Figma reported better-than-expected third-quarter earnings and raised its full-year revenue outlook, but shares dropped 7% after the company said it is intentionally slowing near-term revenue growth to accelerate AI adoption among customers.
Figma shares fell 7% in extended trading Wednesday after the design software company reported third-quarter results that surpassed Wall Street expectations, then outlined a strategy of deliberately slowing near-term revenue growth in favor of expanding AI adoption among its customers.
The company posted adjusted earnings of 10 cents per share on revenue of $391.4 million, against consensus estimates of 5 cents and $375.8 million, respectively. Revenue grew approximately 43% year over year during the quarter.
Net loss narrowed significantly, to $81.3 million, or 15 cents per share, compared with a loss of $1.10 billion, or $2.72 per share, in the same period a year earlier. Figma's 12% adjusted operating margin also cleared the 6.1% StreetAccount consensus.
Executives raised the full-year revenue forecast to a range of $1.497 billion to $1.499 billion, up from a prior outlook of $1.463 billion to $1.467 billion. Analysts surveyed by LSEG had expected $1.471 billion. The company also lifted its projected operating margin for the year to 11%, from 9% as of August.
For the fourth quarter, Figma guided for revenue growth of approximately 33% — above the 28% analysts had anticipated, but slower than the third quarter's pace.
The deceleration is intentional, finance chief Praveer Melwani told CNBC in an interview Wednesday. During the quarter, Figma began giving clients more AI credits while holding prices steady, a move the company acknowledged would compress near-term revenue.
"What that means is you're potentially trading off near-term revenue, investing in your customers, and then allowing yourself to then grow durably over the long term," Melwani said.
The strategy appears to be generating early engagement signals. Figma said the number of weekly users at organizations spending more than $10,000 annually on the platform who used AI credits increased by nearly 50% during the quarter. The share of work performed by Figma's own AI model doubled, and the rate of users undoing AI-generated output declined.
Figma went public on July 31, 2025, and its shares have declined roughly 41% in 2026, even as the S&P 500 has gained 12%. Investor concern earlier in the year centered on whether AI tools could displace the company's core design software. That anxiety has since eased across much of the enterprise software sector as incumbents continued posting consistent growth.
Co-founder and CEO Dylan Field flagged cybersecurity as a growing area of focus. AI agents have compromised systems at companies including Hugging Face in recent months, Field noted, underscoring the need for Figma to closely examine the security posture of its vendor ecosystem. Field said clients are not asking Figma to become a security vendor, but that the company must scrutinize "the security of all of our vendors right now."
Figma's results arrive one day after design software rival Canva said it would cut 22% of its workforce, adding a note of competitive turbulence to the sector.
Whether Figma's bet on AI-led customer investment translates into durable revenue expansion remains the central question for investors heading into 2027.
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