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https://www.google.com/search?q=gitlab+stock https://www.google.com/search?q=gitlab+stock shows their stock price was ~$52 a year ago and is $26 today, so down

by simonw 6mo ago

https://www.google.com/search?q=gitlab+stock https://www.google.com/search?q=gitlab+stock shows their stock price was ~$52 a year ago and is $26 today, so down 50% in 12 months. It's quite possible this is because they weren't making enough noise about their AI strategy. If investor fears are that AI makes GitLab's business less valuable, including this in their "GitLab Act 2" announcement makes a whole lot of sense: > The agentic era multiplies demand for software. Software has been the force multiplier behind nearly every business transformation of the last two decades. The constraint was the cost and time of producing and managing it. That constraint is collapsing. As the cost of producing software collapses, demand for it will expand. Last year, the developer platform market used to be measured in tens of dollars per user per month, this year it is hundreds/user/month and headed to thousands. Not only is the value of software for builders increasing, but we believe there will be more software and builders than ever, and we will serve an increasing volume of both. Wrote a bit more about this on my blog: https://simonwillison.net/2026/May/11/gitlab-act-2/ https://simonwillison.net/2026/May/11/gitlab-act-2/

Yoric 6mo ago
> It's quite possible this is because they weren't making enough noise about their AI strategy. That's how I interpret the move, too.
dandellion 6mo ago
Looking at their stock it has always been going down, even before AI. How could we know that the reason it's going down now is they were not making enough noise about AI, and not whatever it was that was making it go down before?
- simonw 6mo ago
  We can't. It's rarely possible to confidently say why a stock moves. Hence "quite possible" in my comment.
throwawaypath 6mo ago
Down almost 15% now. Investors hate the CEO's buzzword bingo slop.
- polynomial 6mo ago
  Calling it "Act 2" certainly isn't helping with investors.
gritspants 6mo ago
There's no reason to tie every software companies rise and fall to AI. Several years ago they changed their enterprise licensing costs. It was such an aggressive and needless cash grab (1k/dev). The writing has been on the wall for a long time.
- apple4ever 6mo ago
  This seems like the more likely reason. People wanted to give them money, but they didn't want to take it unless it was in a giant pile.
popcorncowboy 6mo ago
> As the cost of producing software collapses, demand for it will expand. This is a non sequitur. Jervons paradox doesn't apply here. No-one is sitting around going "you know what I need? More software". The supply side is exploding. Demand? I dunno man.
- runeks 6mo ago
  > No-one is sitting around going "you know what I need? More software" I disagree. Every company goes "I need more software — iff its TCO is less than the savings it produces". So if the cost of producing a piece of software, which can save a company $1m per month, now costs $500k per month to develop instead of $5m per month, then demand for that piece of software will absolute go from zero to greater-than-zero.
- mlhpdx 6mo ago
  > The supply side is exploding. Demand? I dunno man. Isn’t that the nature of the paradox; that we can’t predict where the demand comes from and yet it does?

by simonw 6mo ago

Yoric 6mo ago

> It's quite possible this is because they weren't making enough noise about their AI strategy. That's how I interpret the move, too.

dandellion 6mo ago

Looking at their stock it has always been going down, even before AI. How could we know that the reason it's going down now is they were not making enough noise about AI, and not whatever it was that was making it go down before?

simonw 6mo ago
We can't. It's rarely possible to confidently say why a stock moves. Hence "quite possible" in my comment.

throwawaypath 6mo ago

Down almost 15% now. Investors hate the CEO's buzzword bingo slop.

polynomial 6mo ago
Calling it "Act 2" certainly isn't helping with investors.

gritspants 6mo ago

There's no reason to tie every software companies rise and fall to AI. Several years ago they changed their enterprise licensing costs. It was such an aggressive and needless cash grab (1k/dev). The writing has been on the wall for a long time.

apple4ever 6mo ago
This seems like the more likely reason. People wanted to give them money, but they didn't want to take it unless it was in a giant pile.

popcorncowboy 6mo ago

> As the cost of producing software collapses, demand for it will expand. This is a non sequitur. Jervons paradox doesn't apply here. No-one is sitting around going "you know what I need? More software". The supply side is exploding. Demand? I dunno man.

runeks 6mo ago
> No-one is sitting around going "you know what I need? More software" I disagree. Every company goes "I need more software — iff its TCO is less than the savings it produces". So if the cost of producing a piece of software, which can save a company $1m per month, now costs $500k per month to develop instead of $5m per month, then demand for that piece of software will absolute go from zero to greater-than-zero.
mlhpdx 6mo ago
> The supply side is exploding. Demand? I dunno man. Isn’t that the nature of the paradox; that we can’t predict where the demand comes from and yet it does?