Key points
- Tempus AI (TEM) is a Chicago cancer-data company that turned its first GAAP profit in the second quarter of 2026.
- Revenue rose 22% to $382.5 million in the quarter, and Tempus guided full-year revenue to about $1.6 billion.
- TEM closed at $52.11 on Aug. 14, down about 50% from its October 2025 high of $104.32.
- Founder and CEO Eric Lefkofsky controls about 58% of the voting power through super-voting stock.
Tempus AI (TEM) spent its first two years as a public company doing two things at once. It grew fast, and it burned cash. In the second quarter of 2026, the burn started to reverse. The Chicago healthcare-technology firm posted net income of $5.6 million, its first profitable quarter under standard accounting, on revenue of $382.5 million.
The stock hasn't tracked that improvement in a straight line. TEM closed at $52.11 on Aug. 14, about half its October 2025 high of $104.32, after touching $40.77 in late July. It trades on the Nasdaq with a $9.4 billion market value. The analysts who cover it don't agree on what that's worth. Their price targets run from $35 to $100.
| Tempus AI (TEM) | As of Aug. 14, 2026 |
|---|---|
| Recent price | $52.11 |
| Market value | about $9.4 billion |
| 52-week range | $40.77 to $104.32 |
| Trailing revenue | about $1.43 billion, up about 50% |
| Q2 2026 revenue | $382.5 million, up 22% |
| Q2 2026 net income | $5.6 million |
| 2026 revenue guidance | about $1.6 billion |
| Analyst target range | $35 to $100 |
What Tempus actually does
Eric Lefkofsky founded Tempus in 2015, after building and running Groupon (GRPN). The pitch is precision medicine. A hospital sends in a patient's tumor sample. Tempus sequences the DNA and RNA and returns a report on which mutations are driving the cancer and which drugs or trials might fit. Oncology is the core, with smaller efforts in cardiology and radiology.
But testing's only half the company. Every sequenced case adds to a library of de-identified clinical and molecular records, and Tempus licenses that library to drug makers designing trials and hunting for patients. The testing side brings in most of the revenue and grew 20% last quarter. The data business, Data and Apps, is smaller but much higher-margin, and it grew 28%. It's where the AI in the name comes from, with partners including AstraZeneca and BioNTech.
Tempus employs about 3,800 people and had raised money from SoftBank and Google before its June 2024 IPO at $37 a share. It bought the genetic-testing lab Ambry Genetics in early 2025, part of why full-year 2025 revenue rose 83%. Growth has cooled since. Trailing revenue is up about 50%, and last quarter's was 22%.
The turn toward profit
Tempus reported second-quarter results on July 30. Beyond the first GAAP profit, adjusted EBITDA was $8 million, an improvement of $13.6 million from a year earlier. Management raised full-year revenue guidance to between $1.60 billion and $1.61 billion, about 25% growth, and guided to about $65 million in adjusted EBITDA.
Cash is the bigger swing factor, and Lefkofsky told analysts a debt refinancing would cut annual interest expense by more than $30 million and help Tempus reach positive free cash flow by the end of 2026. Operating cash use narrowed to $7.5 million in the quarter.
On July 20, Tempus agreed to buy Personalis (PSNL), a cancer-monitoring company, for $16.25 a share, about $1.5 billion. The deal is mostly stock, with Tempus able to pay up to half in cash. It moves Tempus into minimal residual disease testing, which checks a treated patient's blood for signs the cancer is returning. They're aiming to close by early 2027.
Who controls the stock
Tempus has two classes of shares. Class A gets one vote. Class B gets 30, and Lefkofsky and his entities hold all of it. That gave him about 58% of the voting power as of Dec. 31, 2025, down from 64% at the IPO, on an economic stake near 40%. He can decide any shareholder vote even though he doesn't own half the company. His longtime partner and Groupon co-founder Brad Keywell holds about 7%.
Institutions own most of the rest, including Ark Invest, the firm run by Cathie Wood, which has held TEM across its innovation and genomics funds through both the run to $104 and the drop back. Lefkofsky himself has been selling. Filings show his entities sold about 1.1 million shares over six months, worth about $55.6 million. One block alone was about $35 million. The sales run through a 10b5-1 plan set in advance, so they aren't day-to-day calls on the price.
The bear case
On May 28, 2025, Spruce Point Capital Management, a short seller, published a report on Tempus. It accused the company of "aggressive and suspicious accounting practices" and said it was run by "leaders who have a dubious history." It tied Lefkofsky to what it called "public shareholder wealth destruction" at his earlier companies. TEM fell more than 19% that day.
A short seller profits when a stock drops, so the report wasn't neutral, and Tempus rejected it. But it put the CEO's record in front of investors, and the Rosen Law Firm and Gibbs Mura opened the kind of investigations that can precede a securities class action. Neither has produced a ruling. Growth is the slower-burning concern. A company valued for hypergrowth grew 22% last quarter, and the full-year guide implies about 25%, well off the 83% of 2025.
The Pelosi trade
Part of why so many retail investors know the ticker at all is a Congressional disclosure. On Jan. 14, 2025, a filing under Rep. Nancy Pelosi bought 50 TEM call options at a $20 strike. The disclosure read: "Purchased 50 call options with a strike price of $20 and an expiration date of 1/16/26." The trades in her filings are made by her husband, Paul Pelosi. TEM closed at $31.83 that day.
The timing looked good in hindsight. As the disclosure spread, TEM ran from $35 to $89 within a month, and it kept going above $100 by October. Pelosi's household exercised the options into 5,000 shares in January 2026, before they expired. Quiver Quantitative puts TEM up 63.68% since the trade date, against 33.32% for the S&P 500. That was a year and a half ago, though, and the stock now sits below where it traded for most of the stretch since. We track every new Congressional filing on our Congress trades page. Her Intel and Uber disclosures drew the same crowd, and we've looked at whether copying these trades actually works.
Wall Street's split verdict
The sell side is openly divided. JPMorgan cut its rating to neutral from overweight. Bank of America went to neutral too, on valuation. Needham kept its buy rating and a $75 target, and H.C. Wainwright stayed positive after lowering its target to $89. The average target is in the low $60s.
At $52, TEM trades at six and a half times trailing sales, with no trailing profit behind it yet. Its beta of 3.6 means the stock moves far more than the market in both directions, which the last two years already show. Tempus reports again in the fall, its first full quarter as a profitable company, if it stays one. That print and the Personalis vote are the next real tests.
Cover photo courtesy of Tempus AI.
