Key Highlights

● Innodata grew second-quarter 2026 Revenue 58% year over year to $92.1 million with adjusted EBITDA of $25.4 million, while its largest customer concentration eased to 37% of revenue from 56% in the first quarter.

● Datadog reported second-quarter 2026 revenue of $1.121 billion, up 36% year over year, with roughly 4,720 customers generating more than $100,000 in annual recurring revenue, up about 23% from a year earlier.

● Adeia posted second-quarter 2026 revenue of $96.1 million with a 59% adjusted EBITDA margin, signed six new license agreements including a Google and YouTube TV renewal, and raised its long-term annual revenue outlook to $600 million from $500 million.

● Heartflow and Slide Insurance both delivered strong growth, with Heartflow's second-quarter 2026 revenue up 48% to $64.1 million and Slide's Net Income up 92.4% to $134.9 million, though neither is a software or technology-services company despite AI-heavy stories.

A rising-rate scare has scrambled the easy narrative for high-multiple tech. Here is what five very different Nasdaq names, an AI data-engineering specialist, an observability leader, an IP licensor, an AI cardiac-imaging company and a technology-driven insurer, actually reported, and what still needs proving.

The Setup Heading Into the September Fed Meeting

September 2026 arrived with a jolt. A stronger-than-expected August jobs report pushed markets to price higher odds of a Federal Reserve rate hike ahead of the September 16 FOMC meeting, and the 10-year Treasury Yield hovered near 4.80%. That matters for the Nasdaq Composite, where long-duration software and AI stocks carry valuations sensitive to the discount rate.

Five tickers make up this basket: Innodata (NASDAQ: INOD), Datadog (NASDAQ: DDOG), Adeia (NASDAQ: ADEA), Heartflow (NASDAQ: HTFL) and Slide Insurance (NASDAQ: SLDE). All five trade on Nasdaq, but they are not one sector. Two, Heartflow and Slide Insurance, sit outside software and technology services despite AI-heavy stories, a mismatch worth flagging openly rather than forcing a fit.

Why the "AI, Software and Services" Label Needs Care This Month

The temptation with a basket like this is to file everything under "AI." That obscures more than it reveals. Genuine software and technology-services exposure here runs through three names: Innodata sells AI data-engineering services; Datadog sells observability and monitoring software; Adeia licenses intellectual property that underpins media and semiconductor technology. Those are the businesses whose multiples move most directly with rate expectations and with the pace of enterprise AI spending.

Heartflow is a medical-technology company whose product is powered by AI and computational modeling, real, but it belongs to medtech, not software services. Slide Insurance is a property insurer that describes itself as technology-enabled; its Economics are driven by premiums, catastrophe risk and underwriting, not software margins. Keeping those distinctions visible is the honest way to read this group in a month when rate risk, not thematic labeling, is doing the heavy lifting.

Innodata (NASDAQ:INOD): The AI Data-Engineering Pure Play

Innodata is the clearest software-services story in the group. It builds AI Training and post-training data, model evaluation and AI-enabled platforms, and its results have inflected sharply. For the second quarter of 2026 (ended June 30), the company reported revenue of $92.1 million, up 58% year over year, with net income producing $0.41 in diluted EPS, and adjusted EBITDA of $25.4 million, a 27.5% margin, per the company's August 7 release. Cash and investments stood at $250.4 million, up from $82.2 million at the end of 2025. Management reiterated full-year 2026 guidance for revenue growth of 40% or more.

The risks are as visible as the growth. Innodata disclosed heavy customer concentration: its largest customer was 37% of second-quarter revenue (down from 56% in the first quarter), with a major Big Tech customer at 34%, a diversifying trend, but still concentrated. A Leadership transition takes effect September 30, 2026, with Rahul Singhal becoming President and CEO and founder Jack Abuhoff moving to Executive Chairman. Shares traded around $53.21 on September 11, for a roughly $1.83 billion market cap. What to watch: whether new logos keep reducing single-customer dependence.

Datadog (NASDAQ:DDOG): Observability at Scale, and a Valuation Debate

Datadog is the group's observability and monitoring anchor, and its second-quarter 2026 results (reported August 6) showed durable scale. Revenue reached $1.121 billion, up 36% year over year, bringing first-half revenue to $2.128 billion. Non-GAAP Operating Income was $257 million, a 23% margin, and non-GAAP diluted EPS was $0.65; on a GAAP basis operating income was just $5 million and net income $44.6 million, a reminder of how much stock-based compensation separates the two frameworks. Customers with more than $100,000 in annual Recurring Revenue numbered roughly 4,720, up about 23% from a year earlier.

Management guided full-year 2026 revenue to $4.47 billion with non-GAAP EPS of $2.54, and third-quarter revenue to $1.145 billion, company guidance, not assured. Despite the beat, coverage noted shares fell sharply after the print, a reminder that in a high-multiple name, deceleration and rate fears can outweigh a headline beat. What to watch: net revenue retention, AI-product adoption, and whether growth stabilizes above 30% as rate expectations shift.

