Sometimes, a company can deliver exactly what Wall Street expects on the bottom line, beat expectations on the top line, and still get a collective "meh" from investors. That was the story for SoundHound AI (SOUN) on Thursday.

The voice AI specialist reported its fourth-quarter results, and the stock's reaction was about as exciting as watching paint dry—shares were basically flat in extended trading. But the numbers themselves tell a more interesting story.

Let's start with the headline figures. SoundHound posted a quarterly loss of two cents per share, which was perfectly in line with what analysts had predicted. No surprises there. The revenue number, however, was a pleasant beat. The company brought in $55.06 million, topping the consensus estimate of $53.99 million. More impressively, that's a jump of about 59% from the $34.54 million it reported in the same quarter last year.

The full-year picture is where the growth story really pops. SoundHound's revenue for 2024 hit $168.9 million. That's not just up—it's nearly double (a 99% increase, to be precise) the revenue from the prior year. The company also reported a full-year non-GAAP gross margin of 58%.

Now, it's not all sunshine and rainbows. SoundHound is still burning cash as it grows. The full-year non-GAAP net loss was $53.9 million, and adjusted EBITDA showed a loss of $58.4 million. On a per-share basis, the non-GAAP loss for the year was 13 cents.

So, you have a company growing its sales at a blistering pace but still firmly in the red. What's the narrative? CEO Keyvan Mohajer has a clear take. "As traditional software faces massive AI disruption, businesses are looking to partner with AI natives that can help them achieve success in a new era," he said. "This is creating strong tailwinds for SoundHound."

He added, "Our results speak for themselves. All key profit metrics were up and in the last quarter we closed a record number of customer deals as we capitalized on the surge in demand for enterprise-grade AI."

Despite the CEO's bullish commentary and the solid revenue beat, the market's initial reaction was muted. According to market data, SoundHound stock inched up just 0.23% to $9 in after-hours trading following the release. It seems investors might be waiting to see those "strong tailwinds" translate more decisively to the bottom line before getting more excited.