BigBear.ai Raises 2026 Revenue Guidance Floor to $150 Million After 31% Revenue Growth

Key Facts

BigBear.ai raised the floor of its fiscal 2026 revenue guidance, setting a range of $150 million to $165 million, and said the midpoint of the new range is 5% above the midpoint of its previous guidance. The update came with the announcement of third-quarter revenue of $43.6 million, up 31% year over year, according to the company. BigBear.ai said the quarter marked its third consecutive period of organic growth since the end of the prior year. Revenue was $43.581 million, compared with $33.143 million in the third quarter of 2025, according to the results table. Raising the guidance floor places the quarter's growth within the company's trajectory for the rest of the year, while the forecast remains a range rather than a single figure.

For the nine months ended September 30, 2026, revenue was $114.765 million, compared with $100.372 million in the corresponding period of 2025, according to company data. In the second quarter of 2026, the company reported revenue of $36.7 million, up 13% year over year. At the time, it had maintained its full-year guidance at $135 million to $165 million. The new guidance raises the floor by the same amount that it had previously been above the prior level, while the ceiling remains at $165 million. The quarterly and cumulative figures come as revenue growth carried over from the second quarter into the third, with the reported year-over-year rate accelerating in the latest quarter.

The company attributed a large part of its revenue growth to the performance of the BigBear generative AI platform, which it acquired under the name Ask Sage in December 2025. It said the platform also contributed to an improvement in gross margin, which rose to 31.2% in the third quarter from 22.4% a year earlier. The margin expansion was 878 basis points year over year, according to the results table. The company thus links the platform to revenue growth and margin improvement, two prominent operating elements in the quarter's results. Ask Sage became part of the company's business following its acquisition in December 2025.

By contrast, BigBear.ai reported a third-quarter net loss of $91.9 million, compared with net income of $2.5 million in the same period of 2025. The company said the loss resulted mainly from a non-cash goodwill impairment charge of $76.7 million. Adjusted EBITDA, a non-GAAP measure, was a loss of $9.080 million, compared with a loss of $9.401 million a year earlier. That represents a year-over-year improvement of $321 thousand in this measure, despite the continued reporting of an adjusted operating loss. These measures present different aspects of the results: net loss includes the impact of the goodwill charge, while Adjusted EBITDA compares performance under the adjusted measure disclosed by the company.

As of September 30, 2026, the company reported cash and cash equivalents of $77.112 million, in addition to available-for-sale investments worth $208.678 million. Its backlog was about $330 million, up 22% since the second quarter, but only about 23% of it was funded. The total contract value of new contracts cited by the company was more than $225 million, though this measure includes unexercised options and maximum values. The company explained that contract value does not necessarily reflect funded amounts, and government contracts may also be subject to changes in funding or scope, or termination. Contract value or backlog therefore does not equal realized revenue, while the funded portion indicates an amount closer to the funded work as of the disclosure date.

In after-hours trading that same day, BBAI shares fell 4.26% to $2.25 at the time of publication, according to Benzinga. The stock had closed at $2.12 on October 26, according to EL7 data. The company had previously announced that its earnings release would be issued on October 27 at around 4:15 p.m. Eastern Time, with the earnings conference call scheduled for 4:30 p.m. the same day. Chief Executive Kevin McAleenan said the company believes contract wins and improved performance put it in a strong position for growth in 2027.