Key Highlights

  • AppLovin posted second-quarter Revenue of $1,924 million, up 53%, with Net Income of $1,267 million at an 84% adjusted EBITDA margin.
  • PTC's annual run-rate revenue grew 9.1% in constant currency, a steadier version of the AI-software trade.
  • Intrusion, the cautionary tale of the group, reported first-quarter revenue of just $0.9 million, down 50% year over year.
  • NextTrip is the outlier entirely: a travel-technology micro-cap with no meaningful connection to the other four's AI-software theme.

The Nasdaq Composite entered September 2026 carrying the market's optimism on its shoulders. The index rose roughly 3.9% in August alone, according to a CommunityAmerica market recap, as upbeat second-quarter results from AI-exposed technology companies rekindled a semiconductor-led rally.

Yet the Composite is not one trade. It is thousands of them, ranging from trillion-dollar platforms to micro-caps most investors never see. Five tickers make that spread vivid: AppLovin (NASDAQ:APP), PTC (NASDAQ:PTC), TSS (NASDAQ:TSSI), Intrusion (NASDAQ:INTZ) and NextTrip (NASDAQ:NTRP). One is compounding profits at scale. One sells the software that engineers actually use. One is quietly building AI data centres. One is fighting a delisting clock. And one, candidly, sits outside the software story altogether. Together they map how uneven this cycle really is.

The Backdrop: AI Enthusiasm, Concentrated Rewards

The broad tape in late summer 2026 was constructive but selective. Information technology was among the strongest S&P 500 sectors in August, per the CommunityAmerica recap, and the gains clustered heavily in names with a credible artificial-intelligence narrative.

That concentration matters for how you read this group. The market is paying up for demonstrable AI monetisation and for the physical build-out beneath it, while remaining unforgiving toward companies that burn cash without clear catalysts.

Two macro items frame the near term. A soft July retail sales print (down 0.6%, against expectations for a small gain) kept consumer-spending worries alive. And the Federal Open Market Committee was scheduled to meet 15-16 September 2026. Rate expectations tend to move small, high-beta software and micro-cap names more than the megacaps, so the outcome is a live variable for the smaller names below.

Note one important distinction before we begin: four of these five companies genuinely belong to the software, Cybersecurity or technology-services universe. One does not.

AppLovin (NASDAQ:APP): The AI-Adtech Cash Machine

AppLovin is the clearest expression of what the current market rewards. The mobile-advertising and monetisation company reported second-quarter 2026 revenue of $1,924 million, up 53% year over year, alongside net income of $1,267 million and adjusted EBITDA of $1,614 million at an 84% margin, according to its 5 August 2026 results. Free Cash Flow reached $863.3 million.

The engine behind those numbers is Axon, AppLovin's machine-learning Advertising system, which the company continues to position at the centre of its growth. In its first-quarter 2026 commentary, AppLovin said its self-service AppLovin Ads platform would open to the general public in June 2026, its first offering accessible without a direct relationship, and that it is being built to be usable directly by AI agents planning and pacing campaigns.

For the third quarter, management guided to revenue of $2,055–$2,085 million and adjusted EBITDA of $1,710–$1,740 million. The debate here is no longer whether AppLovin can grow, but whether the market has already priced perfection into a stock this profitable. Execution risk shifts to sustaining those extraordinary margins as newer E-commerce advertisers scale and as the self-serve platform brings in customers who lack a direct relationship with the company. At this size, even a small deceleration in guidance can move the shares sharply, which makes each quarter a high-stakes event rather than a routine update.

PTC (NASDAQ:PTC): Industrial Software's Steadier AI Angle

PTC offers a more measured version of the AI trade. The industrial software maker, whose PLM and CAD tools sit inside real Manufacturing workflows, reported fiscal third-quarter 2026 results on 29 July 2026. Annual run-rate (ARR) grew 9.1% in constant currency excluding divested businesses, while reported revenue fell about 8% in constant currency, reflecting the earlier divestiture of its Kepware and ThingWorx assets.

Cash generation held up: Operating Cash Flow grew 7% and free cash flow 3%, both above the high end of guidance, per the company. PTC repurchased roughly $525 million of stock in the quarter and about $1.625 billion across fiscal 2026, and raised its full-year ARR, revenue and EPS guidance.

