Owner Scorecard


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DVLT, Datavault AI Inc.

Commercial Services & Supplies asset-light Unprofitable

Datavault AI Inc. is a pioneering technology licensing company that owns a portfolio of patented, secure platforms designed to redefine how data is managed, valued, and monetized in the modern era.

Datavault has two synergistic platforms—Data Sciences and Acoustic Sciences—that our executive leadership is focusing on as key drivers of future revenue growth.

Our Data Sciences division is focused on the delivery of cyber-secure, privacy protected data management and monetization technologies, the heart of which are our offerings of artificial intelligence ("AI")-driven agents—branded as Data Vault , DataValue , DataScore , and Data Vault Bank .

Latest annual: FY2025 10-K
DVLT · Datavault AI Inc.
I

The business

What it sells, where the money comes from, the kind of company it is.

Revenue · FY2025
$39M
+1361.8% YoY · 75% 5-yr CAGR
Vital signs · TTM
Cash & investments $2M
Cash burn · annual $26M
Runway 1 mo

The business in brief

read the 10-K →

What this business is and what moves its needle, from its own SEC filings.

What it is
Revenue is led by License (77%) and Live Events (15%), with 2 more lines behind.
Situation
Unprofitable. No meaningful revenue yet; the record is the cash on hand against the burn.
What moves the needle
Operating margin has run around −615% through the cycle on a 12% gross margin, the operating line deeply negative — so the lever is the path to a margin at all: revenue growth against the cost curve and the cash runway, not the level of a margin that isn't there yet. Inventory runs near 101% of sales, so how fast it turns back into cash — and the risk of writing it down when demand softens — sits alongside the margin. On its own account, the filing leans hardest on customer concentration, set against the numbers in what the filing emphasizes, below.
Is it a good business?
Return on capital has rarely cleared the cost of capital (median −735%, above 15% in 0 of 6 years). Owner earnings, the cash-based check, have been thin too. This is price-taker territory, where the balance sheet and the cycle matter more than any multiple; the rest is in the 10-K.

Every line is arithmetic on the company's filings, shown in full in the sections below.

Where the money comes from

read the 10-K →

License is 77% of revenue, with Live Events the other meaningful line at 15%.

Revenue by product line, FY2025
  • License77%$30M
  • Live Events15%$6M
  • Consumer audio products, components, and other8%$3M
  • Components7%$3M
  • Software1%$291K
  • Consumer Audio Products1%$270K
By geographyNorth America93%Asia Pacific5%Europe1%

From the segment footnote of the company's own 10-K. Shares are of total revenue; the profit bar shows each segment's share of segment operating profit, before unallocated corporate costs.

II

The record

Ten years of arithmetic, read across the cycle.