Adeia (NASDAQ:ADEA): Licensing Cash Flow With a Semiconductor Pivot

Adeia is the group's intellectual-property licensor, monetizing patents across media, consumer electronics and semiconductors. Its model throws off cash: second-quarter 2026 revenue was $96.1 million (up from $85.7 million a year earlier, roughly 12% growth, though down sequentially from $104.8 million), with GAAP net income of $17.4 million and adjusted EBITDA of $56.4 million, a 59% Margin that shows why licensors are prized for profitability, per the August 3 release. Non-GAAP diluted EPS was $0.34.

The quarter featured six new license agreements and what the company called a record 12 new customers, including a Google and YouTube TV renewal, an RPX arrangement and a L'Oreal deal. Adeia continued deleveraging, paying down its term Loan to a $392.6 million balance, repurchasing $10 million of stock and paying a $0.05 quarterly dividend. It reiterated full-year 2026 revenue guidance of $435 million and raised its long-term annual outlook to $600 million from $500 million. The bull case rests on semiconductor licensing offsetting legacy pay-TV decline. What to watch: renewal timing, which makes licensing revenue lumpy quarter to quarter.

Heartflow (NASDAQ:HTFL): AI-Powered, But This Is Medtech

Heartflow requires a clear label: it is a medical-technology company, not a software-services vendor. Its platform uses AI and computational fluid dynamics to build personalized 3D models of the heart for non-invasive diagnosis of coronary artery disease. The AI content is real, but the Business sits in healthcare, and readers should not treat it as a software-sector comparable.

On the numbers, Heartflow has grown quickly since its August 8, 2025 IPO. Second-quarter 2026 revenue was $64.1 million, up 48% year over year, and the company raised full-year 2026 guidance to $250 million from a prior $232 million. Shares traded near $49.88 on September 11, for a market Capitalization around $4.34 billion.

As a recently public, high-growth but not-yet-durably-profitable MedTech name, Heartflow carries the same rate-sensitivity as unprofitable software, which is why it belongs in a rate-focused discussion even as it sits outside the software sector. What to watch: reimbursement dynamics, clinical-guideline adoption and the path to sustained profitability.

Slide Insurance (NASDAQ:SLDE): A Technology-Driven Insurer, Not a Software Stock

Slide is the group's biggest classification caveat. It is a property-insurance holding company, writing homeowners coverage, heavily in Florida and newly in California as of May 2026, that describes itself as technology-enabled and says it uses AI and Big Data to optimize underwriting. That is a genuine differentiator, but the company should be read as insurtech-flavored insurance, not as AI software. Its results are driven by premiums, catastrophe exposure and Underwriting discipline.

Those results have been strong. Slide, which priced its IPO in June 2025, reported second-quarter 2026 net income of $134.9 million, up 92.4%, on gross premiums written of $508.0 million and total revenue of $386.8 million, up 47.9%. Diluted EPS was $1.06, and the combined ratio improved to 57.6%, a level that signals unusually profitable underwriting. Slide initiated a $0.07 quarterly Dividend and reiterated full-year 2026 guidance of $1.95 billion in Gross Written Premiums and $470 million in net income. The obvious risk is hurricane season; a single major storm can reverse quarters of gains. What to watch: catastrophe losses and geographic concentration.

What Investors Should Watch

The unifying variable this month is rates, not AI. The September 16 FOMC meeting and the market's shifting hike odds set the tone for the two highest-multiple names, Datadog and Innodata, where a richer valuation means more sensitivity to yields near 4.80%. A hawkish surprise would pressure them regardless of fundamentals.

Company-specific catalysts differ sharply. For Innodata, watch customer Diversification and the September 30 CEO handover; a smooth transition and continued reduction in single-customer dependence would strengthen an already-improving story. For Datadog, watch whether growth holds above 30% and how AI features convert to durable spend rather than one-off experimentation. For Adeia, watch the lumpy cadence of license renewals and continued deleveraging, since the term loan still sits near $393 million. For Heartflow, watch reimbursement decisions and the path to sustained profitability. For Slide, watch Atlantic hurricane season, which can swamp everything else on the income statement, alongside its early expansion beyond Florida into California.

Valuation frames the whole discussion. Software and AI names command premium multiples precisely because investors extrapolate years of growth; when the discount rate rises, those distant cash flows are worth less today. That mechanical pressure is why a strong quarter and a falling stock can coexist, as Datadog's post-earnings move showed. Investors weighing this group should separate business quality, which is broadly solid across all five, from entry price, a different question entirely in a higher-rate regime.

Three Software Names, Two Honest Outliers

Innodata, Datadog and Adeia are the legitimate ways to think about AI data services, observability software and technology IP licensing on the Nasdaq. Heartflow and Slide are strong businesses with real AI content, but they belong to medtech and insurance respectively, and treating them as software comparables would mislead.

Each reported solid or record quarters, yet all five now face a market recalibrating around the risk of higher-for-longer rates. That backdrop, more than any single Earnings line, is what deserves attention into late September 2026, and it is why Datadog's post-earnings decline and Slide's hurricane-season exposure matter just as much as their headline growth rates.