Key Highlights

  • MongoDB posted the strongest quarter in the group, with fiscal second-quarter Revenue of $771.8 million, up 30% year over year.
  • Five9 grew second-quarter revenue 10% to $312 million, with subscription revenue up 14%, offering a clean example of AI driving the top line.
  • NextNav remains pre-revenue in practice, reporting just $1.15 million in second-quarter revenue against a $33.76 million net loss.
  • Rimini Street grew a steadier 6.7% to $111.1 million, positioning itself as a cost-savings alternative to traditional enterprise-software support.

The AI software story is no longer a single trade. Two years into the buildout, the market is separating the companies turning artificial intelligence into revenue from those still promising to. That split is exactly what this cluster of Nasdaq tickers puts on display.

MongoDB (NASDAQ:MDB), NextNav (NASDAQ:NN), Agora (NASDAQ:API), Rimini Street (NASDAQ:RMNI) and Five9 (NASDAQ:FIVN) sit in different corners of the technology stack, at different stages of maturity, and with very different balance sheets. Yet each reported results this summer that speak to the same September 2026 question: is AI a Demand engine, a Margin cost, or still a science project? All figures below trace to company releases.

Software's Uneven Autumn

The sector backdrop is one of dispersion rather than a rising tide. The US federal funds target range stood at 3.50%-3.75% through the middle of 2026, with the next scheduled Federal Open Market Committee decision falling on 16 September 2026. Rates that are lower than the 2023-24 peak but still restrictive keep valuation discipline in the market: investors are paying up for durable growth and AI monetisation, and punishing anything that looks like decelerating growth at a rich multiple.

That framing matters because "AI software" now covers wildly different economics. Infrastructure players monetise consumption. Applications monetise seats and outcomes. Support and services firms monetise cost savings. And pre-revenue technology developers monetise a story about the future. The five companies here span that entire range, which is why grouping them is useful even though they rarely compete.

MongoDB (NASDAQ:MDB): Growth Reaccelerates, but Expectations Run Ahead

MongoDB (NASDAQ:MDB) delivered the strongest fundamental quarter of the group. For its fiscal second quarter of 2027, ended 31 July 2026, the company reported revenue of $771.8 million, up 30% year over year, what management called its highest growth rate in several years.

Subscription revenue reached $747.1 million (up 31%), and the flagship Atlas cloud database grew roughly 29%, contributing $565.9 million, or about 75% of subscription revenue. MongoDB counted more than 70,600 customers and 2,999 customers generating over $100,000 in annualised recurring revenue. GAAP Net Income was $40.9 million ($0.50 per diluted share); non-GAAP net income was $162.6 million ($1.90 per share). The company repurchased $100 million of stock in the quarter and guided full-year fiscal 2027 revenue to $2.99–$3.03 billion.

Despite the beat and a raised outlook, the shares fell about 13.7% on the print. That reaction captures the sector's mood: with a premium multiple, MongoDB is judged against acceleration, not merely growth. The bull case rests on AI application developers standing up new databases; the risk is that Atlas consumption growth cools faster than the multiple assumes. If AI-native app workloads keep landing on Atlas, MongoDB has a credible path to sustained growth, but that is a thesis to monitor quarter by quarter, not a certainty.

NextNav (NASDAQ:NN): A Spectrum Story, Not Yet a Revenue Story

NextNav (NASDAQ:NN) is the outlier, a technology developer, not an established software business. For the second quarter of 2026, ended 30 June 2026 and reported on 11 August, revenue was just $1.15 million against a net loss of $33.76 million.

The company held about $228.8 million in cash and marketable securities and cited roughly $298 million in total available liquidity. During June 2026 it eliminated $190 million of convertible Debt by converting it into approximately 15.2 million shares and redeemed public warrants for about $169.5 million in proceeds. Operationally, NextNav is pursuing terrestrial 5G positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) as a complement and backup to GPS, demonstrating timing accuracy near 20 nanoseconds and announcing partnerships including Tiami Networks (900 MHz counter-drone detection) and Safran Electronics & Defense.

NextNav's value hinges almost entirely on regulatory outcomes. The company continues working through the FCC and interagency process on its 900 MHz spectrum ambitions, and the balance-sheet cleanup buys it time. A favourable rulemaking could re-rate the Equity sharply; an adverse or delayed one leaves a cash-burning pre-commercial company. This is a policy-driven, binary-risk name, appropriate only for investors who understand they are Underwriting a regulatory bet, not a run-rate.