The record, 2017–2025

realized figures from each filing · older years to the left
2017’172018’182019’192020’202021’212022’222023’232024’242025’25TTMTTMMar 2026
Income statement
$1M$1M$2M$2M$7M$3M$2M$3M$39M$42MRevenueRevenue
−14%−17%−4%18%28%12%14%Gross marginGross mgn
128%266%170%173%61%153%258%364%90%115%SG&A / revenueSG&A/rev
329%355%326%190%80%212%358%292%42%47%R&D / revenueR&D/rev
($7M)($12M)($11M)($11M)($12M)($18M)($21M)($21M)($32M)($54M)Operating incomeOp. inc.
−614.8%−842.1%−669.9%−469.5%−176.0%−536.2%n/m−790.5%−83.1%−128.9%Operating marginOp. mgn
($26M)($67M)($12M)($13M)($12M)($16M)($19M)($51M)($79M)($123M)Net incomeNet inc.
Cash flow & returns
($10M)($10M)($11M)($10M)($12M)($18M)($15M)($18M)($24M)($26M)Operating cash flowOp. cash
$60K$42K$58K$66K$79K$122K$98K$70K$10M$11MDepreciationDeprec.
$15M$55M$843K$2M($1M)($4M)$2M$31M$39M$74MWorking capital & otherWC & other
$66K$87K$35K$52K$99K$43K$50K$35K$380K$592KCapexCapex
5.9%6.3%2.1%2.2%1.5%1.3%2.4%1.3%1.0%1.4%Capex / revenueCapex/rev
($10M)($10M)($11M)($10M)($12M)($18M)($15M)($18M)($24M)($27M)Owner earningsOwner earn.
−939.5%−727.4%−664.3%−412.3%−177.1%−521.8%−714.2%−656.7%−61.4%−64.2%Owner earnings marginOE mgn
($10M)($10M)($11M)($10M)($12M)($18M)($15M)($18M)($24M)($27M)Free cash flowFCF
−939.5%−730.6%−664.3%−412.3%−177.4%−521.8%−714.2%−656.7%−61.4%−64.2%Free cash flow marginFCF mgn
-1524%-2979%-1192%-278%-18%-11%-19%ROICROIC
-1764%-2027%-174%-72%-60%-33%-56%Return on equityROE
n/mn/m−174%−72%−60%−33%−56%Retained to equityRetained/eq
Balance sheet
$249K$3M$298K$7M$13M$3M$411K$3M$2M$2MCash & investmentsCash+inv
$55K$112K$108K$85K$214K$273K$294K$349K$888K$1MReceivablesReceiv.
$693K$1M$3M$3M$5M$7M$3M$2M$636K$717KInventoryInvent.
$1M$532K$2M$672K$2M$2M$2M$3M$11M$7MAccounts payablePayables
($584K)$963K$1M$2M$3M$5M$711K($812K)($9M)($5M)Operating working capitalOper. WC
$1M$5M$4M$11M$19M$11M$4M$6M$143M$106MCurrent assetsCur. assets
$9M$1M$3M$2M$3M$4M$4M$4M$27M$23MCurrent liabilitiesCur. liab.
0.1×3.7×1.5×4.9×6.5×3.0×1.1×1.6×5.3×4.6×Current ratioCurr. ratio
$1M$5M$4M$11M$19M$11M$5M$101M$275M$250MTotal assetsAssets
$847K$457K$10M$7MTotal debtDebt
($7M)($2M)$6M$5MNet debt / (cash)Net debt
-0.5×-0.3×-8.1×-1279.0×-20.1×-23.0×-16.6×-1.6×-2.6×Interest coverageInt. cov.
($94M)$4M$594K$7M$16M($2M)($5M)$86M$238M$220MShareholders’ equityEquity
0.0%206.3%6.3%39.9%20.6%60.2%98.8%111.3%16.0%25.9%Stock comp / revenueSBC/rev
Per share
6.8M6.8M948K5.2M124K195K53K4.2M153M574MShares out (diluted)Shares
$0.16$0.20$1.76$0.46$52.74$17.27$39.56$0.64$0.26$0.07Revenue / shareRev/sh
$-3.79$-9.96$-12.69$-2.43$-95.31$-82.89$-355.53$-12.25$-0.52$-0.21EPS (diluted)EPS
$-1.55$-1.48$-11.67$-1.89$-93.43$-90.10$-282.51$-4.18$-0.16$-0.05Owner earnings / shareOE/sh
$-1.55$-1.48$-11.67$-1.89$-93.59$-90.10$-282.51$-4.18$-0.16$-0.05Free cash flow / shareFCF/sh
$0.01$0.01$0.04$0.01$0.80$0.22$0.95$0.01$0.00$0.00Cap. spending / shareCapex/sh
$-13.98$0.56$0.63$1.40$132.06$-10.24$-97.94$20.42$1.56$0.38Book value / shareBVPS

Share counts before 2018 are restated ×20 for a stock split, so per-share figures sit on one basis.

The diluted share count moved ×1/7.13 into 2019 — shares retired, not a split the totals corroborate — and the per-share figures carry the counts as filed.

