Canva has cut its annual revenue growth target by a third to 20%, blaming AI feature delivery costs that ran far above expectations. CEO Melanie Perkins said user demand for the AI features was "significantly beyond expectations," but the company plans to hold off on large-scale rollout until it can optimize its architecture, lower unit costs and refine its business model. Since launching Canva AI 2.0 in April, per-task costs have fallen nearly 90%, yet AI users now generate three times as many designs as with the earlier version, keeping profitability under pressure. The situation points to a broader software industry problem: AI inference costs are breaking the traditional zero-marginal-cost economics of software. PitchBook analysts call Canva and Figma the most obvious signals. Figma's free cash flow margin slid from 27% in the first quarter to 14% in the second, with third-quarter revenue growth expected to slow from 48% to 36%. Canva, which conducted an employee share sale at a $42 billion valuation, was once expected to go public in 2026; analysts now believe the IPO may be pushed to next year.
Canva has cut its annual revenue growth target by a third to 20%, citing AI feature delivery costs that ran far above expectations. CEO Melanie Perkins said user demand for the AI features was "significantly beyond expectations," but the company plans to hold off on large-scale rollout until it can optimize its architecture, lower unit costs and refine its business model.
Since launching Canva AI 2.0 in April, per-task costs have fallen nearly 90%, yet AI users now generate three times as many designs as with the earlier version, keeping profitability under pressure. The situation points to a broader software industry issue: AI inference costs are breaking the traditional zero-marginal-cost economics of software. PitchBook analysts call Canva and Figma the most obvious signals of this trend.
Figma's free cash flow margin slid from 27% in the first quarter to 14% in the second, with third-quarter revenue growth expected to slow from 48% to 36%. Canva, which conducted an employee share sale at a $42 billion valuation, was once expected to go public in 2026. Analysts now believe the IPO may be pushed to next year.
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