Artificial Intelligence & Software stocks: small caps at a glance

Kurz gefasstAI and software small-caps are driven by recurring revenues and large contracts. The share price reacts less to today's profit than to whether growth can be financed sustainably.

377 companies in the directory 35 articles 5 typical price drivers

What belongs in this sector

The sector includes providers of enterprise software (SaaS), data and analytics platforms, AI model and infrastructure providers, and semiconductor designers without their own manufacturing facilities (fabless). What they share: value is created in code and intellectual property, not in factories. For small-caps, the business is often concentrated among a handful of major clients — a single contract can noticeably shift annual revenue.

What moves the share price

These are the events that typically move share prices in the Artificial Intelligence & Software sector:

Large order or framework agreement

A single corporate client can multiply the order book. The key question is whether it is a firm call-off order or merely a framework with no minimum purchase commitment.

Product launch

New models or platform versions. These only become meaningful once they translate into paying customers.

Partnership with a major corporation

Sales or technology partnerships. Often announced without revenue figures — which limits their news value.

Revenue outlook (guidance)

Raising or lowering the forecast typically moves the share price more than the quarterly results themselves.

Funding round / capital increase (Kapitalerhöhung)

Extends the cash runway but dilutes existing shareholders.

The key figures that matter here

ARR / recurring revenue	Annualised recurring revenue. More meaningful than headline revenue because it shows how predictable the income stream is.
Order backlog (Backlog)	Work already sold but not yet delivered — a window into future performance.
Gross margin	Typically high for pure software. Significantly lower margins suggest a large proportion of services revenue.
Cash runway	Cash balance divided by monthly cash outflow (burn rate). Shows how long the company can operate without raising fresh capital.

Risiken des Sektors

Valuations are anchored to future earnings — so rising interest rates hit this sector harder than most. Added to that are customer concentration, short technology cycles, and a recurring need for new capital. For smaller companies, the gap between an announced partnership and revenue that has actually been booked is particularly wide.

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Companies in this sector

377 listed small and micro caps in this sector, ordered by market capitalisation.

companies	Ticker	Börse
Appian Corporation	APPN	NASDAQ
Ziff Davis	ZD	NASDAQ
Blackbaud, Inc.	BLKB	NASDAQ
Primaris Real Estate Investment Trust	PMZ.UN	TSX
Asana, Inc.	ASAN	NYSE
DXC Technology Company	DXC	NYSE
BlackLine, Inc.	BL	NASDAQ
PDF Solutions, Inc.	PDFS	NASDAQ
Photronics, Inc.	PLAB	NASDAQ
DoubleVerify Holdings, Inc.	DV	NYSE
SharonAI Holdings, Inc.	SHAZ	NASDAQ
Xunlei Limited	XNET	NASDAQ

View all 377 companies →

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Educational content only, not investment advice. Small caps are highly speculative and total loss is possible. All information without warranty.