Corporate, Pension and AI Shifts Shape Finance Landscape

Milliman’s latest 100 Pension Funding Index shows the 100 largest U.S. corporate pension plans reached an estimated 109.0% funded ratio as of January 31, 2026, up from 108.2% at the start of the year. Market gains of 1.05% in January lifted plan assets by $8 billion to $1.327 trillion, while a 1‑basis‑point rise in discount rates to 5.47% reduced liabilities slightly to $1.217 trillion.

The combined surplus for these plans increased by about $10 billion in January, with $8 billion attributed to investment returns and $2 billion from lower liabilities. Milliman noted that funded levels have now improved for 10 consecutive months, making surplus management and asset‑liability matching central themes for sponsors.

Milliman’s forward scenarios highlight wide potential outcomes by 2027. In an optimistic case featuring rising discount rates and 10.53% annual asset returns, the aggregate funded ratio could reach 121% by end‑2026 and 137% by end‑2027. Under a pessimistic path with falling rates and 2.53% annual returns, the ratio could drop to 101% by 2026 and 92% by 2027.

Datadog reported Q4 2025 revenue of $953 million, up 29% year over year and above its guidance range, with broad‑based usage growth across customer segments. The company ended the quarter with about 32,700 customers, including roughly 4,310 with annual recurring revenue of at least $100,000; these larger accounts represent about 90% of ARR.

Free cash flow in Q4 was $291 million, a 31% margin, while non‑GAAP operating margin was 24%. Remaining performance obligations rose 52% year over year to $3.46 billion. Datadog said revenue growth outside its AI‑native customer group accelerated to 23% year over year, and it continues to see “very high” growth among around 650 AI‑native customers, including 19 spending $1 million or more annually.

The company detailed an extensive AI roadmap. “AI for Datadog” includes products such as the AI SRE agent, now generally available and used by more than 2,000 customers for incident investigations, and the Datadog MCP server, whose tool calls grew 11‑fold quarter over quarter. “Datadog for AI” focuses on observability and security across the AI stack, with more than 1,000 customers using its LLM Observability product and 5,500 customers sending AI‑related telemetry via integrations.

For 2026, Datadog guided to revenue of $4.06–$4.10 billion, implying 18%–20% growth, and a non‑GAAP operating margin of about 21%. Management said its non‑AI business, excluding its largest customer, is modeled to grow at least 20% this year and emphasized ongoing investment in R&D and go‑to‑market capacity while maintaining profitability.

Project management platform Monday.com saw its shares fall more than 21% after issuing 2026 guidance that underwhelmed investors and withdrawing its 2027 targets. For Q4, the company delivered earnings of $1.04 per share versus $0.92 expected, and revenue of $334 million, up 25% year over year and slightly above consensus.

However, current‑quarter revenue guidance of $338–$340 million came in below the $343 million consensus, and full‑year 2026 revenue is projected at $1.452–$1.462 billion, short of the $1.48 billion analysts expected. Baird downgraded the stock to neutral, citing lower 2026 outlook, a margin reset, and the removal of 2027 targets as negative surprises that increase execution risk.

Loop Capital also cut its rating to hold, pointing to moderating momentum with larger customers, slower uptake of newer products, and planned margin declines in 2026 as investment ramps up. The firm said growth is now expected to slow into the mid‑ to upper‑teens and flagged concerns that spending on AI agents and automation could divert budgets from traditional tools, pressuring expansion and pricing power.

In contrast, Morgan Stanley highlighted Datadog, Snowflake and MongoDB as well positioned to benefit from an acceleration in public‑cloud growth. The bank said hyperscaler expansion grew 33% year over year for a third straight quarter, with Google Cloud revenue up 48% and AWS up 24% in constant currency, and reiterated overweight ratings on all three vendors.

Vereigen Media launched a performance‑focused framework for measuring account‑based marketing (ABM) ROI in enterprise campaigns. The company said many ABM programs still rely on impressions and unverified engagement signals, which fall short of demonstrating account‑level impact. Its new model emphasizes verified content engagement, first‑party data and human‑validated interactions to give marketing and revenue teams clearer attribution and progression metrics.

In cybersecurity, Glide Identity was named a Top 10 finalist in the RSAC 2026 Innovation Sandbox contest. Glide offers SIM‑anchored cryptographic authentication that uses private keys embedded in over 5 billion SIM cards and eSIMs to provide phishing‑resistant, passwordless login. Its MagicalAuth product is in beta with T‑Mobile and Verizon and is built on standards such as GSMA Open Gateway and CAMARA, with FIDO2 certification.

Both initiatives reflect a broader shift toward replacing legacy proxies and static credentials with validated, privacy‑aligned signals. Vereigen’s framework is designed to move ABM reporting from activity counts to accountable outcomes, while Glide’s platform aims to address weaknesses in passwords and SMS codes as AI‑driven attacks make social engineering and deepfakes more effective.