Software companies are pouring record money into R&D, and AI has turned that spend into a running meter. Financial statements show what was spent, not what it earned, so investors and boards can't tell winners from cash burners.
That blind spot is where the next decade's software wealth gets made or lost. Whoever sees R&D return first backs the compounders and avoids the burners.
We rank 251 public software companies on one scale, Ratings v3 (0 to 100), measuring 1-year lagged R&D payback, R&D spend, and net profit strictly from SEC filings.
Every note pairs a primary-filing thesis with live Ratings v3 scores and direct 1-click entry into the 3-statement financial model.
Microsoft booked $10.0B of revenue from OpenAI in the September quarter, 10.84% of the company total, up from 7.26% across fiscal 2026. Cash capex doubled to $39.37B and free cash flow fell 27%. The superintelligence buildout is real, and a growing share of it is sold to a related party.
Synopsys shows thin operating profit because the Ansys deal brings about $400M a quarter of acquired intangible amortization. The cash tells a different story: $2.94B of operating cash flow over the past year against $802M of operating profit.
Viant Technology, the demand-side platform that trades under $DSP, grew revenue 34% in the second quarter of 2026, but the share it keeps after media costs grew only 24% and one advertising agency holding company now brings in 12.5% of revenue. It produced about $47.74M of trailing free cash flow and paid $29.39M of it in stock.
ServiceTitan, the operating system for plumbing, HVAC and other trades contractors, grew revenue 20.9% in its fiscal second quarter, with payments and financing revenue up 24%. It produced about $117M of trailing free cash flow but paid about $219M in stock, so owners kept nothing after stock pay.
Every covered software company is evaluated through one standardized framework: quarterly financial statements and 5-year DCF models, published research pieces, and a single R&D Return rating formula.
Clean, scannable quarterly fundamentals, 6 core operating KPIs, explicit 5-year unlevered cash flow schedules, and WACC sensitivity matrices.
Published software equity research pieces, Stock Profile hubs (/research/[ticker]), catalyst notes, and valuation teardowns with quantified operating value levers across the coverage universe.
One unified Ratings v3 (0 to 100) formula combining 45% R&D Spend + 35% Net Profit + 20% 1-Yr Payback (Leader to Laggard), 3-factor percentile ranks, and the 1-year lagged 2×2 R&D Return Quadrant.
