Free cash flow has deteriorated significantly, reaching a -103.3% margin in 2026Q4, which highlights an unsustainable cash burn rate relative to the company's diminishing liquidity reserves.
| Cash from Operations | -188.78M | -41.41M | -62.36M | -115.69M | -86.46M | -37.55M | -61.28M | -34.88M |
| Operating CF Margin % | -75.43% | -10.64% | -20.08% | -43.36% | -34.21% | -20.5% | -39.12% | -38.07% |
| Operating CF Growth % | -355.93% | 33.6% | 46.1% | -33.81% | -130.24% | 38.72% | -75.71% | - |
| Net Income | -470.37M | -288.7M | -279.7M | -268.84M | -192.06M | -55.7M | -69.38M | -33.35M |
| Depreciation & Amortization | 13.55M | 12.61M | 12.72M | 6.09M | 5.19M | 4.3M | 1.3M | 550K |
| Stock-Based Compensation | 0 | 230.99M | 215.76M | 216.54M | 113.44M | 21.74M | 8.31M | 4.27M |
| Deferred Taxes | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1.02M | 0 |
| Other Non-Cash Items | 261.76M | -10.3M | -16.37M | 2.68M | 5.79M | 3.13M | 2.4M | 534K |
| Working Capital Changes | 6.27M | 14M | 5.23M | -72.17M | -18.81M | -11.03M | -4.93M | -6.88M |
| Change in Receivables | 36.49M | -9.12M | 4.52M | -54.52M | -14.16M | -34.69M | 32.66M | -46.14M |
| Change in Inventory | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | -6.86M | 0 | 0 |
| Change in Payables | -9.44M | 3.63M | -12.88M | -22.04M | 34.48M | 7.45M | -1.22M | 48K |
| Cash from Investing | 75.08M | 16.4M | -66.61M | 59.95M | 317.01M | -767.15M | -124.07M | -96.23M |
| Capital Expenditures | -1.91M | -3.04M | -25.26M | -70.52M | -3.79M | -1.63M | -2.3M | -6.81M |
| CapEx % of Revenue | 0.76% | 0.78% | 8.13% | 26.43% | 1.5% | 0.89% | 1.47% | 7.44% |
| Acquisitions | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 89.42M |
| Investments | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| Other Investing | 0 | 0 | -2.75M | -1M | -500K | 0 | -581K | -89.42M |
| Cash from Financing | 15.54M | 22.22M | 11.29M | 621K | 5.71M | 887.36M | 119.85M | 54.47M |
| Debt Issued (Net) | -1.44M | 450K | 0 | 0 | 0 | 26M | 0 | 0 |
| Equity Issued (Net) | 16.98M | 31.3M | 0 | 0 | -15M | 851.86M | 115.65M | 51.57M |
| Dividends Paid | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Share Repurchases | 0 | 0 | -13.22M | -6.94M | -15M | 0 | -3.55M | 0 |
| Other Financing | 0 | -9.53M | 11.29M | 621K | 20.71M | 9.49M | 4.2M | 2.9M |
| Net Change in Cash | -98.16M | -2.79M | -117.68M | -55.12M | 236.26M | 82.65M | -65.5M | -76.63M |
| Free Cash Flow | -190.69M | -44.45M | -90.37M | -187.21M | -90.75M | -39.18M | -64.16M | -41.69M |
| FCF Margin % | -76.2% | -11.42% | -29.1% | -70.17% | -35.91% | -21.39% | -40.95% | -45.51% |
| FCF Growth % | -329.04% | 50.82% | 51.73% | -106.28% | -131.63% | 38.93% | -53.91% | - |
| FCF per Share | -1.36 | -0.34 | -0.76 | -1.70 | -0.87 | -0.69 | -0.67 | -0.57 |
| FCF Conversion (FCF/Net Income) | 0.40x | 0.14x | 0.22x | 0.43x | 0.45x | 0.67x | 0.88x | 1.05x |
| Interest Paid | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Taxes Paid | 0 | 920K | 975K | 578K | 939K | 5K | 660K | 131K |
Liquidity and Revenue Contraction
As reported in quarterly financial filings, the company consistently exhibits a significant gap between net losses and operating cash flow, with the most recent quarter showing an OCF/NI ratio of 0.46, suggesting that accounting losses are not fully mitigated by non-cash adjustments or working capital benefits.
The persistent inability to align net income with operating cash flow suggests that the company's reported losses are fundamentally tied to cash-consuming operations rather than non-cash accounting charges. Investors should monitor this divergence, as it indicates that the business model requires substantial cash infusions to sustain its current operational footprint.
Based on the provided cash flow statements, the company's free cash flow margin has deteriorated to -103.3% in 2026Q4, reflecting a sharp decline from the positive territory observed in early 2025 and highlighting the intensifying pressure on the firm's remaining liquidity reserves.
The trajectory of free cash flow suggests that the company is struggling to reach a self-sustaining operational state, with margins consistently deep in the negative. This trend implies that the transition to a consumption-based model is currently failing to generate the necessary cash velocity to offset high fixed operating costs.
According to historical cash flow data, working capital changes have swung from a $38.2M contribution in 2024Q4 to a $645K contribution in 2026Q4, indicating that the company's cash conversion cycle remains highly unstable and sensitive to the timing of large enterprise contract payments.
The erratic nature of working capital adjustments suggests that the company lacks a predictable cash collection cycle, likely due to the lumpy nature of its enterprise-grade deployments. This volatility complicates liquidity planning and suggests that the firm may be overly reliant on specific, large-scale customer milestones to manage its immediate cash needs.
As evidenced by the financial data, the company has historically utilized significant stock-based compensation, reaching $64.8M in 2026Q1, which effectively obscures the true economic cost of talent acquisition and masks the severity of the underlying cash burn required to maintain the current engineering headcount.
While stock-based compensation is a non-cash expense, it represents a real economic cost to shareholders through dilution and should be factored into any assessment of the company's true cash burn. The reliance on this mechanism suggests that the company may be unable to attract or retain necessary talent through cash-based compensation alone, given its current liquidity constraints.
Quick answers to the most common questions about buying AI stock.
C3.ai, Inc. (AI) generated $-188.8M in net cash from operating activities in 2026. This reflects the cash generated directly from core business operations.
C3.ai, Inc. (AI) reported negative free cash flow of $190.7M in 2026, indicating capital requirements exceeded cash from operations.
C3.ai, Inc. (AI) spent $1.9M on capital expenditures in 2026. CapEx represents the cash invested in physical assets like property, plant, and equipment to maintain or grow the business.