The diluted share count moved ×5.52 into 2020 — shares issued, not a split the totals corroborate — and the per-share figures carry the counts as filed.

The diluted share count moved ×1/42.21 into 2021 — shares retired, not a split the totals corroborate — and the per-share figures carry the counts as filed.

The diluted share count moved ×1.57 into 2022 — shares issued, not a split the totals corroborate — and the per-share figures carry the counts as filed.

The diluted share count moved ×1/3.7 into 2023 — shares retired, not a split the totals corroborate — and the per-share figures carry the counts as filed.

The diluted share count moved ×79.71 into 2024 — shares issued, not a split the totals corroborate — and the per-share figures carry the counts as filed.

The diluted share count moved ×36.35 into 2025 — shares issued, not a split the totals corroborate — and the per-share figures carry the counts as filed.

The diluted share count moved ×3.76 into TTM — shares issued, not a split the totals corroborate — and the per-share figures carry the counts as filed.

Per-share growththe realized rate an owner's share compounded
8-yr5-yr
Revenue / share+5.7%/yr−11.0%/yr
Capital spending / share−15.7%/yr−24.2%/yr
Book value / share+2.2%/yr

The record, charted

FY2017–2025

Each measure over its full record; the current point and the worst year marked. Share counts on the current split basis.

Share count
153Mpeak FY2025
ROIC
−11%low FY2019
Gross margin
14%low FY2018

Owner earnings vs. net income

Owner earningsNet income

The accountant's number, and the cash an owner can take; the gap is the tell.

($24M)owner earningsvs.($79M)net incomelow FY2025

Net income is the accountant's number; owner earnings is the cash an owner could take out. The walk between them, off the cash-flow statement, and whether the gap is widening or holding.

In fiscal 2025 the business turned a $79M loss into ($24M) of owner earnings: more cash than the profit line showed, after the non-cash charges and the capital it put back in.

FY2025FY2024FY2023FY2022FY2021
Reported net income($79M)($51M)($19M)($16M)($12M)
Depreciation & amortizationnon-cash charge added back+$10M+$70K+$98K+$122K+$79K
Stock-based compensationreal costnon-cash, but a real cost+$6M+$3M+$2M+$2M+$1M
Working capital & othertiming of cash in and out, other non-cash items+$39M+$31M+$2M−$4M−$1M
Cash from operations($24M)($18M)($15M)($18M)($12M)
Maintenance capital expenditurethe spending needed just to hold position and volume−$380K−$35K−$50K−$43K−$79K
Owner earnings($24M)($18M)($15M)($18M)($12M)
Growth capital expenditurediscretionary; spent to get bigger, not to stand still−$20K
Free cash flow($24M)($18M)($15M)($18M)($12M)
Owner-earnings marginowner earnings ÷ revenue-61%-657%-714%-522%-177%

Owner earnings is the cash an owner could pull out without starving the business: operating cash less the capital it must spend to hold its position . The cash-flow statement also adds stock comp back as non-cash, but it is a real cost paid in shares; counted as the expense it is (less $6M), owner earnings is nearer ($30M).

Maintenance capex is estimated as depreciation where a growing business invests above it; free cash flow is the figure the scorecard's free-cash margin reads.

III

Quality & stewardship

Returns, the balance sheet, capital allocation, and pay.

Owner’s Scorecard

FY2025 10-K · source on SEC EDGAR →

Will it survive?

  • Does not cover its interest
    Operating income ($32M) ÷ interest expense $20M
    What this means

    A full year of operating profit didn't cover the interest bill. This is the zombie zone: the business depends on refinancing, asset sales, or forbearance to service its debt.

  • Net debt against an operating loss
    Cash $2M − debt $10M
    What this means

    Netting $2M of cash and short-term investments against $10M of debt leaves $8M owed, with no operating profit this year to measure it against — understand that combination before anything else about the company. Net debt is the leverage figure that matters: the cash is already set against the debt. Strategic or illiquid investments aren't counted here.

