Backblaze Inc

Backblaze shares rose sharply after the cloud storage company reported second-quarter results that beat expectations and announced a major AI collaboration. Revenue climbed 18% year over year to $42.7 million, driven by a 34% surge in B2 Cloud Storage revenue to $26.6 million. Adjusted EBITDA nearly doubled to $12.8 million, and adjusted earnings per share of $0.08 were four times the Wall Street estimate of $0.02. The company raised its full-year revenue guidance to roughly $173 million from $162.5 million and lifted its adjusted EBITDA margin target to 28% from 24%. Backblaze also entered into a more than five-year, $335 million collaboration with AI cloud infrastructure developer CoreWeave, which includes CoreWeave acquiring warrants valued at roughly $22 million.

Backblaze shares jumped 44% to $11.70 on Tuesday after the company announced a five-year, $335 million contract with CoreWeave to support AI storage demand. The deal is roughly 4.2 times Backblaze's 2025 cloud-storage revenue of $79.9 million, underscoring its scale relative to the company's current size. The agreement positions Backblaze as a hard-disk-drive-based storage layer for AI workloads, a role that William Blair analyst Jason Ader said validates the company's place in AI infrastructure. Backblaze had already gained momentum from first-quarter results, with revenue rising 12% to $38.7 million and annual recurring revenue climbing 28% to $158 million. The stock has now risen 136% in 2026, trading above the Street-high analyst target of $11.

Several emerging companies are approaching significant inflection points. NeOnc Technologies received Investigational New Drug authorization from the Department of Health–Abu Dhabi for its NEO100 program, covering adult Phase 1 through Phase 2 studies and establishing a pathway for pediatric development in high-grade gliomas, with a Phase 2a readout expected by the end of July 2026. Boundless Bio announced a proposed merger with privately held Serapha Bio, creating a publicly traded company focused on gene-editing therapies for Alpha-1 Antitrypsin Deficiency, backed by approximately $230 million in committed financing from a syndicate led by RTW Investments and RA Capital Management. Backblaze signed a five-year, multi-exabyte data storage agreement valued at approximately $335 million with AI cloud infrastructure provider CoreWeave, positioning Backblaze as a key storage provider for portions of CoreWeave's managed storage infrastructure. HeartSciences announced a proposed business combination with Fortitude Mining Holdings, a digital asset mining platform focused primarily on Zcash, with existing Fortitude owner Digital Currency Group expected to hold approximately 95% of the combined company upon closing.