Is Backblaze profitable in 2026?

Not yet on a GAAP basis. Q1 2026 (ended March 31, 2026) net loss narrowed to $6.1M from $9.3M a year earlier on revenue of $38.7M, up 12% YoY, with Adjusted EBITDA of $10.1M, a 26% margin, per the May 4, 2026 earnings release.

Who is Backblaze's biggest competitor?

AWS S3 dominates with 75-81% of detected cloud storage usage versus Backblaze's roughly 0.1-0.3% as of May 2026, but closer rivals Wasabi and Cloudflare R2 outperform Backblaze on its own throughput benchmark and on deployment breadth.

Could AI replace Backblaze's storage business?

No, object storage is not a workflow AI directly automates. AI is instead a tailwind: Backblaze reported 76% YoY growth in AI customers as of March 31, 2026, and signed a five-year, $335M CoreWeave storage supply deal announced June 23, 2026.

What is the Backblaze CoreWeave deal worth?

Backblaze announced a five-year, $335M multi-exabyte storage supply agreement with CoreWeave on June 23, 2026, making Backblaze a commodity HDD-tier supplier inside CoreWeave's AI Object Storage layer.

Is Backblaze facing any lawsuits or investigations?

Yes. Short-seller Morpheus Research alleged improper expense capitalization and inconsistent metrics on April 24, 2025, after which Pomerantz, Levi & Korsinsky, and Rosen law firms opened investor investigations by May 22, 2025; resolution status was unconfirmed as of mid-2026.

Who owns Backblaze and is it public?

Backblaze is a publicly traded company on Nasdaq under ticker BLZE with no parent company. It IPO'd on November 11, 2021 at $16.00 per share, raising $100M gross, and has since raised additional equity and debt.

Telecom operators · United States

Backblaze

backblaze.com ↗

Backblaze sells cloud backup and S3-compatible object storage (B2) with no egress fees.

Losing its protection

Assessed 22 July 2026 · Evidence as of 22 July 2026

The structural protection is eroding.

On the recordSince 22 July 2026 · Checkable from Q3 2026 · Every call on the record Checkpoint: Q2 2026 earnings report

The call

Backblaze is growing faster in AI-linked storage than its core backup business, but sits between AWS on one side and cheaper rivals and neocloud in-sourcing on the other.

Backblaze runs a growing business that stores files in data centers and charges customers less than Amazon Web Services by avoiding hidden fees. But competitors like Wasabi and Cloudflare R2 are catching up and moving faster, and because Backblaze's service works just like Amazon's, customers can switch easily. The real threat is that AI companies building their own data centers might start offering storage themselves for almost free, turning Backblaze into a low-profit supplier, plus there are unsolved questions about the company's accounting from April 2025 that investors are watching.

Why

AI pressure: CoreWeave and other neoclouds building their own storage layers. AI training and inference workloads feed B2 growth now, but big AI clouds could bring storage in house and cut Backblaze out. Could AI do the core job? Only partly.

Bigger players: AWS S3, plus Wasabi and Cloudflare R2. AWS dominates on scale, while Wasabi and Cloudflare R2 beat Backblaze on price and throughput in the no-egress niche it built. Could a giant copy it? Probably.

What protects it. No-egress-fee pricing and S3 compatibility keep switching cheap, but that same portability means nothing locks customers in.

What would change this call

CoreWeave renews, expands, or in-sources storage away from B2 Neo at contract renewal. Shows whether Backblaze's neocloud channel is durable or a single concentrated, revocable deal.
Resolution or SEC/court outcome on Morpheus Research's April 2025 accounting allegations. Confirms whether reported revenue and margin figures require restatement.
Backblaze publishes independent benchmark results matching or beating Wasabi/Cloudflare R2 on throughput. Would show Backblaze closing the performance gap versus faster peers.