  • Negative, funded by others
    DSO 8 + DIO 27 − DPO 455 days
    What this means

    Days cash is tied up between paying suppliers and collecting from customers. A negative cycle is a quiet moat: suppliers and customers fund the operation (Buffett's “float”), the company grows on other people's money.

Is it a good business?

  • Below average through the cycle
    6-yr median, range -2979%–-11%; -10% latest = NOPAT ($26M) ÷ invested capital $246M
    Industry peers: median -22%
    What this means

    The rate the business earns on the money tied up in it, Buffett's north star, because over time a stock tracks the ROIC beneath it. Above ~15% sustained hints at a moat; a return below the cost of capital (~8%) erodes value as a business grows rather than building it — the test Buffett weighs most. The headline is the median of the last 6 years (it ran -10% most recently), so one peak or trough year doesn't set the verdict. Asset-light businesses (R&D expensed, little capital) read artificially high, pair this with Owner Earnings.

  • Consumes cash through the cycle
    9-yr median margin, range -940%–-61%; latest ($24M) = operating cash ($24M) − maintenance capex $380K
    Industry peers: median 3%
    What this means

    What an owner could take out without starving the business: operating cash less the maintenance capital it must spend to hold its position — Buffett's owner earnings. That's -61% of revenue this year, a -657% median across 9 years. Treating stock comp as the real expense it is (less $6M of SBC) leaves ($30M).

  • Loss, and burning cash
    Net income ($79M) · cash from operations ($24M)
    What this means

    The company reported a net loss, so a conversion ratio isn't meaningful. What matters then is whether operations still threw off cash, here, they did not.

How is the cash used?

  • No surplus to allocate
    What this means

    The business didn't generate positive Owner Earnings this year, so any distributions came from the balance sheet or borrowing, not from operations.

  • Investing or harvesting? 0.04×
    Harvesting
    Capex $380K ÷ depreciation $10M
    What this means

    Descriptive, not a grade. Above ~1× means investing faster than assets wear out (growth, or, sustained for years, today's earnings carrying less depreciation than tomorrow's will). Below means spending less than it's wearing out (efficiency, or a melting asset base). The ratio won't tell you which; the filings will.

Graham’s defensive tests · 2 of 5 met

Graham’s numerical criteria for the defensive investor (The Intelligent Investor, ch. 14), run on the filings. A floor of safety, not a buy signal; many fine modern businesses fail his strictest liquidity rules by design.

  • Adequate size Miss
    Revenue ≥ $2B · $39M
    What this means

    Big enough to weather a storm. Graham's 1972 floor was ~$100M of sales (≈ $700M today); we use a $2B revenue line as a conservative modern stand-in.

  • Strong liquidity Pass
    Current ratio ≥ 2× · 5.32×
    What this means

    Current assets at least twice current liabilities, near-term bills covered without touching the business. Strict by design: many cash-rich modern firms run leaner and miss it, holding their cushion in longer-dated securities.

  • Conservative debt Pass
    Debt ≤ working capital · $10M vs $116M WC
    What this means

    Graham's rule that borrowings not exceed net current assets. Capital-heavy and buyback-heavy firms routinely fail it, read it next to interest coverage, not alone.

  • Earnings stability Miss
    A profit every year (9-yr record) · 9 loss years
    What this means

    Graham wanted earnings in each of the past ten years, the stability a defensive owner leans on.

  • Dividend record Miss
    Uninterrupted dividends · none paid
    What this means

    An unbroken dividend was Graham's mark of durability. He wanted twenty years; the filings show about ten, and a single suspension breaks the streak. Non-payers, many fine modern compounders, fall outside his defensive net by design.

  • Earnings growth
    Earnings +33% over the record ·
    What this means

    Earnings were negative early in the record, a growth rate isn't meaningful.