Chief Executive Neil Barua framed AI as a growing theme in customer conversations, arguing PTC is positioned to help modernise product data and add an intelligence layer across its tools. PTC is not a hypergrowth story; it is a recurring-revenue compounder whose AI upside depends on customers actually adopting these capabilities inside slow-moving engineering organisations. The divestitures make headline revenue noisy, so ARR is the number to track.

TSS (NASDAQ:TSSI): Picks and Shovels for AI Data Centres

TSS is the infrastructure-services play in this group, and arguably the most interesting inflection. The company integrates and deploys high-performance computing systems, the physical racks and configurations that AI workloads run on, and its mix is shifting fast toward that work.

For the second quarter of 2026, reported 13 August 2026, TSS posted revenue of $35.1 million, down 20% year over year, but systems integration revenue rose 46% to $13.9 million, climbing to 39% of total revenue from 22% a year earlier. Net income was $1.4 million, or $0.05 per diluted share, and adjusted EBITDA rose 12% to $4.5 million. Management maintained full-year 2026 adjusted EBITDA guidance toward the upper end of a $20–$22 million range.

Crucially, TSS said it had begun deploying Capital toward a planned $17 million Investment in next-generation AI data-centre technology, which it expects to convert into higher systems-integration revenue starting in the third quarter of 2026. This is a genuine picks-and-shovels story, but a lumpy one. The declining total revenue reflects a lower-margin procurement line, while the strategically important integration Business is the piece to watch quarter to quarter.

Intrusion (NASDAQ:INTZ): Cybersecurity at the Micro-Cap Edge

Intrusion is the cautionary tale, and a reminder that a Nasdaq listing guarantees nothing about scale or stability. The cybersecurity firm, known for its Intrusion Shield network-security product and TraceCop threat-intelligence database, reported first-quarter 2026 revenue of just $0.9 million, down 50% year over year, with a net loss of $3.6 million, or $(0.18) per share, and cash of only $1.4 million as of 31 March 2026.

There were bright spots. The company disclosed a $4 million contract with a state government agency for cyber threat intelligence and critical-infrastructure protection, and launched its P.O.S.S.E law-enforcement program with partner PortNexus. Chief Executive Tony Scott attributed the revenue drop partly to federal funding delays that he expected to recover as procurement normalised. On 7 May 2026 Intrusion received a Nasdaq notice that its shares had fallen below the $1.00 minimum bid price, giving it until 3 November 2026 to regain compliance, with a possible extension. The AI-security theme is real, but at this cash level the listing risk and dilution risk dominate the investment case.

NextTrip (NASDAQ:NTRP): The Odd One Out

Here honesty is required. NextTrip is not a software-and-AI-services company in the sense the other four are. It is a travel-technology micro-cap, classified under Consumer Cyclical and Travel Services, that operates a booking engine (NXT2.0) and online leisure-travel offerings. The company, headquartered in Sunrise, Florida, and led by founder and CEO William Kerby, was formerly Sigma Additive Solutions before renaming to NextTrip in March 2024.

It shares the Nasdaq venue and the micro-cap profile of Intrusion, but not the AI-infrastructure or enterprise-software narrative that ties AppLovin, PTC and TSS together. Including NextTrip in an "AI, software and technology services" framing is a stretch; its fortunes track consumer travel Demand and its own capital position far more than any AI cycle. Investors researching NTRP should evaluate it on travel-sector and micro-cap Liquidity terms, not as an AI proxy. Treat any AI angle here with scepticism until the company demonstrates it in results.

What Investors Should Watch

For AppLovin, the questions are Margin durability and how quickly self-serve and e-commerce advertisers scale; the third-quarter print will test the guidance. For PTC, watch ARR growth and cash flow rather than divestiture-distorted revenue, plus concrete evidence of AI adoption.

For TSS, the third quarter is the moment its $17 million AI investment is meant to start showing up in systems-integration revenue. For Intrusion, the binary event is the 3 November 2026 Nasdaq compliance deadline and any financing or reverse-split action. And across all the smaller names, the 15-16 September FOMC decision could swing sentiment, since micro-caps are especially rate-sensitive.

A Shared Exchange, Not a Shared Story

Weighed as a group, these five tickers are not a basket to buy together; they are a cross-section. AppLovin shows AI monetisation at full throttle. PTC shows the steadier enterprise-software path. TSS shows the physical build-out. Intrusion shows how quickly a micro-cap thesis can be overtaken by survival questions. And NextTrip shows why a shared exchange listing is not a shared story.

The Nasdaq Composite's September strength is real, but it is concentrated. Read each of these names on its own facts, not on the index's momentum.