Key Highlights

  • Waystar reported second-quarter Revenue of $319.7 million, up 18% year over year, with Net Income of $40.9 million and annual Recurring Revenue growth supported by 108% net revenue retention.
  • Webull swung to net income of $24.4 million from a year-earlier net loss, as customer Assets climbed 79% to $28.5 billion and daily average revenue trades rose 62%.
  • Quantum Computing reported revenue of $5.6 million, up sharply from a year-earlier base of $61,000, while holding about $1.3 billion in cash after completing a $73.1 million foundry acquisition.
  • Quantum-Si delayed the commercial launch of its next-generation Proteus platform to the second quarter of 2027 and cut roughly 20% of its workforce to extend its cash runway into the fourth quarter of 2028.

Five very different Nasdaq-listed companies, a healthcare-payments software leader, a fast-growing digital broker, a video-game publisher leaning into AI, and two quantum-adjacent science plays, offer a snapshot of how technology services now spans profitable cash machines and speculative moonshots as the September FOMC meeting nears. Waystar Holding (NASDAQ:WAY), Webull Corporation (NASDAQ:BULL), Snail (NASDAQ:SNAL), Quantum Computing (NASDAQ:QUBT) and Quantum-Si (NASDAQ:QSI) share a listing and a loose association with software, AI and next-generation technology.

They do not share a financial reality. Two are firmly in the software-and-services camp. Two straddle the border, one a brokerage, one a life-science instruments maker. And one sits at the speculative frontier of quantum computing.

A Rate Decision Looms Over an AI-Led Tape

The backdrop for these names in mid-September 2026 is a market still led by technology but increasingly discriminating about which technology stories deserve premium multiples. The Nasdaq Composite traded near record territory in early September, even as the same period brought volatility, including a sharp Dow decline on September 3 after a stronger-than-expected jobs report reignited debate over the path of interest rates.

That debate matters enormously for the companies here. The Federal Open Market Committee meets September 16-17, 2026, and coverage entering the meeting has been unusually split: some commentary pointed to market bets on an eventual cut, while other analysis flagged sticky Inflation and a resilient labor market as reasons the Fed could stay on hold or turn more hawkish. These five stocks sit at opposite ends of the rate-sensitivity spectrum. Profitable, cash-generative software and a now-profitable broker can defend valuations on earnings. Thinly monetized science stories and a small-cap game publisher are far more exposed to any shift in risk appetite a hawkish surprise could trigger.

Waystar (NASDAQ:WAY): The Profitable Software Anchor of the Group

Waystar Holding is the clearest software name on this list, a healthcare-payments platform that automates the revenue cycle for hospitals and providers, an area where AI-driven claims and denial workflows are a genuine product story rather than a slogan.

For the second quarter of fiscal 2026, reported July 29, 2026, Waystar posted revenue of $319.7 million, up 18% year over year, with net income of $40.9 million, a 13% margin, and adjusted EBITDA of $136.7 million at a 43% margin. Subscription revenue rose 34% to $176.3 million, net revenue retention was 108%, and 1,453 clients contributed more than $100,000 in trailing-twelve-month revenue, up 15%. Management raised full-year 2026 guidance to revenue of $1.294 billion, adjusted EBITDA of $545 million and non-GAAP diluted EPS of $1.70.

Those metrics, high margins, recurring revenue, strong retention, are what investors want from durable software in a choppy tape. If Waystar sustains double-digit growth and Margin discipline, it is arguably the group's defensive anchor, though healthcare IT budgets and integration execution remain risks.

Webull (NASDAQ:BULL): A Broker That Turned the Corner on Profit

Webull Corporation is best described honestly as sector-adjacent: it is a digital brokerage and Fintech platform, not a pure software vendor. Its relevance to a technology-services lens comes from its app-first, data-driven model and its Leverage to retail-trading activity.

For the second quarter of 2026, reported August 19, 2026, Webull reported total revenue of $198.8 million, up 51% year over year, with trading-related revenue of $147.7 million, up 66%. The company swung to net income of $24.4 million attributable to the company, versus a net loss of $28.3 million a year earlier, and reported adjusted net income of $43.2 million. Operating metrics showed 5.13 million funded accounts, up 8%, customer assets of $28.5 billion, up 79%, 28.2 million registered users, and daily average revenue trades of 1.6 million, up 62%. Total assets stood at $4.112 billion.

The swing to profitability alongside rapid asset growth is the headline. Webull's fortunes are tightly bound to retail engagement and market volatility, so a calmer or falling market could pressure trading revenue as quickly as an active one lifts it.