  • Moderate price
    P/E ≤ 15 and P/E × P/B ≤ 22.5 · decided by the price
    What this means

    Graham's valuation gate, the wall he kept between a sound business and a sound investment. Three-year average earnings are $-0.06/share (latest year $-0.09), the averaged base the calculator's gate runs on, and book value is $0.28/share. Enter a price in “What the price implies” just below for the P/E, P/B, and whether it clears. But this is the rule Buffett outgrew: there's no hard P/E law, and a wonderful business can deserve a far richer multiple if the thesis holds, treat it as the bargain-hunter's floor, not a verdict on the price.

Durability & moat, 2017–2025

Whether the record’s returns held, and what the capital reinvested earned.

  • Profitable years 0 of 9
    What this means

    Lost money in 9 year(s), look at what happened there before trusting the average.

  • Operating margin −709% → −635% (3-yr avg ends)
    What this means

    Through the cycle the operating margin widened — about −709% early to −635% lately, median −615% — pricing power intact or improving.

  • Reinvestment, incremental ROIC returns capital
    What this means

    The capital base barely grew: this business returns cash through dividends and buybacks rather than reinvesting. Judge it on the cash returned, not on compounding.

  • Worst year 2023 · −1030.1% op. margin
    What this means

    Operations went underwater in 2023, understand why before trusting the good years.

Does AI threaten the moat?

Elevated contestability

The product is software or information, the very thing capable AI now produces more cheaply, so the moat is more contestable than the record alone implies.

In its own filing A competitive risk, new this year

Its FY2025 10-K names artificial intelligence as a competitive threat, in language that was not in the prior year's filing.

“Additionally, our competitors may be developing their own AI and blockchain products and technologies, which may be superior in features, functionality or cost to our offerings.”

AI has collapsed the cost of building a capable substitute for the very thing this business sells. When a credible alternative can be assembled for a fraction of the incumbent's price, it is pricing power that erodes first, not revenue tomorrow. The live question is whether the moat survives that, not whether it held in the past. Whether that question is answerable at all is yours to decide, against your own circle of competence.

Read from the filing's own risk factors, paired with the industry's structure under its SIC code; the durability is read above, the price below.

All figures as filed; the source filing is linked above.

Current Position

as of the latest quarter, Mar 31, 2026

Can the business pay what it owes this year, off the freshest balance sheet: the quality of the assets, the debt actually coming due, and what a low ratio means here.

Current assets$106M
  • Cash & short-term investments$2M
  • Receivables$1M
  • Inventory$717K
  • Other current assets$102M
Current liabilities$23M
  • Accounts payable$7M
  • Other current liabilities$16M
Current ratio4.62×all current assets ÷ what's due · Graham looked for 2×
Quick ratio4.58×stricter: inventory excluded
Cash ratio0.10×strictest: cash alone against what's due
Working capital$83Mthe cushion left after near-term bills
Cash runway0.1 yrsthe business is consuming cash; this is how long the cash on hand lasts at that rate
Revenue, latest quarter vs. a year ago+443.1%the freshest read on whether the business is still growing
Current ratio, recent quarters2.8× → 4.6×
Deeper floors
Tangible book value$90Mequity stripped of goodwill & intangibles
Net current asset value$76MGraham's net-net: current assets less all liabilities
Debt incl. operating leases$4M$4M of it operating leases

From the company's latest filing.

Acquisitions & goodwill

from the balance sheet & the 9-year cash-flow record

Goodwill grows only when a company acquires and falls only when it concedes it overpaid. The size of that bet, the cash put into buying rather than building, and how much has already been written off.

Goodwill & intangibles$114M41% of all assets; the premium carried on the balance sheet for businesses acquired
Against book equity8%goodwill is this share of book equity; the rest is the company’s own retained and paid-in capital
Cash spent acquiring$7Mover 9 years buying other businesses, against $847K of capital spent building

None written down over the record; the goodwill is still carried at full cost. That is the deals holding their value on the books so far; whether they keep doing so is the test an owner watches, since the write-down, when it comes, is the admission the price was too high.

