Analyst(s): Brad Shimmin, Brendan Burke
Publication Date: August 5, 2026
Backblaze’s Q2 FY 2026 earnings show how AI workloads are increasing demand for scalable object storage and cloud-agnostic data architectures. The quarter centered on B2 Cloud Storage acceleration, the CoreWeave strategic agreement, larger AI customer wins, and higher full-year guidance.
What Is Covered in This Article:
- Backblaze’s Q2 FY 2026 financial results
- CoreWeave validates AI storage strategy
- B2 growth shifts upmarket
- Managed storage expands delivery model
- Guidance and Final Thoughts
The News: Backblaze (NASDAQ: BLZE) reported Q2 FY 2026 revenue of $42.71 million, up 18% year-over-year (YoY), compared with Wall Street consensus of $39.93 million. B2 Cloud Storage revenue was $26.6 million, up 34% YoY, while Computer Backup revenue was $16.1 million, down 2% YoY. Adjusted EBITDA stood at $12.8 million (30% of revenue), compared with $6.6 million (18% of revenue) in Q2 FY 2025. Non-GAAP net income was $5.0 million, compared with $0.8 million in Q2 FY 2025. Non-GAAP net income per share was $0.08, compared with $0.01 in Q2 FY 2025.
“Q2 was an amazing quarter for Backblaze. We exceeded the high end of our revenue and Adjusted EBITDA guidance, with B2 growth accelerating to 34% year over year,” said Gleb Budman, co-founder and CEO of Backblaze. “We also signed a $335 million strategic agreement with CoreWeave, offering the strongest validation yet of our critical role in the AI infrastructure stack. AI workloads need a capacity storage layer that can scale to exabytes, while delivering performance at attractive economics. That is where Backblaze is built to win.”
Backblaze Q2 FY 2026: CoreWeave Deal Strengthens AI Storage Position
Analyst Take: Backblaze’s Q2 FY 2026 results show a clear link between AI infrastructure buildout and demand for scalable object storage. The quarter was not only about higher revenue, but about a sharper enterprise motion around B2 Cloud Storage. AI-native companies, neoclouds, and inference-focused infrastructure providers need large-capacity storage that can sit outside a single hyperscaler. Backblaze is positioning B2 as that lower-cost capacity tier, especially where data movement, performance, and cloud optionality matter.
Backblaze’s differentiation is not simply lower-cost hard-drive capacity. Its value proposition combines high-throughput data movement, almost two decades of storage operating experience, and an architecture designed to scale without trapping customers within one compute ecosystem. This is particularly relevant for AI developers who train AI across multiple GPU providers and need their data to remain portable between compute environments.
CoreWeave Agreement Validates Capacity Storage Role
The $335 million CoreWeave agreement gives Backblaze a visible reference point in AI infrastructure storage. The deal runs for more than five years and includes a multi-exabyte commitment, making it the largest contract in Backblaze’s history. CoreWeave is also the fourth major AI cloud infrastructure company to contract with Backblaze, which reduces the risk that this is a one-customer event. The agreement added $313 million to remaining performance obligations after warrant value, increasing contracted demand visibility.
CoreWeave could theoretically build a similar hard-drive storage layer internally, but doing so would require software development and operating expertise that Backblaze has accumulated since 2007. The strategic value of the agreement, therefore, lies as much in Backblaze’s ability to operate storage at scale as in the underlying hardware capacity. CoreWeave’s need for both high-performance storage and hard-drive-based capacity storage also reflects a broader pattern in AI infrastructure, where flash alone becomes too costly as datasets grow.
B2 Growth Moves Further Upmarket
B2 Cloud Storage grew 34% YoY, and annual recurring revenue for the segment reached $113.3 million, up 39% YoY. Customers contributing more than $50,000 in annual recurring revenue increased 57% YoY to 235, while annual recurring revenue from that cohort grew 67% YoY. The company closed four deals above $500,000 in the quarter, including three AI-related wins.
Backblaze also signed its largest B2 Overdrive deal to date, a seven-figure annual recurring revenue deal with a frontier AI model developer. The customer needed scalable capacity storage and high-throughput movement into compute environments, which fits Backblaze’s role as a storage layer adjacent to GPU infrastructure. The upmarket motion is becoming more credible because larger customers are expanding through committed contracts rather than only usage-based self-service activity.
