Key Highlights

● Progress Software reported fiscal second-quarter 2026 Revenue of $253.465 million, up 7% year over year, with annualized Recurring Revenue of $868 million, and guided full-year revenue to $1,002 million.

● Rezolve AI reported first-half 2026 revenue of $130.8 million, roughly a twenty-one-fold increase year over year, and reaffirmed full-year 2026 guidance of about $360 million alongside a $500 million annual-recurring-revenue target.

● ZenaTech reported full-year 2025 revenue of $12.9 million, up 558% year over year, with first-quarter 2026 revenue up 640%, off a market Capitalization near $118 million.

● Baidu's Apollo Go autonomous fleet accumulated over 350 million autonomous kilometers, including more than 240 million fully driverless, across 28 global cities, as second-quarter 2026 revenue reached RMB 31.3 billion.

Five very different Nasdaq-listed names, a profitable infrastructure-software compounder, a micro-cap drone specialist, a hyper-growth agentic-commerce story, a small managed-IT security provider and a Chinese search-and-cloud giant, show how far the AI software label now stretches. Here is what the filings actually say in September 2026, and what they do not.

One AI Label, Five Completely Different Businesses

There is no cleaner way to see how broad the AI, software and technology services theme has become than to line up these five tickers side by side. Progress Software (NASDAQ: PRGS) is a decades-old, cash-generating infrastructure vendor. ZenaTech (NASDAQ: ZENA) is a sub-$120 million drone-software micro-cap. Rezolve AI (NASDAQ: RZLV) is a loss-making commerce platform reporting revenue up nearly twentyfold. Intelligent Protection Management (NASDAQ: IPM) is a small managed-IT-security shop riding an AI-hardware procurement wave. Baidu (NASDAQ: BIDU) is a Chinese search-and-cloud heavyweight rebuilding itself around generative AI and robotaxis.

They share a listing venue and a buzzword, not a Business model. What follows verifies each one against primary disclosures, separates confirmed facts from analysis, and flags where the numbers Demand caution. Nothing here is Investment advice.

The September 2026 Backdrop for Software and AI

Through late August and early September 2026, US market coverage described Equity indices near record territory on AI enthusiasm, punctuated by sharp pullbacks: a September 3 session saw the Dow fall more than 260 points after a strong jobs report reignited worries about the Federal Reserve's rate path. The tension is familiar: AI capital spending keeps lifting the highest-quality software and semiconductor names, while rate expectations whip the longest-duration, unprofitable growth stories around.

That split matters for the five companies below. Profitable, recurring-revenue software in Progress and a cash-generative platform giant in Baidu are judged on margins and durability. The smaller, faster-growing names, ZenaTech, Rezolve and IPM, are judged on whether reported growth converts into sustainable profit before sentiment turns. In a rate-sensitive tape, that distinction is the whole game.

A note on tickers: all five are confirmed Nasdaq listings, and, contrary to what "ZENA" might suggest, none is the biotech Zenas BioPharma. Every name here genuinely sits inside the software and technology-services universe, though the quality gap between them is wide.

Progress Software (NASDAQ:PRGS): The Profitable Anchor

Progress Software Corporation reported fiscal second-quarter 2026 results for the quarter ended May 31, 2026, with total revenue of $253.465 million, up 7% year over year, annualized recurring revenue (ARR) of $868 million, Net Income of $21.073 million, GAAP diluted EPS of $0.50 and non-GAAP diluted EPS of $1.62. The company guided full-year fiscal 2026 revenue to $1,002 million, GAAP diluted EPS of $1.74 and non-GAAP diluted EPS of $6.21. CEO Yogesh Gupta attributed the quarter to "broad-based demand" and "continued momentum in our AI-powered offerings."

Progress is the ballast of this group, an infrastructure-software business with real recurring revenue, real GAAP profit and a serial-acquirer model. Per aggregator reporting, it agreed in July 2026 to acquire Domo's AI and data-platform Assets for roughly $400 million, expected to close by November 2026; readers should confirm final terms in the company's own filings.

What to watch: whether the Domo deal closes on the stated timeline and whether ARR growth, only 2% year over year, reaccelerates as AI features monetize. Progress is a prove-the-acquisition-math story, not a hypergrowth one.

ZenaTech (NASDAQ:ZENA): The Drone-Software Micro-Cap

ZenaTech, Inc. is a Nasdaq-listed technology company combining cloud enterprise software with an AI-powered "Drone-as-a-Service" business. It reported full-year 2025 revenue of $12.9 million, up 558% year over year, with fourth-quarter revenue up 670%, and first-quarter 2026 revenue up 640% year over year. Aggregator data puts its market capitalization near $118 million and counts 28 completed acquisitions in that Drone-as-a-Service business; recent 2026 items include the ESM Software Acquisition closing August 25 and Irish Aviation Authority authorization for drone crop-application services on September 10.

The percentages are eye-catching precisely because the revenue base is tiny; triple-digit growth off roughly $13 million is not comparable to Progress's scaled recurring model. ZenaTech is positioning around US defense demand (its ZenaDrone line) and potential tailwinds from tariffs of up to 100% on imported drones, which management frames as a competitive edge.

