuing to invest in our operations outside the United States, where we may be subject to increased business and economic risks that could harm our business.Changed
Natural and Human Disruptions1 | 1.6%
Natural and Human Disruptions - Risk 1
Our business could be disrupted by catastrophic events.Capital Markets1 | 1.6%
Capital Markets - Risk 1
We may face exposure to foreign currency exchange rate fluctuations.Production
Total Risks: 3/63 (5%)Below Sector Average
Employment / Personnel2 | 3.2%
Employment / Personnel - Risk 1
Our ability to retain key members of our senior management may impact the successful execution of our business strategy.Added
Employment / Personnel - Risk 2
The failure to attract and retain additional qualified personnel or to maintain our company culture could harm our business and prevent us from executing our business strategy.To execute our business strategy, we must attract and retain highly qualified personnel. Competition for executives, data scientists, engineers, software developers, sales personnel, and other key employees in our industry is intense. In particular, we compete with many other companies for employees with high levels of expertise in designing, developing and managing platforms and applications for data management, ML, and analytics technologies, as well as for skilled data scientists, sales, and operations professionals. In addition, we are extremely selective in our hiring process which requires significant investment of time and resources from internal stakeholders and management. At times, we have experienced, and we may continue to experience, difficulty in hiring personnel who meet the demands of our selection process and with appropriate qualifications, experience, or expertise, and we may not be able to fill positions as quickly as desired. In addition, our recruiting personnel, methodology, and approach may need to be altered to address a changing candidate pool and profile. We may not be able to identify or implement such changes in a timely manner.
Many of the companies with which we compete for experienced personnel have greater resources than we have, and some of these companies may offer more attractive compensation packages. If the perceived value of our equity awards declines, or if the mix of equity and cash compensation that we offer is unattractive, it may adversely affect our ability to recruit and retain highly skilled employees. Job candidates may also be threatened with legal action under agreements with their existing employers if we attempt to hire them, which could impact hiring and result in a diversion of our time and resources. Additionally, laws and regulations, such as restrictive immigration laws, or export control laws, may limit our ability to recruit internationally. We must also continue to retain and motivate existing employees through our compensation practices, company culture, and career development opportunities.
We believe that a critical component to our success and our ability to retain our best people is our culture. As we continue to grow and develop a public company infrastructure, we may find it difficult to maintain our company culture.
If we fail to attract new personnel or to retain our current personnel, our business would be harmed.
Supply Chain1 | 1.6%
Supply Chain - Risk 1
We utilize third-party service providers to host and deliver our C3 AI Software, and any interruptions or delays in these services could impair our C3 AI Software and harm our business.See a full breakdown of risk according to category and subcategory. The list starts with the category with the most risk. Click on subcategories to read relevant extracts from the most recent report.
FAQ
What are “Risk Factors”?
Risk factors are any situations or occurrences that could make investing in a company risky.
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) requires that publicly traded companies disclose their most significant risk factors. This is so that potential investors can consider any risks before they make an investment.
They also offer companies protection, as a company can use risk factors as liability protection. This could happen if a company underperforms and investors take legal action as a result.
It is worth noting that smaller companies, that is those with a public float of under $75 million on the last business day, do not have to include risk factors in their 10-K and 10-Q forms, although some may choose to do so.
How do companies disclose their risk factors?
Publicly traded companies initially disclose their risk factors to the SEC through their S-1 filings as part of the IPO process.
Additionally, companies must provide a complete list of risk factors in their Annual Reports (Form 10-K) or (Form 20-F) for “foreign private issuers”.
Quarterly Reports also include a section on risk factors (Form 10-Q) where companies are only required to update any changes since the previous report.
According to the SEC, risk factors should be reported concisely, logically and in “plain English” so investors can understand them.
How can I use TipRanks risk factors in my stock research?
Use the Risk Factors tab to get data about the risk factors of any company in which you are considering investing.
You can easily see the most significant risks a company is facing. Additionally, you can find out which risk factors a company has added, removed or adjusted since its previous disclosure. You can also see how a company’s risk factors compare to others in its sector.
Without reading company reports or participating in conference calls, you would most likely not have access to this sort of information, which is usually not included in press releases or other public announcements.
A simplified analysis of risk factors is unique to TipRanks.
What are all the risk factor categories?
TipRanks has identified 6 major categories of risk factors and a number of subcategories for each. You can see how these categories are broken down in the list below.
1. Financial & Corporate
- Accounting & Financial Operations - risks related to accounting loss, value of intangible assets, financial statements, value of intangible assets, financial reporting, estimates, guidance, company profitability, dividends, fluctuating results.
- Share Price & Shareholder Rights – risks related to things that impact share prices and the rights of shareholders, including analyst ratings, major shareholder activity, trade volatility, liquidity of shares, anti-takeover provisions, international listing, dual listing.
- Debt & Financing – risks related to debt, funding, financing and interest rates, financial investments.
- Corporate Activity and Growth – risks related to restructuring, M&As, joint ventures, execution of corporate strategy, strategic alliances.
2. Legal & Regulatory
- Litigation and Legal Liabilities – risks related to litigation/ lawsuits against the company.
- Regulation – risks related to compliance, GDPR, and new legislation.
- Environmental / Social – risks related to environmental regulation and to data privacy.
- Taxation & Government Incentives – risks related to taxation and changes in government incentives.
3. Production
- Costs – risks related to costs of production including commodity prices, future contracts, inventory.
- Supply Chain – risks related to the company’s suppliers.
- Manufacturing – risks related to the company’s manufacturing process including product quality and product recalls.
- Human Capital – risks related to recruitment, training and retention of key employees, employee relationships & unions labor disputes, pension, and post retirement benefits, medical, health and welfare benefits, employee misconduct, employee litigation.
4. Technology & Innovation
- Innovation / R&D – risks related to innovation and new product development.
- Technology – risks related to the company’s reliance on technology.
- Cyber Security – risks related to securing the company’s digital assets and from cyber attacks.
- Trade Secrets & Patents – risks related to the company’s ability to protect its intellectual property and to infringement claims against the company as well as piracy and unlicensed copying.
5. Ability to Sell
- Demand – risks related to the demand of the company’s goods and services including seasonality, reliance on key customers.
- Competition – risks related to the company’s competition including substitutes.
- Sales & Marketing – risks related to sales, marketing, and distribution channels, pricing, and market penetration.
- Brand & Reputation – risks related to the company’s brand and reputation.
6. Macro & Political
- Economy & Political Environment – risks related to changes in economic and political conditions.
- Natural and Human Disruptions – risks related to catastrophes, floods, storms, terror, earthquakes, coronavirus pandemic/COVID-19.
- International Operations – risks related to the global nature of the company.
- Capital Markets – risks related to exchange rates and trade, cryptocurrency.