January's Tech Tumble: Inside the Market's Cold Shoulder to Unprofitable Innovators

Shares of SoundHound AI (NASDAQ: SOUN) fell 21.7% in January, according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence. The maker of voice control systems and other computer interfaces built on artificial intelligence (AI) and the human voice ran into some unexpected competition -- and investors were generally wary of unprofitable growth stocks last month.

In the final analysis, economic flutters explained most of SoundHound AI's January drop, largely in lockstep with stocks such as C3.ai (NYSE: AI) and IonQ (NYSE: IONQ). Like SoundHound AI, these companies are deeply unprofitable and focused on extreme growth opportunities in promising but risky technology markets. Enterprise-class AI services provider C3.ai closed January's trading 13.7% lower, while quantum computing pioneer IonQ fell 17.1%.