ZETA LIVE '26 OPENING KEYNOTE WITH DAVID A. STEINBERG - ZETA GLOBAL HOLDINGS CORP

Explicit Guidance:

• No specific numerical financial guidance (revenue, earnings, margins, capex, etc.) or quantitative timeframes provided for future financial performance.

Business-Segment Outlook:

• Product Evolution: Transition from a marketing-focused platform to "Athena OS," an enterprise-wide operating system for intelligence that connects marketing, merchandising, operations, and customer service into a single planning and action loop.
• New Solutions Launch:
  • Athena MCP: A "headless" solution enabling Athena intelligence to integrate directly into external applications and workflows (including ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and Palantir Foundry) on "Day one."
  • Athena Inference Model (AIM): A family of specialized models developed with NVIDIA and Fireworks, starting with "Zeta Business Intelligence (ZBI)," to extend demand intelligence beyond marketing into capital investment planning and inventory strategy.
  • Custom Semiconductor Work: Partnership with leading semiconductor firms to explore the development of a dedicated microchip for AI inference ("AIM on a chip") and associated data center infrastructure.
• Expansion Scope: Shifting the intelligence scope from "marketing" to the "entire enterprise," covering demand forecasting, inventory allocation, and site selection.

Market and Competitive Outlook:

• Industry Trend: Anticipated market shift where enterprise AI success depends on integrating fragmented data and applications into a unified system; winners will be those who combine deep customer relationships, proprietary data, and advanced technology.
• Competitive Advantage: Zeta aims to differentiate by acting as "intelligent infrastructure" that turns business knowledge into actionable growth, rather than just providing marketing tools.
• Pricing/Cost Dynamics: Management anticipates a market need for "faster, more predictable answers" regarding AI inference, contrasting with "unpredictable costs" currently associated with running enterprise AI workloads.

Macro / Industry Outlook:

• Operational Demand: Expectation that enterprises will require greater control over data, intelligence locations, and computing infrastructure as they scale AI adoption.
• Technology Infrastructure: Shift toward optimized hardware (chips/data centers) specifically designed for AI inference workloads to improve efficiency and reduce costs.

Strategic Initiatives:

• Partnerships:
  • Hardware: Collaboration with a leading semiconductor partner to co-develop a custom microchip.
  • Software/Compute: Joint development of the AIM family with NVIDIA (Nemotron models) and Fireworks (infrastructure).
  • Ecosystem: Native integration with major LLM interfaces (ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini) and data platforms (Palantir Foundry).
• Investment Strategy: Execution of capital-intensive infrastructure projects (chip and data center development) via a "capital light approach" utilizing partners to protect existing cash flow and margins.
• R&D Focus: Continued heavy investment in R&D to support the Athena OS platform and AIM model development.

Risks and Headwinds to Outlook:

• Development Stage: The custom microchip and data center infrastructure initiatives are in "early stage"; architecture and development paths are "still taking shape," implying execution and timeline risks.
• Partner Dependency: Success relies heavily on the expertise and delivery of semiconductor and infrastructure partners (NVIDIA, Fireworks, semiconductor partner).
• Adoption Uncertainty: The transition from a marketing tool to a full enterprise operating system requires significant customer adaptation and internal re-platforming.

Management Tone on the Future:

• High Confidence/Conviction: Tone is ambitious and optimistic, framing current market volatility as an "opportunity" rather than a curse.
• Strategic Certainty: Management expresses strong conviction that the future advantage belongs to companies that unify intelligence and action, positioning Zeta as the central "infrastructure" for this shift.
• Visionary Stance: Describes the future as a "symphony of intelligence" where business units operate as one cohesive team, with a belief that "intelligent infrastructure" is the primary differentiator for future growth.

Miscellaneous:

• Athena OS Capabilities: The platform is designed to "know, decide, act, and learn" in real-time, continuously improving based on business outcomes.
• Financial Philosophy: Emphasis on protecting "existing cash flow margins" while investing in long-term growth infrastructure through partner-enabled models.