By Rob Curran

Shares of Backblaze surged premarket after the provider of computer-backup and storage services posted first-quarter revenue ahead of Wall Street estimates and boosted its growth projections for the year, lifted by demand from artificial-intelligence customers.

Late Monday, the company posted a first-quarter loss of $6.1 million, or 10 cents a share, narrower than $9.3 million, or 17 cents a share, a year earlier.

The loss was also narrower than the 11 cents a share anticipated, on average, by analysts, as per FactSet.

Stripping out certain one-off items, Backblaze logged earnings of 4 cents a share, compared to Wall Street projection of breakeven on that metric.

Revenue rose 12% to $38.7 million, surpassing the analyst target of $37.8 million. Computer backup storage revenue was more or less flat at $16.2 million. Cloud storage revenue rose 24% to $22.4 million, as the company benefited from AI-related demand.

"We are seeing growing traction with AI customers, including winning a AI training data company and a generative AI video creation company, jointly contributing about $1.5 million in annual contract value, along with a 76% growth in AI customers year over year," said founder and Chief Executive Gleb Budman, in a statement.

For the second quarter, Backblaze forecast revenue in a range between $39.8 million and $40.2 million, ahead of the average Wall Street projection of $38.6 million.

For 2026, Backblaze boosted its projection for revenue to a range between $161.5 million and $163.5 million from a prior estimate of $156.5 million to $158.5 million.

Shares of Backblaze leapt 44% to $6.67 premarket.

Write to Rob Curran at rob.curran@dowjones.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

May 05, 2026 06:27 ET (10:27 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2026 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.