Snail (NASDAQ:SNAL): A Small-Cap Publisher Testing an AI Angle

Snail is a video-game publisher best known for the ARK franchise. Its inclusion in an AI conversation is not incidental: management is layering AI-driven features onto its catalogue.

For the second quarter of 2026, reported August 11, 2026, Snail posted net revenue of $19.7 million, down from $22.2 million a year earlier, with a net loss of $3.0 million, an 81.6% improvement from the $16.6 million loss in the prior-year quarter. Bookings were $21.8 million and unrestricted cash was $13.3 million. For the first half of 2026, revenue rose 11.1% to $47.0 million with a narrowed net loss of $0.9 million. ARK: Survival Ascended sold 1.2 million units in the quarter. The company also unveiled its AI Ranch initiative and a Non-Human Player AI gaming companion, and cited AAA titles in development including 9 Yin Sutra: Immortal and For The Stars.

Snail is a micro-cap with lumpy, release-driven revenue. The AI companion concept is intriguing but unproven commercially; whether new titles convert to durable bookings before the AI narrative is credited is the thing to watch. Losses and a thin cash cushion keep this speculative.

Quantum Computing (NASDAQ:QUBT): Early Revenue, a Big Balance Sheet

Quantum Computing is the group's purest frontier-technology bet, pairing photonics and quantum optimization hardware with an unusually large cash pile for its revenue base.

For the second quarter of 2026, reported August 10, 2026, the company posted revenue of $5.6 million, up sharply from $61,000 a year earlier, and a net loss of $11.8 million, or $0.05 per share. Cash, equivalents and investments stood at about $1.3 billion as of June 30, 2026, down from roughly $1.5 billion at year-end 2025, reflecting Acquisition spending. Highlights included delivery of a Dirac-3 optimization system to a major consulting firm, deployment readiness for its NeuraWave photonic reservoir-computing platform, a framework agreement with Planck Dynamics valued at more than $10 million, and completion of the $73.1 million NHanced advanced-packaging foundry acquisition.

The Balance Sheet buys years of runway, which sets QUBT apart from cash-starved peers. Revenue remains tiny relative to valuation, and quantum commercialization timelines are notoriously uncertain. This is a story stock where sentiment and rates can move the price far more than fundamentals in any given quarter.

Quantum-Si (NASDAQ:QSI): A Sensing Play Managing Its Runway

Quantum-Si is, in fairness, sector-adjacent rather than a software company: it builds next-generation protein-sequencing instruments. Its AI relevance is largely downstream, the data its sensors generate feeds computational biology.

For the second quarter of 2026, reported August 13, 2026, Quantum-Si posted revenue of $344,000, down from $591,000 a year earlier, with a net loss of $23.5 million. Cash, equivalents and marketable securities totaled $169.9 million as of June 30, 2026. The company delayed the anticipated commercial launch of its next-generation Proteus platform from the first quarter of 2027 to the second quarter of 2027, announced an approximately 20% workforce reduction expected to save $12 million annually, and said cost actions extended its cash runway into the fourth quarter of 2028. Full-year 2026 revenue guidance is roughly $1.0 million.

The runway extension and Proteus timeline are the twin variables here. A delayed launch pushes revenue further out, and near-term sales are negligible, so QSI is best understood as a long-dated technology option, not a services Business with visible cash flows.

What Investors Should Watch

The single most important near-term event is the FOMC decision on September 16-17, 2026. A hawkish surprise would likely pressure the speculative end of this group, QUBT, QSI and SNAL, harder than the profitable end, WAY and BULL.

Beyond rates, each name has its own signal. For Waystar, watch subscription growth and whether guidance holds. For Webull, watch funded-account and trading trends, which ebb with market activity. For Snail, watch whether AI features and AAA titles translate into bookings. For Quantum Computing, watch order flow and cash burn against that large balance sheet. For Quantum-Si, watch the Proteus timeline and runway discipline.

Cash Machines and Moonshots, Sharing One Index

These five tickers illustrate how loosely the word technology now travels across the Nasdaq Composite. Waystar is a profitable, cash-generative software business. Webull is a broker that has, for now, turned profitable on surging activity. Snail is a small publisher testing an AI narrative from a modest revenue base. Quantum Computing and Quantum-Si are frontier-science stories where valuation rests on the future, not the present. In a market weighing a pivotal rate decision, the same index holds names that could be defended on Earnings and names that trade almost entirely on sentiment.