Managed Storage Expands the Addressable Market
Backblaze introduced a managed storage approach that places its software and operating model inside customer-owned infrastructure. In this model, the customer owns the hardware and data center environment, while Backblaze provides the storage software, operations, and staffing model. The approach expands into regional data center needs, sovereign cloud use cases, and customers that want storage assets on their own balance sheets. It also creates a capital-light option for Backblaze because customer-owned hardware reduces direct capital expenditure requirements.
This delivery model could also bring Backblaze into regulated sectors that were previously difficult to address through conventional public-cloud storage. Financial institutions, healthcare organizations, and government customers may be more willing to adopt Backblaze’s software when the infrastructure remains inside their security and data-sovereignty boundaries. The model therefore expands the opportunity beyond neoclouds, although regulated sector sales cycles and service requirements will likely be more demanding.
Management described about half a dozen active managed storage conversations, suggesting early interest beyond CoreWeave. If adoption expands, managed storage could give Backblaze a second enterprise route for AI infrastructure customers that need more control over physical data location.
Guidance and Final Thoughts
Backblaze guided Q3 FY 2026 revenue to $44.4 million to $44.8 million and adjusted EBITDA margin to 27% to 29%. For FY 2026, the company raised revenue guidance to $172.0 million to $174.0 million, up from the prior range of $161.5 million to $163.5 million. Backblaze also raised FY 2026 adjusted EBITDA margin guidance to 27% to 29%, up from 23% to 25%. The outlook reflects Q2 FY 2026 outperformance, stronger B2 momentum, the May 1 pricing change, and the initial CoreWeave ramp, while excluding variable usage above contracted minimums and potential deals above $500,000. The company also expects B2 revenue to grow more than 40% YoY in FY 2027 based on current business fundamentals, CoreWeave minimum commitments, and a previously announced $15 million-plus total contract value deal.
Backblaze is gaining relevance as AI infrastructure buyers seek scalable capacity storage without tying proprietary data to a single hyperscaler. The CoreWeave agreement validates not only B2’s economics but also Backblaze’s ability to combine hardware, software, and large-scale storage operations within a tiered AI infrastructure stack. Opportunities in managed storage, background training data pipelines, and agent-generated data could broaden the addressable market, although customer concentration, observability gaps, and regulated sector service requirements raise execution demands. If Backblaze converts its initial reference wins into a diversified enterprise pipeline while delivering the CoreWeave ramp efficiently, its role could expand from an alternative object storage provider into a definitive capacity layer for AI infrastructure.
See the full press release on Backblaze’s Q2 FY 2026 financial results on the company website.
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Author Information
Brad Shimmin is Vice President and Practice Lead, Data Intelligence, Analytics, & Infrastructure at Futurum. He provides strategic direction and market analysis to help organizations maximize their investments in data and analytics. Currently, Brad is focused on helping companies establish an AI-first data strategy.
With over 30 years of experience in enterprise IT and emerging technologies, Brad is a distinguished thought leader specializing in data, analytics, artificial intelligence, and enterprise software development. Consulting with Fortune 100 vendors, Brad specializes in industry thought leadership, worldwide market analysis, client development, and strategic advisory services.
Brad earned his Bachelor of Arts from Utah State University, where he graduated Magna Cum Laude. Brad lives in Longmeadow, MA, with his beautiful wife and far too many LEGO sets.
Brendan is Research Director, Semiconductors, Supply Chain, and Emerging Tech. He advises clients on strategic initiatives and leads the Futurum Semiconductors Practice. He is an experienced tech industry analyst who has guided tech leaders in identifying market opportunities spanning edge processors, generative AI applications, and hyperscale data centers.
Before joining Futurum, Brendan consulted with global AI leaders and served as a Senior Analyst in Emerging Technology Research at PitchBook. At PitchBook, he developed market intelligence tools for AI, highlighted by one of the industry’s most comprehensive AI semiconductor market landscapes encompassing both public and private companies. He has advised Fortune 100 tech giants, growth-stage innovators, global investors, and leading market research firms. Before PitchBook, he led research teams in tech investment banking and market research.
Brendan is based in Seattle, Washington. He has a Bachelor of Arts Degree from Amherst College.