Key numbers

Q1 2026 revenue $38.7M, up 12% YoY (2026-03-31)
B2 storage revenue $22.4M, up 24% YoY (2026-03-31)
Net loss narrowed to $6.1M from $9.3M (2026-03-31)

Named risks

Unresolved April 2025 Morpheus short-seller allegations of improper expense capitalization could trigger restatement. Severity: high
CoreWeave could in-source storage at contract renewal, removing a major concentrated revenue source. Severity: high
S3-compatible design gives customers low switching friction to Wasabi, R2, or AWS. Severity: medium
Revenue growth increasingly tied to a small number of large neocloud contracts, creating lumpiness. Severity: medium
Own published benchmarks show Wasabi beating Backblaze on throughput, undercutting cost/perf positioning. Severity: medium

Rivals, as read in July 2026

Rival	Direction	Evidence
Wasabi	gaining on	Outperformed B2 on multi-threaded throughput in Backblaze's own Q1 2026 benchmark, 2026-04-02
Cloudflare R2	gaining on	More widely deployed than B2 across US, UK, Indonesia website samples as of 2026-05-02
AWS S3	contesting	Holds 75-81% of detected cloud storage usage vs Backblaze's 0.1-0.3% as of 2026-05-01
CoreWeave	contesting	Became $335M storage customer 2026-06-23 while also building a competing AI Object Storage layer

Questions people ask

Is Backblaze profitable in 2026?: Not yet on a GAAP basis. Q1 2026 (ended March 31, 2026) net loss narrowed to $6.1M from $9.3M a year earlier on revenue of $38.7M, up 12% YoY, with Adjusted EBITDA of $10.1M, a 26% margin, per the May 4, 2026 earnings release.
Who is Backblaze's biggest competitor?: AWS S3 dominates with 75-81% of detected cloud storage usage versus Backblaze's roughly 0.1-0.3% as of May 2026, but closer rivals Wasabi and Cloudflare R2 outperform Backblaze on its own throughput benchmark and on deployment breadth.
Could AI replace Backblaze's storage business?: No, object storage is not a workflow AI directly automates. AI is instead a tailwind: Backblaze reported 76% YoY growth in AI customers as of March 31, 2026, and signed a five-year, $335M CoreWeave storage supply deal announced June 23, 2026.
What is the Backblaze CoreWeave deal worth?: Backblaze announced a five-year, $335M multi-exabyte storage supply agreement with CoreWeave on June 23, 2026, making Backblaze a commodity HDD-tier supplier inside CoreWeave's AI Object Storage layer.
Is Backblaze facing any lawsuits or investigations?: Yes. Short-seller Morpheus Research alleged improper expense capitalization and inconsistent metrics on April 24, 2025, after which Pomerantz, Levi & Korsinsky, and Rosen law firms opened investor investigations by May 22, 2025; resolution status was unconfirmed as of mid-2026.
Who owns Backblaze and is it public?: Backblaze is a publicly traded company on Nasdaq under ticker BLZE with no parent company. It IPO'd on November 11, 2021 at $16.00 per share, raising $100M gross, and has since raised additional equity and debt.

Timeline

2026-06-23Announced five-year, $335M multi-exabyte storage supply agreement with CoreWeave
2026-05-04Q1 2026 results: revenue $38.7M up 12% YoY, FY2026 guidance raised to $161.5-163.5M
2026-02-23Launched B2 Neo neocloud storage offering after closing first eight-figure TCV neocloud deal
2025-05-22Pomerantz law firm announced investor investigation into Backblaze
2025-04-29Multiple investor alerts issued following short-seller report
2025-04-24Morpheus Research short-seller report alleged improper expense capitalization
2024-11Completed $35M upsized follow-on equity offering at $5.60 per share
2021-11-11IPO'd on Nasdaq at $16.00 per share, raising $100M gross

Revision history

22 July 2026

First assessed. Losing its protection. The text above is fixed as of this date and is not edited afterwards.

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