BlackBerry is raising its fiscal outlook thanks to an unexpected jump in revenue from its automotive software division.
The news: The Waterloo-based company beat expectations in its second-quarter earnings report released on Thursday morning. The earnings showed $163 million USD ($230 million CAD) in revenue for the quarter ending Aug. 31, 2026, a 26-percent increase from the same period last year. For comparison, BlackBerry’s high-end revenue estimate for the quarter was only $148 million USD, according to its previous earnings report.
The primary driver of the increase was BlackBerry’s QNX division, which develops software that automakers licence to integrate into their vehicles. QNX’s revenue increased 27 percent year-over-year, to $80.3 million USD, surpassing the company’s expected peak of $75 million USD.
From the source: In a statement, BlackBerry CEO John Giamatteo said the company’s performance shows that its “profitable growth model is working.”
“This is another rock solid, beat-and-raise quarter for BlackBerry, our third quarter in a row of 20-per-cent-plus revenue growth on the QNX side, and we’re projecting another strong quarter,” Giamatteo told The Globe and Mail.
The context: BlackBerry, famous for pioneering the modern smartphone under the name Research In Motion, has been undergoing a multi-year business transformation since it promoted Giamatteo to CEO in late 2023. Under his leadership and renewed focus on QNX, BlackBerry’s stock price has more than doubled from just under $5 CAD per share on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) to recent highs up to $16.37 CAD per share earlier this year.
BlackBerry’s stock price jumped in the days leading up to its earnings report thanks to a $100-million-plus USD software deal with Coretura AB, a joint venture between automakers Daimler Truck and Volvo Group, announced on Tuesday.
Following its Q2 2027 report on Thursday, BlackBerry’s stock price opened at $11.89 CAD per share on Thursday morning. By press time, it was trading at $12.14 CAD, a nearly five-percent bump.
Final thought: For the next fiscal quarter ending Nov. 30, 2026, BlackBerry is projecting revenues as high as $154 million USD, with full-year projections bumped up to $636 million USD. QNX revenues make up just over half of both figures, and it remains to be seen if BlackBerry can beat expectations yet again.
Feature image courtesy Wikimedia Commons, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.