What to watch: acquisition integration, cash burn and whether defense pilots convert to contracts. This is a speculative micro-cap where dilution and execution risk are the dominant variables.

Rezolve AI (NASDAQ:RZLV): The Agentic-Commerce Moonshot

Rezolve AI reported first-half 2026 revenue of $130.8 million for the six months ended June 30, 2026, described as roughly a 21-fold (about 1,970%) increase year over year, and reaffirmed full-year 2026 revenue guidance of about $360 million alongside a stated $500 million ARR target. Its products include Brain Commerce, Brain Checkout and the brainpowa large language model built for commerce. Full-year 2025 revenue was $46.80 million with a net loss of $101.41 million; market capitalization is near $955 million.

Rezolve is the purest agentic-commerce bet here, software that lets retailers deploy AI shopping and checkout agents. The reported growth is extraordinary, and extraordinary growth deserves extraordinary scrutiny: the company remains loss-making, and a jump from roughly $47 million to a guided $360 million in a single year is the kind of trajectory investors should trace directly to audited filings and revenue-recognition detail rather than headline multiples.

What to watch: the October 6, 2026 investor day at Nasdaq, evidence behind the August 2026 note that Google selected Rezolve's distributed-database technology, and whether ARR converges toward the $500 million goal. Guidance is a forecast, not a fact.

Intelligent Protection Management (NASDAQ:IPM): AI Hardware Demand, Small Base

Intelligent Protection Management Corp, a provider of managed IT security, private-cloud hosting and Cybersecurity services, reported second-quarter 2026 revenue of $6.46 million, up 12.9% year over year, and six-month revenue of $12.82 million, up 14.0% (results announced August 11, 2026). The second-quarter net loss widened 28.7% to $1.35 million, with adjusted EBITDA of negative $0.61 million. Procurement revenue rose 64% to $2.0 million in the quarter, driven by sales of AI-related equipment including memory, CPU and GPU components; management also cited semiconductor Supply constraints that delayed shipments and caused a loss on one large order. The company launched an AI virtual assistant, "IPM GO," on September 9, 2026.

Intelligent Protection Management is the smallest operating story here and the most literal example of AI demand: customers building out their infrastructure as quickly as possible are buying AI hardware through the company's procurement channel. That is real revenue, but low-margin, lumpy and supply-chain-exposed, and the widening loss underlines the risk. Aggregator sources indicate the company was formerly known as Snap Interactive; readers should confirm the corporate history in SEC filings.

What to watch: whether recurring managed-services and cloud revenue can grow faster than volatile hardware procurement, and whether losses narrow.

Baidu (NASDAQ:BIDU): The China AI-and-Robotaxi Giant

Baidu, Inc.'s American depositary shares trade on Nasdaq. For the second quarter ended June 30, 2026, Baidu reported total revenue of RMB 31.3 billion (about $342 million in one reported conversion). Its Apollo Go autonomous fleet had accumulated over 350 million autonomous kilometers, including more than 240 million fully driverless, across 28 global cities. CEO Robin Li described Baidu's "transition from an internet-centric company to an AI-first company."

Baidu is the scale bookend to this list, profitable, cash-generative and reshaping its mix toward AI cloud and autonomous driving even as legacy Advertising pressures weigh on the Bottom Line (coverage of the quarter flagged a profit miss). The robotaxi kilometer milestones are among the most concrete autonomy metrics any listed company discloses.

What to watch: AI Cloud's growth durability, Apollo Go's path to profitability, and the ever-present overhang of US-China regulatory and depositary-share listing risk that sits outside the fundamentals.

What Investors Should Watch

Watch the quality spectrum, not the shared label. Progress and Baidu are judged on margins, Cash Flow and durable AI monetization; ZenaTech, Rezolve and IPM are judged on whether spectacular percentage growth off small or unprofitable bases becomes real earnings.

Near-term catalysts to track: closing terms and timing of Progress's Domo transaction; Rezolve's October 6 investor day and any audited detail behind its guidance; ZenaTech's defense pilots and acquisition integration; IPM's mix of recurring services versus one-off AI-hardware procurement; and Baidu's AI Cloud and Apollo Go trajectory into its next results.

Cross-cutting risks: the September 2026 rate backdrop punishes long-duration, unprofitable growth on any hawkish surprise; semiconductor supply constraints hit the smallest names hardest; and Baidu carries China and depositary-share-specific risk no operating metric can offset.

Scale and Speculation Sit on the Same Ticker Tape

These five tickers map what AI software and technology services means on the Nasdaq Composite today, from a profitable infrastructure compounder to a robotaxi giant, with speculative micro-caps in between. Progress and Baidu report scaled, profitable operations; Rezolve, ZenaTech and IPM report growth that still has to prove it can pay for itself.

The twenty-one-fold revenue jump at Rezolve and the triple-digit growth rates at ZenaTech look nothing alike on a chart compared with Progress's 7% quarterly growth, yet all three are competing for the same AI-software attention. Treat each on its own filings, and keep the forecasts labeled as forecasts until the audited numbers catch up to the guidance.