SV_Techie
Entrepreneur & Startup Mentor, Technology Investor
The more AI the world builds, the more data flows through Datadog. Revenue growth re-accelerated to 32% from 28%, the rarest signal in software in 2026. As the single pane of glass for cloud infrastructure, it monitors AI workloads that generate 10-100x more telemetry, with OpenAI, Anthropic and AWS using it for GPU clusters, token costs and model latency. AI-native revenue is about 12% of the total and growing triple digits, and expected revenue CAGR is 22%. x.comÂ
Snowflake and Datadog can withstand more competition because it comes alongside a massively expanded market, as cloud and inference providers saw in recent years. Responding to @GrantM's view that their high pricing invites rivals, open source and pressure on net retention, high pricing is not fundamental to the model. These companies can accept lower gross margins to secure revenue growth if needed, and already do by reselling AI tokens through their AI features. x.com x.comÂ
Combining estimated NTM revenue growth with trailing GAAP EBITDA margin makes Palo Alto Networks, Datadog, JFrog, Rubrik and Snowflake look overvalued against forward EV/sales. Zoom, Alphabet, Oracle, AppLovin, Microsoft, Fair Isaac, Adobe, Amazon and Teradata remain undervalued on this Rule of 40 comparison; Palantir, Cloudflare and CrowdStrike remain overvalued. x.comÂ
Datadog shows AI is a tailwind for large mission-critical software platforms rather than a SaaS apocalypse, with revenue accelerating and customers buying more. It can charge outside AI agents a toll to access its data, volume likely to grow 100x in 12-24 months; it sells its own SRE agent for automated root-cause analysis; and it has become a top security company in a fast-growing AI security market. Like web to mobile, AI rewards the best software firms. x.comÂ
Datadog is capturing most of the new telemetry data tax from AI, disproving fears that AI would monitor itself or that LLM costs would eat observability budgets. AI workloads generate 1,000% more telemetry than legacy apps, revenue growth re-accelerated to 32% from 25%, and OpenAI and Anthropic are foundational clients. Billings grew 37% and RPO 51% to $3.48B, de-risking the next three quarters, and net revenue retention is back in the low 120s. At a 30%+ pace, $250 is next before year-end. … Show more
CrowdStrike, Palantir and Datadog trade on multiples even sillier than application SaaS multiples were at their lows, set by the same investors who control both groups. Application SaaS turned out to be a long. The sell side is likely to raise targets circularly, citing low-end multiples to justify premiums for names like Datadog and the discount to infrastructure to lift app-software targets. x.com x.comÂ
Zeta Global, ServiceNow, Datadog and CrowdStrike look increasingly attractive among software names as AI disrupts applications: businesses with proprietary data that build on AI and deliver intelligence and measurable outcomes could win. Cybersecurity valuations remain a concern. x.comÂ
Datadog could rise 2-3x within months as hyperscalers shift from in-house tools to buying it to monitor GPU clusters and AI training. Q1 revenue grew 32% to $1.006B with a 22% non-GAAP operating margin and $289M of free cash flow, and customers spending over $100K a year grew 21%, a sign of share gains. One platform for apps, infrastructure, data, models and security deepens data ties that make migration hard, keeping net retention above 120%. Any industry running AI in the cloud needs it. x.comÂ
Datadog's valuation looks extremely stretched at 17x next-twelve-month revenue after jumping 30% on its May 7 earnings and grinding up another 30% since from a much larger base. Even with the risk case off the table for now, as a reply notes, the move is still dumb. x.com x.comÂ
Datadog's 15% drop on slower Q3 guidance looks like a buying opportunity, with the long-term thesis intact. Revenue rose 36% to $1.1 billion, but its largest AI customer renewed a nine-figure contract while cutting usage, showing the downside of consumption pricing and one frontier AI account's weight on growth. The broader business keeps strengthening: non-AI revenue is accelerating into the high-20% range, enterprise bookings more than doubled and customers are adopting more of the platform. … Show more