Agora (NASDAQ:API): Steady Real-Time Engagement, With China Exposure to Weigh

Agora (NASDAQ:API) supplies real-time engagement APIs, voice, video and interactive streaming embedded into apps. Note for readers: API is an American Depositary Receipt (one ADS equals four Class A ordinary shares), the company is incorporated in the Cayman Islands, and while headquartered in Santa Clara, California, it operates its China-facing Business under the Shengwang Brand with significant operations in China. That structure carries the geopolitical and regulatory considerations common to US-listed China-exposed issuers.

For the second quarter of 2026, ended 30 June and reported on 13 August, Agora posted revenue of $40.4 million, up 18.0% from $34.3 million a year earlier. Active customers numbered 3,892, net income was $2.2 million (up from $1.5 million), and the company held roughly $361.7 million in cash, deposits and bank financial products. It repurchased about 3.8 million Class A shares for $3.7 million in the quarter.

Agora's appeal is a return to double-digit growth alongside genuine profitability and a cash pile large relative to its market value. Conversational AI and AI-powered voice agents are a natural tailwind for a real-time infrastructure provider. The growth-plus-buyback combination is constructive, but flat customer counts and China exposure are real overhangs that could cap the multiple regardless of execution.

Rimini Street (NASDAQ:RMNI): Defensive Services Meets an AI Pivot

Rimini Street (NASDAQ:RMNI) sells third-party support and managed services for enterprise software such as Oracle and SAP, a cost-savings pitch that tends to resonate when IT budgets tighten.

For the second quarter of 2026, ended 30 June and reported on 30 July, revenue was $111.1 million, up 6.7% year over year; on an adjusted basis excluding PeopleSoft, revenue rose 10% to $108.0 million. Gross margin was 60.9%. Net income fell to $2.4 million from $30.3 million, and Operating Income to $6.4 million from $41.2 million, declines the company attributes largely to a prior-year litigation settlement benefit that inflated the comparison. Active clients reached 3,132, annualised Recurring Revenue was $412.8 million, and remaining performance obligations stood at $636.9 million.

The reported profit collapse looks alarming until the one-time comparison is stripped out; the underlying recurring-revenue business grew steadily. Management is layering on AI-governance offerings, launching Rimini Govern for AI in the quarter and promoting its Rimini Agentic UX tooling. The defensive model should hold up if enterprises keep hunting for support savings, and the AI-services angle is a plausible upsell, but ongoing Oracle-related litigation risk remains a structural feature of this name.

Five9 (NASDAQ:FIVN): AI Becomes the Growth Engine

Five9 (NASDAQ:FIVN) runs a cloud contact-centre platform, and its quarter offered the cleanest example of AI actually driving the top line.

For the second quarter of 2026, ended 30 June and reported on 6 August, revenue was $312 million, up 10% year over year, with subscription revenue up 14%, a third consecutive quarter of acceleration. AI revenue grew 78% year over year to roughly $39 million. Adjusted EBITDA was $70 million, about 22% of revenue, while adjusted gross margin eased to 61% from 63%. The company highlighted a Fortune 100 financial-services win valued near $100 million in total contract value, guided full-year 2026 revenue to a midpoint of $1.266 billion, and raised its AI growth outlook to at least 60%.

Five9 is monetising AI at scale, and the raised AI guidance is the tell. The cost is margin: AI delivery appears to carry lower gross margin than legacy seats, which is why the market has been cautious even on good prints. If AI expands the addressable spend per customer faster than it dilutes margin, the trade-off favours shareholders; if not, mix shift becomes a profitability headwind worth watching.

What Investors Should Watch

Track the September FOMC decision and its read-through to software multiples. For MongoDB, watch Atlas consumption trends and whether AI workloads sustain the reacceleration. For NextNav, the FCC and interagency spectrum process is the only catalyst that truly matters. For Agora, watch customer additions and any shift in China-related policy. For Rimini Street, monitor recurring-revenue growth and litigation headlines. For Five9, follow the AI-revenue mix against gross margin, and whether large wins like the Fortune 100 deal repeat.

Proof of AI Revenue Versus the Promise of It

Held up against each other, these five Nasdaq names are not a basket to buy together; they are a spectrum. Five9 and MongoDB show AI producing measurable revenue. Agora and Rimini Street show steadier, cash-generative businesses adding AI at the edges. NextNav shows the speculative frontier, where the story precedes the sales. In a market that is rewarding proof over promise, that distinction is the whole point.