AI
The earnings part: fine, the CEO part: spicy
C3 AI said it’s ready with preliminary results for its fourth quarter and full fiscal year ended April 30, 2026. That’s the normal part of the news. The less-normal part? Thomas M. Siebel is back in the CEO chair effective May 8, 2026.
Same company, new-old boss
Siebel isn’t some random outside hire. He’s the founder, chairman, and now once again the top operating executive. In other words: when the ship gets wobbly, the captain is grabbing the wheel himself.
For investors, that usually signals one of two things:
- management thinks the business needs a reset, fast
- the board wants a steadier hand while the company tries to sharpen execution
Either way, the market tends to read this as a vote of no confidence in the current setup — or at least a very loud “we’re changing course.”
Why you should care
C3 AI has spent years pitching itself as a software winner in the enterprise AI boom. But hype only gets you so far; Wall Street wants growth, margins, and proof the business can scale without turning into a perpetual science experiment.
So now you’ve got two catalysts packed into one update:
- preliminary fiscal 2026 numbers, which could reset expectations either up or down
- a CEO return that suggests leadership thinks the next phase needs a different playbook
Big picture: this is less a sleepy earnings pre-announcement and more a company hitting the restart button while the AI race is still in full sprint.