Goodwill, acquired intangibles and equity from the latest balance sheet; acquisition spend and write-downs summed across the 9-year record, from the company's own filings.

Management, ownership & pay

read the proxy →

From the proxy: how much of the business the people running it own, and how they are paid, beside what the business earned for its owners in the same years.

Fiscal yearChief executivePay, as filed“Actually paid”Owner earnings
2022Mr. Moyer$777k$115k($18M)
2023Mr. Moyer$495k$366k($15M)
2024Mr. Moyer$1.0M$892k($18M)

Both pay figures are the company’s own, from the pay-versus-performance table its proxy statement files. “As filed” is the Summary Compensation Table total: salary, bonus, and equity awards at their value on the day of grant. “Actually paid” is the SEC’s prescribed recalculation, which re-marks those equity awards to what they became as they vested; it can swing far above or below the filed figure in either direction, and negative years occur. Owner earnings are the whole business's, from the record above, for the same fiscal years.

  • Insider ownership7.7%

    The stake all directors and executive officers hold together, per the 2025 proxy: skin in the game, the first thing Munger reads.

  • Stock-based compensation$6M

    The slice of the business handed to employees in shares this year, 16% of revenue. Buffett's oldest accounting fight: this is compensation, compensation is an expense, real whether or not the headline earnings admit it. One trap: the cash-flow statement adds SBC back, so the operating cash, and the owner earnings drawn from it, are flattered by exactly this amount; counted as the cost it is, what an owner keeps is lower.

Peers, Commercial Services & Supplies

The same industry, side by side on owner economics. Each figure is a through-cycle median, so a peak or trough year can’t distort it; the group median at the foot is the line to read each against.

CompanyRevenueGross marginOp. marginROICOwner earn. margin
RPAYRepay Holdings Corporation$309M76%-20.6%-4%24%
PAYSPaysign Inc.$82M50%5.4%51%
SLPSimulations Plus Inc.$79M74%27.8%9%29%
SVCOSilvaco Group Inc.$63M80%-67.5%-40%-34%
RCATRed Cat Holdings Inc.$41M18%-562.0%-53%-250%
DVLTDatavault AI Inc.$39M12%-614.8%-735%-657%
QXLQuantum X Labs Inc.$27M95%-9.4%-2%3%
QBTSD-Wave Quantum Inc.$25M68%-724.6%-1142%-582%
Group median71%-44.1%-40%-15%
IV

The price

What a price has to assume.

What the price implies

reverse-DCF

Datavault AI Inc. is profitable, but owner earnings are negative this year because capital spending currently outruns operating cash, a build-out, so the owner-earnings reverse-DCF has no positive base to grow. We read the price from both ends instead: type a price to see the steady-state profitability it demands, then set the mature margin you would believe and weigh the two against each other. Nothing leaves your browser unless you enter it in your notebook.

$
The assumptions

Revenue, delivered36%/yr’20→’25

Enter a price to run it.

Owner earnings it must reach
Margin the price demands
Owner-earnings margin today−64%

Two reads of one future. From your price: the owner earnings the company must reach, valued at a mature multiple and discounted back at your rate, expressed as the margin it implies on revenue grown at your rate. From your belief: the mature margin you would credit, set on the dial above. When the margin the price demands runs above the one you would believe, you are paying for a future taken on faith. For a deep cyclical at a trough, normalized through-cycle earnings are the better lens; this mode is for the genuinely unprofitable, and for the profitable business whose capital spending currently outruns its cash.

Cite: Owner Scorecard, "Datavault AI Inc. (DVLT), the owner's record," https://ownerscorecard.com/c/DVLT, data as of 2026-07-09.

Manual order: ← DVA its page in the Manual DVN →

Industry order: ← DLX the Commercial Services & Supplies chapter EBAY →