Figma grew 48% and raised its outlook. The stock fell 16% because of AI costs

Figma did almost everything a young public company is asked to do. Revenue rose 48% to $370.1m, beating estimates, its third straight quarter of speeding growth. It raised its full-year forecast. The stock fell about 16% after hours anyway.

The reason sits a few lines down the income statement. Building and running AI is expensive, and Figma’s spending has caught up with its selling. Research and development more than doubled to $167.3m. Total operating expenses nearly doubled to $426.9m. On a GAAP basis, the company swung to a $117.3m operating loss, Reuters reported.

The AI bill comes due

This was Figma’s first full quarter selling AI by the credit, and demand looked real. Net dollar retention held at 136%. More than 80% of its biggest customers now use AI credits every week. Over half already lean on the Figma agent it unveiled in June.

The trouble is that those features cost a fortune to build and to run. Adjusted operating margin fell to 10% from 16% in a single quarter. Figma also kept its full-year profit outlook flat while lifting the revenue line. In effect, every extra dollar of sales is being fed straight back into the product. Markets read a flat profit forecast beside a rising sales forecast as a warning.

Chief financial officer Praveer Melwani framed it as a choice. “We want to make sure that we’re really investing on the new product side to ensure we can create durable modes of growth over the long term,” he told Reuters. The cost of that investment is the part investors fixed on.

Growth is slowing, and so is the story

Figma’s own guidance points to a cooldown. It expects third-quarter revenue to grow about 36%, down from 48%. Fast growth that is visibly decelerating tends to spook a stock priced for more. Shares are now down roughly a quarter this year, a sharp turn from the rebound its first-quarter report set off.

The timing of two departures did not help. On the earnings call, chief executive Dylan Field said chief marketing officer Sheila Vashee and chief product officer Yuhki Yamashita were both leaving, The Information reported. Losing a product chief in the quarter you bet the company on new products is awkward.

A warning the sector heard

The sell-off did not stop at Figma. Shares of Salesforce, ServiceNow, Intuit and Adobe slipped too, as investors took the results as a fresh sign that AI is squeezing software margins across the board. The market has grown quick to punish any hint of AI overspending.

There is a twist that may reassure it in time. Melwani said Figma is now “hiring fewer people than we originally had planned,” because AI tools let its staff do more, he told Fast Company. That is the promise under the cost: spend heavily on AI now, run leaner later. For one quarter at least, investors chose to look at the spending, not the promise.