BigBear.ai Lifts 2026 Revenue Outlook To $150 Million-$165 Million, A First, As $76.7 Million Write-Down Drives Loss
The company's first-ever guidance raise came alongside a $91.9 million quarterly net loss, mostly from a non-cash goodwill charge.
BigBear.ai, which sells artificial intelligence software and services to defense, intelligence and border-security customers, raised its full-year revenue outlook for the first time, CEO Kevin McAleenan said on the company's earnings call Tuesday. The new 2026 range of $150 million to $165 million arrived with a third-quarter net loss of $91.9 million.
A first raise, and a charge behind the loss
"This is the first time Big Bear has raised our revenue guidance," McAleenan said, adding that the midpoint of the range would be 23% growth over last year. CFO Sean Ricker said the midpoint is a 5% increase from the range the company gave earlier this year.
Third-quarter revenue was $43.6 million, up 31% from a year earlier, Ricker said, substantially driven by the generative AI platform the company bought as Ask Sage in December 2025. Revenue growth from the second quarter accelerated to 18.6%, from 6.7% in the prior quarter.
The loss came mainly from a non-cash goodwill impairment of $76.7 million, or 16 cents per share, Ricker said. The net loss works out to 19 cents per share.
Margins, backlog and cash
Gross margin rose to 31.2%, up 878 basis points (about 8.8 percentage points) from the third quarter of 2025, with Ricker crediting the generative AI platform in particular.
Backlog ended the quarter at $330 million, up 22% from the end of the second quarter. Ricker said the quarter's performance "exceeded our expectations." McAleenan said the company entered the fourth quarter with almost $400 million in cash and investments, and Ricker said it expects to start 2027 debt-free.
McAleenan said the company has won and announced more than 25 new contracts since the second quarter, worth more than $225 million together. They include Department of Homeland Security re-competes, classified awards, and two five-year Customs and Border Protection subcontracts, one on SAIC's team and one with Unison. New users of the generative AI platform include the FBI, Coast Guard, NASA, the Energy Department and the Veterans Affairs Department.
M&A hunt and the next report
McAleenan named two priorities for the rest of the year: revenue growth and a search for acquisition targets that add fast-deployable capabilities or broader market reach. He also said the company is not financing data centers or building general-purpose foundation models, positioning it in the applications and platform layers of AI.
The next earnings call will cover full-year 2026 results, he said.
The next earnings call will show whether 2026 revenue lands inside the raised $150 million to $165 million range.
Sources
- BigBear.ai GAAP EPS of -$0.19 misses by $0.13, revenue of $43.58M beats by $4.64M (BBAI:NYSE) | Seeking Alpha — seekingalpha.com
- Here's What Investors Must Know Ahead of BigBear.ai's Q3 Earnings — Yahoo Finance
- BigBear.ai Hldgs Q3 2026 Earnings Call Transcript — benzinga.com
- BigBear.ai Announces Third Quarter 2026 Results and Raises FY 2026 Revenue Guidance — businesswire.com
